Sybil’s Leaves 2009: A good pot of tea
July 2-4, 2009
The nicest thing about having a month to spend in Perugia is knowing that despite feeling under-the-weather Friday and hiding from the outside world behind my shuttered windows, I have not unwittingly deprived myself too much of the experience. Around 8pm I finally left the house (there is so much to be said for the mid-afternoon nap) and sat in my new favourite cafeteria drinking hot tea and nibbling on a vanilla-cream filled cornetto. A cornetto may look like a croissant, but it isn’t nearly as buttery or flakey – which would be a problem were the filling not scrumptious.
Thursday was a weird sort of day. Because of the afternoon siesta hours and a late start, I didn’t make it out of the apartment to run errands until about 2:30pm. Within ten minutes on the streets, it started to pour and even the cover of trees next to the medieval wall and my purple umbrella couldn’t prevent me from getting drenched. I made a wrong turn at the piazza near my apartment and was lost for a good hour or so, but Perugia isn’t really that big and I later found what I was looking for: the post office, Umbrian Tourism Bureau and Coop (a grocery store). However, standing in the rain, watching the storm clouds move across the countryside as thick mist was… magical? The sun would pour out through a cloud in the distance as I was still getting soaked. The landscape is just incredible – softer than Tuscany’s.
The big adventure for Thursday, asides from getting lost, was figuring out how to use the washing machine (they are different in Europe, okay?) and trying not to burn myself lighting the gas stove with matches in order to make gnocchi. Although I like the taste, I find tomato sauce smells like someone has been sick. I imagine that I likely was sick a few too many times after eating spaghetti as a kid as no one else seems to have this olfactory association but me.
I rec’d bad news in an email from the tourism bureau in Narni – a tour of the Roman aqueduct requires five people. I will probably head out there at some point anyways – if I can figure out the bus maps and time schedules that I have acquired. An hour already invested has not gotten me very far, but this need be resolved before Bryan’s arrival. I am optimistic. Use of a dictionary might be a required.
Today (Saturday) I find myself yet again sitting at my favourite cafeteria of Via Garibaldi enjoying tea and a cornetto (this time filled with a hazelnut-chocolate - yummy). This afternoon, after devouring a good portion of Paul Auster’s New York Trilogy I went to the Umbrian National Gallery which has an outright impressive collection of medieval and Renaissance Art from the region of Umbria. I had an avid audience to share my thimble-full of knowledge with: I encountered a French student, Yvanov, of Congolese descent on my way over who decided to play dumb about not knowing Perugia (he has lived here for a year). He followed me to the museum where I sort of forced him to look at all the Madonna and childs and altarpieces. LOL. I was invited out for dinner, but chose to decline. He clearly thought this was going somewhere it wasn’t – and speaking to him was so difficult. He didn’t even know there were people who spoke French in North America! We might meet again to attend the daily outdoor cinema at some point. I have yet to decide.
Tomorrow I am going to try and find a different grocery store in another area of town that has been recommended to me – probably it will be closed on Sunday, but the walk will be interesting. I will likely get lost again.
As a last thought – my favourite thing about Italy may be that tea here is served in a CERAMIC teapot. I am SO tired of those metal teapots we have at home in which tea does not steep. It may be a country of espresso… but my beverage of preference is thoroughly enjoyable.
