Sooooo Behind Part 1 (Halloween and Perugia/Assisi)

Last time I left you I believe I was going to talk about Halloween. In that time, I now have not only Halloween, but a trip to Perugia and Assisi, my Dad's visit, Thanksgiving, and our Chianti trip to discuss. I'm really sorry I've been so bad about this. I wanna blame it on having to wait for other people's pictures before posting (still waiting on Ben's from Perugia), but my own laziness is obviously part of it.

So there really isn't a whole lot to talk about for Halloween... it's not a real Roman holiday, but our directors told us of a club that was having a Halloween party with the directions "Dress Smart or Dress Up!" I had planned on being a gladiator forever and Meghan joined me, but Kathryn, Kathleen, Carly, and Hannah, who joined us for dinner and then at the club, decided to just go fancy. Meghan and I laughed at the prospect that we'd be the only ones in costume... and then we were (aside from people in witch hats and cat ears), but we got to fight in the Metro station and hit sketchy guys with our swords, so it turned out ok in the end.

The Perugia and Assisi trip was kind of spur of the moment... Ben mentioned he wanted to see Perugia because he had almost studied there, I said I too had almost studied there and wanted to see nearby Assisi, so we decided to make a weekend of it. We planned to leave Friday morning, but my phone reset itself in the middle of the night and my alarm didn't go off (I know it sounds like a lame excuse, but my background was changed, my keys were beeping, the menus were in Italian, and all my alarm settings were gone). There was a strike that day so we would have had to take a taxi to the bus station to catch the next bus, so we decided to push it back a day. Ben, Meghan, and I ended up having an amazing day in Rome, just walking around through Testaccio, along the river, to the Boca della Verita, to Campodoglio, the Jewish Ghetto, and finaly settling on the Sacred Island with some wine, cheese and bread to watch the sunset.

Saturday morning we woke up earlier than on time, set out, the metro ride was longer than I expected, the bus station wasn't exactly part of the Tiburtina metro stop like I expected, and we walked up to the ticket booth to watch our bus departing. This meant we spent the next 3 hours in the chilly metro bar, but we chatted and at 10 15 we were well on our way. It was a really pretty drive; the scenery was mountainous, the leaves were starting to change, and there were a lot of sheep:). Grabbed lunch and got a cup of Perugia's famed hot chocolate (a cup of, essentially, pure, melted chocolate... so good, and makes your teeth look so gross) and then we were ready to sightsee. Went to the central art museum and I was able to realize just how much I've learnt about art since being here. Compared with the experience I had in the Prada in Madrid this summer, where I just kind of got bored after the fourth piece of "Christian art" I saw, I've become much more able to understand what is happening in the art itself rather than just what it represents.

Went to the Duomo (which I've learnt simply refers to a cathedral and not the actual dome itself, which makes sense as neither the Duomo in Perugia or Milan even has a dome) which was Gothic and thus completely different from anything we've seen in Rome. It was a completely different town from Rome, in general. In size, obviously, but also in architecture, in surroundings, and in the fact that we didn't hear a word of English in passing the whole time. Picked up some wine and moved to the lookout point to catch another sunset (no really, there should be pictures coming haha). We were interviewed by CBS News indirectly about the British student who was killed by her American roommate there, but the questions were vague and our answers were awkward so I doubt anything came of that.

While walking to find a place to chill out for awhile, another small church caught our eye and we decided to go in. A woman was doing confession, and Ben tried to convince me to follow suit. I declined, but he said he still wanted to talk to the priest. So we went up to him and I asked, in Italian, if he spoke English. He responded, in Italian, "No. I am not obligated to speak English, because I am in Italy. You are in Italy, so you must speak Italian." He wasn't rude about it, just very matter-of-fact, so in our broken Italian we asked about some saint that was depicted in a painting there, who allegedly did a lot of [undefined] miracles. Camillo the priest asked what religion we were. I said Catholic, and Ben owned up to his Hebrew heritage. Camillo touched his head and said, "Welcome," after which I teased Ben that he too was now Catholic.

Went to an Irish pub for a few drinks, got a great dinner at La Laterna, a restaurant recommended by my trusty tourist book, and went to a little bar where there was supposed to be live music (another drawing point of Perugia was its reputation as a music center) at 11. It was an indie band reminiscent of Mates of State, but they didn't come on til about 11 30, so we only got to enjoy them for one song before making our hostel's midnight curfew.

Got up and meandered a bit til we made it to the train station, which seemed strangely small. We asked the conductor where the train to Assisi was, and he laughed and told us we were at the wrong station. For once in our lives we were ahead of schedule so it was no problem to catch a bus to the other station. Assisi was also nice, but there were more tourists than I was expecting. And SO many churches. The main one was obviously San Francesco, after the famous St. Francis of Assisi. (My church in the Netherlands was named after him; I thought it was cool to be at the real one). It's actually two churches on top of one another. The bottom one was in mass, and the top one held the famed early-Renaissance frescoes of Giotto. When my friend Katy told me I had to go to Assisi, she made it clear that despite the hike, I had to go to Rocca Maggiore, the old fortress in ruins at the top of the town. It was definitely worth it for the views (again, pictures coming!). Headed down, grabbed lunch, picked up some chocolate gifts, and made our way back to good ol' Rome. A good weekend despite what seemed to be an impossible start haha.

Alright, this is long and Erin wants to watch Ratatouille so I promise I'll be back soon to talk about the rest of my antics here in Italy. Speaking of antics, less than a month's worth left! So sad!