I’m on MySpace (Eva) and Facebook if anyone cares to see pictures. I can post them here but I don’t remember how!
Two weekends ago Jeanette (fellow blogger/theatre major/honors student/friend), Emily (honors student/art history major & printmaking minor/ jeanettes roomie), and Heather (we all know my travel buddy/seragate sister) booked a farmhouse hostel in Perugia. *One of the best ideas ever!* It was invigorating to leave the small, narrow streets of Siena and be out in the country side where all I could see was mountains, fields, and more mountains.
There were directions on the print out of our reservation confirmation so i’m assuming they have directions for most hostels when they’re booked - just for reference.
The hostel is off a main road in Casa Nuova about 20 minutes outside the city of Perugia. There’s a dirt road leading from the main road to the small farm that is still up and running where the hostel is located. This place can sleep about 10 people, theres a kitchen / living room area, and if since we visited during the off season we were treated to free wine every night!! Emanuele was our host. He’s a young guy, maybe late 20’s (good looking) who’s grandparents maintain the farm. Emanuele loves the hostel business and his place was voted number one out of all the hostel properties under the hostel network they belong to. It deserved the award. The beds were clean, the rooms were clean, we were well taken care of, there’s a stereo (which i miss having terribly), and it’s emphasized that this place is perfect for partying since it’s nearest neighbors are 10 minutes down the road. Seriously, the fireplace is completely lined with cans of beer and organized into two rows. The trophy that he won for the hostel award is sitting right infront of the strategically placed beer cans. We didn’t get too crazy since we planned on taking it easy. I’m glad we did because the week days can get busy!
What’s great about hostel living is the posibility of making new acquaintences! yay! We wound up living with 4 other people our age who were from Viena, Austria! They were an absolute blast and we got to spend two nights all together. We had dinner, drank wine, laughed a lot… it was amazing. Emanuele usually came over in the evening and had a couple glasses of wine with us. Here’s something I noticed: With a regular glass, not a wine glass, Americans tend to fill it up to the top with wine… Europeans stop half way… and gradually drink it down. We’re such consumers. Then there’s me and jeanette sitting there with a 22oz “big beer” - Nastro Azzuro - but that was before the wine was brought up. We filled ours half way… our attempt at having manners.
The farm is right outside. Bruno and Rita are the grandparents who take care of: ducks, chickens, sheep, little horses, cats and goats. The Billy Goats Gruff were at our farm house and I saw two baby ducks escape their pen! Silly! Emanuele spoke a some English, however Bruno and Rita did not so it was fun to converse with them. They gave us a ride in the back of their teeny tiny three wheeled truck (which are everywhere in Europe) when we needed to go to the market. Rita showed us where it was once Bruno dropped us off. I love old Italians!
On to the city: Visit PERUGINA and buy chocolate!!! There arent any tours of the chocolate factory later in the day so visit earlier, like late morning hours. We bought a ton of chocolate and ate it all weekend. Free wine and really tasty chocolate - need I say more? I was daring and tried some flavors I wouldn’t necessarily choose and was pleasantly surprised.
The city of Perugia is absolutely gorgeous. It sits high on top of a hill so there are numerous lookout points across the city. I explained my reaction to the panoramic views of the countryside like this to friends/fam: It was like standing on the beach looking out over the Atlantic ocean and seeing nothing but where the horizon meets the water. That monumental feeling was how I felt looking out over a vast landscape of mountains and valleys until I could not longer see anything because it was only sky and mountain ranges. INSANE. Luckily we were there on an extremely clear, bright sunny day so this was possible. I couldn’t believe how far out I could see!
I saw Nicola and Giovanni Pisano’s Monumental Foutain outside the Musei Nationale del’ Umbria. A splendid piece of Medieval Art I learned about in Barbara’s class.
I’d say the trip to Perugia was successful and wicked fun… and when i returned home on Sunday I slept all day because I had a massive sinus infection!!! Woo!
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