Second Post!!!!!!

Ciao from Perugia!

I have officially been here for ten days, which is incredible. I have already seen and learned so much. Every day here gets better. Since I last wrote, I have had two home cooked Italian meals and both were absolutely incredible. I’ve learned a little more Italian, and I am finally getting the hang of “Italian time”.

First and foremost (an in my opinion, most important), the food!!! Last Friday a huge group of us went out to dinner at “La Dia Bocco”. It’s a price-fixed five course meal, and it’s conveniently located right near my new apartment. The only catch is you eat what the family is cooking for that day. There are no special orders, and everything is served family style. We started the meal with three different kinds of bruschetta: zuccini, sun-dried tomato, and carmelized onion. The bruschetta here is on foccacia and is not just chopped tomatoes and herbs on bread like at home. After that, we had a pasta course, which consisted of homemade gnocchi and tagliatelle. Absolutely delicious! Salad comes AFTER pasta here. It was your average salad, except they toss in some breadcrumbs. This was followed by the meat course, which was sliced pork, lemon rosemary chicken, and some kind of smoked beef on the bone. It was incredible. Finally, for dessert, we had a chocolate chip amaretti cake with a custard middle! The whole meal included a really good red wine (which I don’t even normally like). At the end, you are given a tiny little glass of very sweet wine, which is a digestive here. It comes in a shot glass, and some of the people I was with didn’t know what to do and drank it just like a shot. Luckily, I was able to glance around the room and saw lots of Italians slowly sipping it!!!!

Ashley and I moved into our new apartment on Thursday. It’s so nice. We have two floors and each have our own bedrooms. We have an eat-in kitchen, two bathrooms, and a living room. I’ll put up some pictures later!

I’m slowly getting used to “La Pausa” here. It’s a midday break from 1:30-4ish here, where almost all of the shops and stores close down. You can find a few select places open, but it can be frustrating when you really need to buy something. Ashley and I got internet in our apartment also, so I’ll be able to put up a lot more pictures.

I have been checking in the Church de San Lorenzo almost every day to see Mary’s engagement ring. Right before I left, I read a guide book that said a church here in Perugia has Mary’s engagement ring on display twice a year. Unfortunately, the guide book we purchased must have been wrong. You can still see where it is, but the actually ring is three stories up behind a red curtain and about a dozen or so locks. I took a couple of pictures anyway. The church is like nothing I’ve ever seen. St Patrick’s in NYC always impressed me, but when you look at the churches here, there is no comparison. There are frescoes painted all over the ceiling and stained glass everywhere. The paintings are done by some of the most famous painters in the world, and the altar and displays and hundreds of years old. You could honestly spend forever just walking around one church.

On Sunday the school took all of us to a farm on Lake Tirosmieno. The family who owned the farm makes their own wine , olive oil, and prosciutto. We were able to see all of the olive trees and massive wooden barrels that contain the oil. Locals just drive up to this place with massive jugs and fill up on the wine and olive oil. After we toured the farm, the family cooked all of us lunch. We had another five courses, with more bruschetta (one with just the olive oil on bread, another with a tomato sauce, and another with cooked crushed beans). The family also served us their homemade pasta (that they let us help make!) with a pork bolognese sauce. We had foccacia with spinach and best of all, fresh sausage. While I don’t care to know the logistics of how the family made this sausage, I guarantee it’s the best I’ve ever had. They also served us lemon cake, biscotti, and some of their famous wine! To top it all off, they gave everyone champagne to toast the day.

Ashley and I ended up buying some of the family’s olive oil because it was so, so much better than any kind I’ve had. It seems like everytime you eat something here, it’s better than anything else, so you’ll probably be hearing that a lot from me. A little fun fact, we ordered pepperoni pizza the other day, and instead of meat, the pizza was topped with all different kinds of peppers. A little different than back home.

I hope everyone is doing well, and I promise to write soon. (I’ll even try not to write about food as much!!!)

I miss everyone so much.

<3