Sybil’s Leaves 2009: In The Midst of a Historical Novel
July 1, 2009
Bryan truly outdid himself in the arrangements for our apartment in Perugia and I am basking in the glory of his well-laid plans, sitting at the kitchen table with the sun pouring in through our window out onto the medieval streets and convent below.
After a 2.5 hour train ride broken up speaking to Alice, a Sicilian who has been going to school in Perugia studying Spanish and Portuguese for the past five years and who kindly gave me her email address so that we could meet up at some point over the next month, I was met by our landlady Jacqueline, who whisked me into her car and brought me to Via della Cometa – a tiny sidestreet onto which my bathroom balcony faces. The interior of our apartment is entirely new and bright, the bed(s) are comfy although sadly the kitchen is not as fully-equipped as I would like. I have been dying to make pesto! LOL.
After some administrative details, Jacqueline insisted on taking me for a walk through the streets of this Umbrian town pointing out the convents and monasteries still occupied by orders, the friezes on buildings pointing out the guilds with which they were originally associated, and stopping in the Temple San’Angelo where a marriage was taking place. We watched the bride and groom enter a perfectly round church that had been a Roman temple before being converted to its Catholic purpose. It takes a year’s notice to book the locale for an event.
We then wandered outside the tall, Umbrian walls and strolled through the Park where they were setting up for an open-air event that evening. Jacqueline is delightful. Although now retired, she is a professor of French at the University here and passionate about ballet and classical music. She has offered to take me on a drive through the country with her on Sunday and, obviously, I whole-heartedly embraced the opportunity!
I got back to the apartment with great plans for the evening: shower, a brief nap, some time spent at the internet café down the street, unpacking, a gourmet meal of tuna and crackers brought from home (LOL) – other than the food none of that was brought to fruition. I fell asleep by 8pm watching an episode of The Wire. Apparently, the past five days of travelling, touring, sun and late nights finally caught up with me. However, as you can see, this morning I am back on track and headed to get a quality map of Perugia, find the grocery store (Jacqueline provided graphic directions and should I not be successful in my mission will drive me to a different grocery store outside the medieval city (where there is parking!) after a doctor’s appointment late this afternoon. Isn’t that nice? I also want to stop in on the Umbria Tourist Bureau for information about the other cities in the area which I most definitely need to visit over these next four weeks. And that PESKY internet stick! I am excited. The birds are LOUD in the morning, but the shutters keep the light out and I think I will be sleeping deep for a while.
