Final reflections...what we learnt about Italy and eachother

Travelling always is a learning experience - from which washing machine setttings to use, to how to order the food you want and how to budget so you can shop effectively. It also teaches you how to deal with other people and learn to be independent. And of course, travelling makes you appreciate home and all that is special in our lives.
Some people were very excited as we approached Adelaide, while others are already planning their return journeys. It's a big wide world out there waiting to be explored...

 

 

 

We learnt that Xena is a prolific reader and is a founding member of the Roof Terrace Book Club. She is also often 'starving' and can eat an impressive amount, showing appreciation for Italian cuisine. Some gelato flavours didn't do the trick though, especially once she learnt that crema meant custard, not cream. Xena also added to her candle collection and revealed her musical talents. She soaked up as much Italian culture as she could, and we appreciated her enthusiasm especially in her favourite place, Pompei.

Stella was the souvenir collector of the trip, never foregoing an opportunity to browse. The idea of a budget was a bit challenging and she learnt a valuable lesson about looking after your passport. Stella also discovered that rosemary on roasted potatoes would not poison her and we hope that one day she branches out and tries pizza - even if she has to add extra ketchup!

Chelsea was the baby of the group, celebrating her 15th birthday in Florence. Hopefully she will always hold special memories of that day. Displaying her impressive piano playing skills during the pausa at the uni, Chelsea also took up every opportunity to learn more about Italian culture. Her quiet enthusiasm was appreciated by us all, and she won the 'most sensible luggage' award.

 

 

Tony was literally the big brother of the trip. Luckily for the girls, he displayed an excellent sense of direction and of course, was called on to help many times with unwieldy luggage. Tony took up many opportunities to soak up Italian life, providing fashion advice for others in the group. Along with being a pancake master, Tony was also a founding member of the Roof Terrace Book Club. His enthusiasm for prosciutto will undoubtedly continue into the future.

 

As the fellow pancake maker, Stephanie also showed enthusiasm for Italian cuisine, even commenting that the pasta at Al mangiar bene was as good as her nonna's. Stephanie enjoyed the many shopping opportunities that Italy presented and was enthusiastic about many sights - when she could be persuaded to close her iPad.

 

Samantha certainly showed enthusiasm for many of the sights Italy has to offer and single-handedly tried to pull the country out of its financial woes - although her luggage will no doubt continue to cause her problems. Organisational skills have some way to develop - from remembering to bring your passport to the airport and looking after your belongings, to not locking your keys inside your apartment. It's all a learning curve!

 

We learnt that Tania sometimes likes pasta with her cheese and that the addition of parmesan improves almost any dish - except gelati perhaps! Along with her fellow shoppers Tania did her bit for the economy and no doubt will be requiring the use of the Maltese postal service for her excess luggage. We hope that she has a fanatastic time in Malta with Samantha as she catches up with her family. 

 

Claudia is now known as the scarf princess and collector of snowdomes. She always took every opportunity to soak up Italian language, life and culture - molto bene!!! One of the highlights would be her animal encounters on the walk from Spello to Assisi and her impressive ability to fall asleep as soon as she stepped onto any form of transport - usually on Courtney or Lauren. She also won the 'selfie' photo competition, only just edging out Nancy. Clearly reluctant to leave Italy, I have no doubt that she will be back one day soon.

 

Courtney made many friends in her classes and was the most conscientious when it came to doing her homework. Like Claudia she is also already planning her return journey, if only to restock up on hot chocolate powder. We also learnt that she has a weakness for buying shoes and is a fan of the Sisley brand of clothing.

 

Lauren discovered that zucchini is edible and that she is a competent chef's assistent when required. She spent much of her time on the roof terrace or 'doing a Juliet' by hanging over her window in search of a good wifi connection. On our trips away she was always interested, soaking up la bella vita.

 

Julianne was the only experienced European traveller of the group and as such she was well prepared to soak up the atmosphere. She is also a founding member of the Roof Terrace Book Club, spending her afternoons up there with a good novel and a cup of tea. Rather shockingly, Julianne also admitted that some churches and even some religious art 'weren't too bad'.

