Visiting Perugia

Laura and I had driven past Perugia on our first visit to Italy long ago and again, earlier on this trip as we made our way from the Como area on down to Sicily. It was definitely on the schedule of places to visit. The only caveat is that there really is no schedule. It is more of a “what do you want to do/see tomorrow/today/this afternoon?” type of schedule. It’s not fancy but it works. So it was off to Perugia.

As with a number of our most recent stops, Perugia began as an Etruscan city, continued as a Roman city and was quite prominent throughout early Italian history.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perugia It is best recognized today by it namesake chocolates manufactured by the Perugina company.

We made our way into the “Centro (chentro) Storico” by following the sign that best resemble a bulls eye target. The old part of Perugia is located high on a hill top and the parking garage we were in was quite a bit below. Much to our surprise, and relief, there is a series of escalators from just outside the garage up to the edge of the centro storico. You exit the highest series into a labyrinth of huge, middle age, brick walled, arched arcades which were constructed to extend the upper city. The arched areas have now been restructured into use as a gallery spaces, coffee bars, and the occasional retail space. We were quite impressed. This country never ceases to surprise us.

We shopped a bit, toured an art museum and decided that the Perusian school of painting was not quite our style. We found a very local trattoria on a back street to have lunch and quite possibly the best tiramisu desert we have ever had!!!

My sweet tooth is tingling!

The arcades at the top of the escalator.

They are not real but you do have to look twice to make sure.

This is the closest thing they had to “Pancake.” Our dog back home. But….. if you read the label it is supposed to be a Border Collie??? That would never do.