January 27

We ventured to Perugia, another city not too far from Assisi. The name of this town sounded extremely familiar to me, probably because Perugia is also the name of the entire region of Italy. We convened in the Piazza Italia, where a monument to Vittorio Emanuele II stands. 

Photo: Statue of Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of Italy. 

We then got a chance to see the National Gallery of Art, which contained works from the before, during, and after the  Renaissance. The paintings within the gallery were all beautiful and I was able to appreciate each of them for their aesthetic value upon my first look. Additionally, the professors who joined us for the trip were able to provide some background information and other facts, allowing me to better understand the historical significance of each. 

After the gallery, we stopped into a local pizzeria for lunch. 

Photo: If you order a pepperoni pizza in America and the waiter brings you this, you'll probably send it back and repeat your order. If you order a pepperoni pizza in Italy, you should probably know that "pepperoni" means "peppers". It was very good.

After lunch we visited the "Casa Romana", a typical home of a wealthy ancient Roman family. The floors were tiled intricately with different patterns for each room. This was very cool to see. 

After a long day, we returned to Assisi for a wine tasting at a local "enoteca", or wine store. Most of us had already been acquainted with the owner, Alessandro--probably his best customers all year.

We were able to try three different wines--one white and two red. Each wine was paired with either cheese, meat, or bread with olive oil and truffle (kind of like mushrooms but so much better). 

 

After the wine tasting, we returned to the guest house for more food and more wine, and by the end of dinner we had all had too much to eat and in the case of a few, too much to drink. This was evident when one of the more shy girls from our program volunteered to say grace and couldn't help but share not only her thanks but also the fact that we are all "very lovely" people.