 

Finally, grazie mille must go to Ruth and Nancy for all of their help on this trip. I hope they enjoyed every moment - especially the food, the shopping, and of course the very hot cappuccini with the Nutella bomboloni!

And so to Rome...

Our final full day in Italy began with a fleet of taxis to the station - five in fact due to the amount of luggage which had accumulated as we all did our bit for the Italian economy. From there we had a restful train journey back to Rome before checking back into the Hotel Mariano, one of four groups staying there for the night which necessitated locking in breakfast bookings for our last morning in Italy. April 25 is a public holiday in Italy to celebrate Armistice Day from WWI but luckily for us the Vatican was still open, so the next stop on our agenda was a visit to St Peter's and then a tour of the Vatican Museums, including of course the Sistine Chapel. As always, it is quite incongruous to have the security guards in there yelling for silenzio while telling people off for taking photos. The 'abbreviated' visit still took a couple of hours and by then we were all getting a bit tired so we braved the Metropolitana underground train back to the station and our hotel.
Our 'last supper' involved homework - all of the students compiled affirmation sheets for eachother of what they had learnt or appreciated about each member of the group, and we gave them postcards with our own observations. All that remained was a last sleep before the trip back to the airport, where we farewelled Tania and Samantha on their way to Malta and our long-haul journey back home began.

The last week of our overseas adventure

It feels a bit odd to be writing this post back in Adelaide, but the final week was just too busy. Following our last shopping fling in Florence many in the group were in 'luggage denial' and despite reminders to pack early, not many followed this advice.
On Monday we found out that Nazareth College's Italian Trippers were coming to Perugia, including Claudia's second cousin and a former teacher from TMC. Their group was staying in the outskirts of Perugia and planned to come in for dinner, so we made tentative arrangements to meet up with them afterwards for a gelato or two. Sadly, their driver was directionally challenged and despite his GPS, they still got lost and never made it to the city centre.
Another attempt in the morning to meet up for lunch was similarly scuppered when a 15 minute drive from their hotel to the Baci factory turned into a hour-long adventure, and Teresa, their group organiser, couldn't risk driving around Umbria and Tuscany for the rest of the day trying to find their agriturismo hotel for the night. Julianne and I finished off our walk around the city for her collection of photos of various architectural styles and discovered snow on the top of Mount Subasio - the same peak we had walked along on our journey from Spello to Assisi. Luckily the weather didn't stay cold for long.
On Tuesday night budding chef Courtney and her apprentice Lauren created a gourmet feast of homemade burgers, inviting along two friends from their class - Joseph and Hazem. This necessitated one final trip down to the big supermarket via the MiniMetro, and the opportunity to stock up on McDonald's mayonaise and ketchup, as well as a box or ten of Baci and hot chocolate powder. On Wednesday morning a small group decided to come along and visit the beautiful National Gallery of Umbria, preceded by breakfast at Sandri, Perugia's oldest cafe. The rest of the day was spent farewelling new found friends from classes while our last night in Perugia meant dinner at the restaurant where we had spent our first evening before the final frenzy of packing took place for our early morning departure back to Rome. One last gelato and a look at the view of the lights twinkling over the Umbrian hills finished off our Perugian adventure.

 

 

The final Florentine shopping fling!

On Sunday morning we set off on our last trip north, by train once again. The route is becoming familiar for some as we hurtled past Italy's largest lake and various picturesque hill towns. Once we arrived in Florence it was easy to refamiliarise everyone with the major landmarks - you can't really miss the Cathedral and its belltower (although funnily enough no-one was keen to climb it again!) and Piazza della Repubblica with its carousel. From these two places it was just a short stroll to the two markets and the many shopping opportunities. After all, there were still some scarves to buy!
However, our first stop was to meet up with Ting, one of our exchange students from last year who was hosted by Lauren and who had travelled down by train to meet us for the day. It was great to see her again. It must have been the day for reunions as I also caught up with a friend of mine and her baby daughter - Angela is another Italian teacher from Adelaide who is living over in Tuscany for the year with her family.
With all of the shopping exhausted (and some pretty tired people from yesterday's walk) we headed back to Perugia to begin our last week here - and the scary task of beginning to pack!

