Leaving a chocolate heart on the apartment table for Mirco and saying goodbye to him at Como station, amid a flurry of kisses and gratefullness, it was straight onto our first train taking us to Milan.....easy.
A short while out of the station the train came to a halt.....this turned into a 10minute stoppage. Feeling confident the time would be made up along the journey but, knowing we had a quick turnover in Milan onto our super fast train to Firenze, we decided to chill out and leave ourselves in the capable hands of TransItalia. The journey was great, comfortable and not crowded but then, just outside of Milan, the train stopped again....and for a very long time. All we could see was a large amount of Euros disappearing before our eyes as we had booked seats on the next 2 trains and not a hope in hell of making the second connection.
It was then that our "angel" came to the rescue....I say "angel" because we have no idea of her name.....who literally jumped off the train when it finally pulled into Milan, ran like hell to the information board to get the platform number of our next train, rushed back to us to impart the information as we struggled to keep up with her, flew of again in the direction of the new platform with us trying to discern her in the crowds, begged the guard to hang on blowing his whistle as we came struggling onto the platform completely out of breath wondering how the hell this had all happened!!!!!!????? Quickly jolted back to reality as the guard started blowing his damn whistle while yelling and gesticulating to us to hurry up and get on the train via his door and quickly giving our "angel" a high five and a grateful thankyou, both us and our luggage were hauled on board just as the train started to move......the guard did not look at all pleased or impressed. Hot and sweaty we then had to traverse 8 carriages (actually right to the other end of the train) only to find someone sitting in our seats!!!!! Oh Lord this can't be happening surely?Envisaging an Italian tirade (very passionate people as you know) she fortunately quietly acknowledged she was wrong and moved. But wait there is more......this was only our second train out of 3 and yes....more delays!!!!! This resulted in us being totally late for our last connection, arriving in Firenze 10minutes after the train had left and with no "angel" to help out either!!!!!! Long story short we waited an hour and a half for the next train finally arriving in Perugia about 2 hours late.
If we only knew who our "angel" was we would buy her a bottle of beautiful wine to thank her properly for all her help......she could have so easily turned a blind eye to our plight....but she chose not to. Thankyou from the bottom of our hearts "angel".
Our host was patiently waiting for us at Perugia station and quickly whipped us through narrow streets once again to another beautiful apartment in the Old Town. We spent 3 nights here exploring Perugia.....not many tourists which was nice......but it is very steep and hilly and so it is the only place in Italy apparently where there are escalators to get you down and obviously up again. Otherwise there are plenty of steps.
The Old Town could be quite confusing...lots of small narrow streets, steps, alleyways and tagging, sadly, but it is amazing how quickly we were able to orientated ourselves.
There was a school of music just around the corner from us and you would have thought with the street acoustics that they were playing right under our window.
We found our usual favourite places to eat and drink.....2 cocktails would always come with a free board of antipasti and 2 slices of pizza....enough for us in the evening and cheap as.
This obviously a very arts oriented town with plenty of young students and one day on our travels we came across a group of young artists sketching a view from the turret wall that surrounds the Old Town....some of their work was amazing.
Finding a place where students like to eat is always a bonus and we stumbled across a vibrant pizza house where you sit at rickety, mismatching tables and have your huge pizza and beer plonked down in front of you with a definite lack of grace. The owner stumbles around taking the money and shouting what can only be Italian obscenities but the atmosphere was energizing......and the food again was cheap.
Down almost every long set of steps we found extravagantly decorated churches plonked in little back alleys...obviously serving each local community but......our best find was on our dry run to the Perugia bus station!!!! This was brought about because we had booked a bus to Rome airport to catch our flight to Palermo, Sicily and, with our luggage, needed to find the shortest, less hilliest route. Deciding the escalator route could be the one to get us from the top to the bottom of the town we entered into this ancient building...which was like opening Pandoras box! The route actually took you down and through the upper levels of the original castle (which would once have been a stand alone on the very top of Perugia), by a series of escalators, to the lower levels which were still being excavated. Along the way there were museums, light displays, artifact and sculpture displays and you could wander freely through the castle rooms.....it was quite incredible really. A lesson in how to use an ancient space for the good of its inhabitants because it has a purpose and a constant reminder of their history.
