Yesterday (Saturday) we planned to go to Deruta but didn't get there. We arrived at the bus station about 40 minutes early, decided to go grab a slice of pizza, stopped at the tourist information office nearby and ended up missing the bus! So instead we went to Corciano, a small village that is close to Perugia also and one we visited before for a medieval festival (see "Primavera dell'artigianato" in a previous blog post). We like this little town very much - it's tiny but very charming, very whitish/pinkish stone buildings with flowers spilling out of all the flower boxes and pretty, stained-wood doors and shutters. It's a prosperous-looking town. They were also having a festival, which was to begin in the evening with food and music.
We arrived in town around 2, during the "riposo" when all the shops close and, in small towns like this, they roll up the sidewalks and everyone goes home for lunch and a nap. I actually like to be in these small towns during this time because we have it pretty much to ourselves and it's so quiet and peaceful. I like to find a place to sketch and can just go to work, undisturbed and without distractions of people walking in front of what I am trying hard to draw! Around 4 the town started waking up, shops opened and people started walking around. The crew that was setting up the sound for the night's performance was at work testing the equipment and the musicians began showing up, bringing their wonderful instruments with them. This group of Troubadours performs secular music from the 12th and 13th centuries on authentic instruments from this time period, beautiful in themselves, just to look at. We really enjoy this kind of music and sat mesmerized watching them practice and rehearse. Bob took tons of photos and I did some quick sketches of the instruments for my journal. (my friend Terri would have been sketching the people, while I just focused on the instruments and their shapes and colors that I found so fascinating).
No car*, no umbrella, no sausages! But one really terrific afternoon.
Unfortunately, because the buses don't run after a certain hour, we could not stay through the evening for the grilled sausages we could smell as we hurried past, or the actual performance, but felt so lucky to at least have had the opportunity to sit through their rehearsal. We were also aware of the darkening sky and worried about getting caught in the rain with all our cameras and art supplies. You would think we would just carry an umbrella with us, but with everything else we haul around, if we don't have to, we don't take it, especially if the day starts out bright and sunny. Of course, if we head out and it looks threatening, we bite the bullet and stick one of our little umbrellas in the bag and we are usually glad we did. As it turned out, it did not rain on our parade.
The last bus was at 8 but we wanted to take the one at 7 just to be safe. (of course everything was scheduled to begin around 9pm!) We managed to purchase a CD since we had enjoyed the music so much, which I am listening to while I write. The CD is titled "Music of the Troubadours" and it's called "Early Music" - the group is actually two groups in one - Ensemble Unicorn and Oni Wytars. If you are interested in this type of music, it's produced by a company called NAXOS (www.hnh.com).
Dinner and a Reading in the Garden
Exhausted, we fell into one of our favorite trattorias here in Perugia "Antica Trattoria delle Volte" on Via Volte della Pace (off Piazza Matteotti) for dinner. Bob had a lovely spinach tortellini with grilled vegetables as his main course and I went all out for the fixed menu that included a penne pasta in a fresh tomato sauce and a delicious grilled veal chop with a green salad. We shared a half-liter of house red wine and a piece of Torta della Nonna and made our way home.
As we approached via Porta Sole we saw a bunch of people going through the gate by Sergio and Rita's (our landlords) palazzo - the Palazzo Rossi Scotti - and stopped to see what was going on. Sergio waved us in and it turned out to be a reading in their private garden area of excerpts from the book "Perugia Della Bell'Epoca" about the history of the city of Perugia and it turned out to be standing room only. We've been working hard at trying to learn a bit about the history of this city and were able to sort of follow along, with our understanding of events and recognizing the important names like Garibaldi and Emmanuele and of course, the infamous "pappa" - the pope with his swiss army that destroyed part of the city to build his Rocca.
It was a late night for us and our neighbors Esther and Doug stopped in to say hi on their way home from their day trip to Assisi (our window is usually open and we see them as they pass) and we compared notes of our days' adventures.
Today is Sunday. More rain is expected although this morning it is sunny and warm. We plan on just hanging out at home and just reading and relaxing. We're doing a lot of reading about Sicily because we want to go there next. Tomorrow we will go and find out why we haven't received our residency card yet in the mail as we think we should have gotten it by now. We'll spend some time going through and preparing some photos to post as well but probably won't be able to post any of this until Tuesday since tomorrow is a national holiday - Ferragosto - the 15th of August, a bank holiday and the mid-August exodus where everyone goes on vacation - and our internet café will be closed.
That's it for now. I'd love to know what all of you are doing this summer as well, so keep me posted!
The church bells are now chiming noon and I have been writing since 9am with a break for breakfast and conversation with Bob in between so I will say ciao.
Buona giornata,
Rosemary & Robert
*we have started checking out the different makes of cars available now and will be buying one soon we think, once Sergio returns from his vacation and can come with us and help us through the purchase process!
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