  

 

 

 

 

Walking the Road of Olives

Sorry for the delay - every time I've started to update the blog today something has come up. We're into our last few days in Perugia so I'm running short of last minute shopping time!
On Saturday morning we set off via the MiniMetro to the station for our 30 minute train ride to a small hill town called Spello. It is a very pretty and well loved place, judging from the well kept flower boxes everywhere. It seems that last week's 'heatwave' has certainly brought on Spring and the blossom everywhere was just gorgeous. Having stopped for a restorative coffee in a little bar with a terrace overlooking the valley, we set off on our walk to Assisi. I told the students that it would be a 'flattish' 12 km walk and I have to say that some of them looked a bit sceptical at this information, especially when they noticed Mount Subasio, Umbria's highest peak, towering above us. I should also point out a disclaimer at the use of my photos on this blog, as Xena claims that in every one I post, she looks like she wants to murder someone.

Luckily, with some local help, we made it to the Via degli Ulivi and off we went, accompanied by a dog who decided to adopt our group. At this point, I should mention that this dog had a collar and was named 'Calimero' but our group decided to rename him Assisi. The animal theme seemed very appropriate as our walk continued, as we saw...

 

 

...donkeys...

...horses and snakes...chickens and a peacock...and some scary guards dogs which made some of the girls squeal...

 

 

...and then finally we made it to....

 

 

At this point I was beoming a little concerned about our canine guide as he blithely negotiated the traffic. Luckily for him, a passing motorist stopped and checked his tag before flagging down a passing police car. Thus we discovered that despite his tag saying he could find his own way home, this was in fact in Foligno, 17 kms away. We bade farewell to Calimero, aka Assisi, and he was last seen setting off with his police rescuers in the back of their FIAT to hopefully be reunited with his owners.

Continuing on to the historic centre of Assisi, the first stop was lunch to refuel from our walk. This accomplished, the rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around the town with its shops bursting with religious items and of course the churches themselves, including the double layered Basilica di San Francesco.

A final winding bus ride returned us to Perugia where a huge surprise awaited us. It seems that our students have been practising their Italian and had organised a beautiful arrangement of flowers for us as a thank you gift. Grazie mille!! Our only Saturday night in Perugia ended with dinner in one of my favourite restaurants called Al mangiar bene. We certainly did eat well, with some in the group declaring the pasta to be 'just like nonna's' - high praise indeed! Then of course they discovered the dessert pizzas which certainly ended the night on a sugar high. Still, according to my pedometer, we covered over 25000 steps today, so we all deserved a treat.



Indulging in a little chocolate

Fridays at the uni tend to be the lightest in lessons as they realise students use the weekends to explore, so today we headed off for a tour of the Baci Perugina factory in the industrialised suburbs of Perugia. Here we learnt of the staggering fact that the factory produces 1,500 Baci per minute - nearly two million a day when it is in full production mode. We also saw the World Record sized replica Bacio, weighing six tonnes, and the Chocolate Cooking School which got the students quite excited. The tour finished with free tastings, although Tony did manage to resist the temptation to cram his pockets full, and then primed and ready, we hit the shop. Before we knew it, it was time to jump back on our bus back up the hill for a free afternoon wandering through the shops and soaking up the sunshine on the Cathedral's steps.
Tomorrow we're off to Spello by train. We'll be walking off the chocolates along the Road of Olives to Assisi before we return here for our only Saturday night in Perugia. Given the noise from the streets and square near our appartments, I suspect it will be noisy - at least until 3am when everything settles back down. Ah, the joys of experiencing life in the middle of a university town!