So as our host was unable to take us to the bus station this was the route we followed the following morning navigating the initial long uphill climb easily and breathing a sigh of relief at the sight of our crazy escalator castle. Breathing long sighs of relief we realised we had over one hour to wait.....just too enthusiastic for our own good. This hour was spent in absolute agony with dozens and dozens of young students constantly smoking.....there was just no getting away from it and it seemed they ALL smoked. Must be the Italian way!!!!!
Our trip to Rome airport was great.....the bus comfortable, fast and on time. Sitting across from a lady with cleanliness OCD was fascinating and made the few hours go very quickly....poor girl.
Rome airport was slightly disturbing because no one seemed to know where Agean airways was situated and we were sent from one end of the airport to the other.....at one stage we wondered whether we were at the correct airport at all! All was good in the end when a nice young man decided he could book our luggage through for us (we had already booked in on line) and yes....it arrived ok in Palermo.
Goodbye Perugia...a great little arty township....we enjoyed exploring your inner circle of streets, steps and alleyways... so thankyou.
It was then that our "angel" came to the rescue....I say "angel" because we have no idea of her name.....who literally jumped off the train when it finally pulled into Milan, ran like hell to the information board to get the platform number of our next train, rushed back to us to impart the information as we struggled to keep up with her, flew of again in the direction of the new platform with us trying to discern her in the crowds, begged the guard to hang on blowing his whistle as we came struggling onto the platform completely out of breath wondering how the hell this had all happened!!!!!!????? Quickly jolted back to reality as the guard started blowing his damn whistle while yelling and gesticulating to us to hurry up and get on the train via his door and quickly giving our "angel" a high five and a grateful thankyou, both us and our luggage were hauled on board just as the train started to move......the guard did not look at all pleased or impressed. Hot and sweaty we then had to traverse 8 carriages (actually right to the other end of the train) only to find someone sitting in our seats!!!!! Oh Lord this can't be happening surely?Envisaging an Italian tirade (very passionate people as you know) she fortunately quietly acknowledged she was wrong and moved. But wait there is more......this was only our second train out of 3 and yes....more delays!!!!! This resulted in us being totally late for our last connection, arriving in Firenze 10minutes after the train had left and with no "angel" to help out either!!!!!! Long story short we waited an hour and a half for the next train finally arriving in Perugia about 2 hours late.
If we only knew who our "angel" was we would buy her a bottle of beautiful wine to thank her properly for all her help......she could have so easily turned a blind eye to our plight....but she chose not to. Thankyou from the bottom of our hearts "angel".
Our host was patiently waiting for us at Perugia station and quickly whipped us through narrow streets once again to another beautiful apartment in the Old Town. We spent 3 nights here exploring Perugia.....not many tourists which was nice......but it is very steep and hilly and so it is the only place in Italy apparently where there are escalators to get you down and obviously up again. Otherwise there are plenty of steps.
We found our usual favourite places to eat and drink.....2 cocktails would always come with a free board of antipasti and 2 slices of pizza....enough for us in the evening and cheap as.
Our trip to Rome airport was great.....the bus comfortable, fast and on time. Sitting across from a lady with cleanliness OCD was fascinating and made the few hours go very quickly....poor girl.
Rome airport was slightly disturbing because no one seemed to know where Agean airways was situated and we were sent from one end of the airport to the other.....at one stage we wondered whether we were at the correct airport at all! All was good in the end when a nice young man decided he could book our luggage through for us (we had already booked in on line) and yes....it arrived ok in Palermo.
Goodbye Perugia...a great little arty township....we enjoyed exploring your inner circle of streets, steps and alleyways... so thankyou.
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