Life since Florence: Part II

Perugia, land where they make the Perugina chocolates, the meaning of my humble existence on this earth. Basically Perugina chocolate is the most amazing thing known to man, and quite fortunately can be purchased at virtually any cafe in Italy. In fact, after my trip to Perugia I brought my family a bag of Perugina chocolates purchased at a train station (Fossato di Vico, specifically) because they were cheaper there than in Perugia... was that a bad thing for me to do? If it counts for anything, I didn't get myself any real Perugia Perugina chocolate either...

Really, the best thing about Perugia was just being in the presence of the chocolate - it was all too expensive to actually buy. We went to an excellent pizzeria and each got a pizza - I hadn't realized that I could eat a whole pizza until I came here. Admittedly, the pizzas aren't too big, but still. It's the simple fact that I'm able to fit all of it into my stomach with relative ease that worries me slightly, and at the same time is deeply gratifying. I love eating. I've learned that well these past months.

So we didn't really do a whole lot in Perugia - we wandered around a bit, perused a fair, had dinner, crashed... uneventful, really. Oh, but there was one amazing thing! Perugia is on top of a mountain, and there's a whole labyrinth of caves running under it. A series of escalators take you from the top of Perugia on one side down through the mountain to the bus stop on the other side, quite a ways down the slope. It's awesome! We got to go on the escalators the next morning, racing down from our hostel to the bus stop to catch a bus to Gubbio, home of the World's Largest Christmas Tree (it seemed like it needed all-caps). In fact what that is is a string of lights all across the mountain above Gubbio, that connect to make the shape of a huge Christmas tree towering over the town. In addition to awesome lights (which we even got to see light up that evening before we left!), there's a ski lift (except not, because there wasn't any snow and it wouldn't be a good ski slope even if there were) that runs to the top of the mountain, with an absolutely spectacular view into the valley below.

But after taking the ski lift up, walking about long enough to soak in the beauty of the view and lose feeling in our faces, hands and toes from the biting wind, and descending back into Gubbio, we spent most of the day hanging out in a cafe. Even though it was sort of a bummer to have taken an independent travel trip just to sit in a cafe, it was a blast, because we enjoyed each other's company, which is the whole point of traveling anyway, no matter what you do. Well, that's what I think the point of traveling is, which is why I don't care where I go (unless it's Lucca, which is freaking awesome!), but rather who I go with. That's what makes it enjoyable or not in the end, anyway.

And at last, leaving the cafe that had become our adoptive home, we returned to Viterbo. Other than Thanksgiving, that's about all that's happened to me of much significance in the last few weeks. Ooh, except for girls' night out in Rome last friday!

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*Ahem* Girls' Night Out: Indian food. Rome. Three seniors and me. Rocking.

Following a harrowingly (because that's now a word) stressful field trip to two museums with two history assignments, one of which was a giant EVIL scavenger hunt, Aleja, Deborah, Emily and I bid adieu our companions, hopped on a tram, and found us an Indian restaurant. Aleja and I had done this once before, but at a ridiculously expensive restaurant right by the Colosseum. This time the restaurant we chose was a little ways out from the center of Rome, but that meant it was considerably cheaper. To our surprise, it wasn't even that sketchy! After waiting for about a half hour for it to open, we were ushered in and given the menu, and recommended an incredibly good deal for students, which is: LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of food for only 18€. So we got two of those and awayed with us. Deborah had to get back into town early because she lives outside of Viterbo and has to catch the bus to her house. So we raced back to the train station via the tram we'd come on, and arrived with time enough to wonder why we hadn't stayed to eat at the restaurant. And why not eat? So we sat down on the floor of the train station and spread out our feast on the floor around us. We got a lot of weird looks, but I say to hell with them! Spontaneity is awesome.

I'm wracking my brain as to what else has happened worth mentioning in the past few weeks... Nothing really comes to mind - or rather, so much happens every day that I would be boring you to tears recounting it all, so I can only pick out the super huge events. Life is such an adventure here! I love it, when school isn't throttling me. At last, winter vacation! I needed this break so much. Wow, am I glad it's here.