Perugia

Our time in Umbria was only 2 nights as the availability at the 5 star Hotel Sina Brufani was limited, both availability and our budget!  The place was really nice, as you'd expect, located at the top of the hill in Perugia at the end of Corso Vanuncci, the main passeggiata area.  The highlight of the hotel was the Etruscan ruins located under the glass floor of the pool.  The Etruscans were highly advanced for their time in Italy, preceding and then being overrun by the Roman Empire, and providing architectural and other guidance and examples as the Romans conquered all.

The pool with the ruins on the right of the picture.......they were just a bunch of rocks but cool anyway.

The Queen of England stayed here.

And so did my Queen, who's feeling much better :-)

View from our room, just fabulous, (scroll right).

We also visited a couple other Etruscan areas within Perugia, the well which is located in the center of town and a fascinating short visit, and an old entry into the city, Porto Marzia.  There are Roman writings above from about 300BC.  

From Piazza Italia we took the little red tour bus for 4Euro each and visited the Perugina chocolate factory located just outside the city.  It was interesting, they make 1.9million Baci everyday, but alas the lines were down for summer maintenance and we didn't get to see it in operation.  We did however hear the story of the Luisa Spagnoli, a woman who during WWI brought women in to run the lines and actually set up a daycare in the factory, with scheduled times for moms to visit their children.  Way ahead of her time, it is a fascinating story and absolutely fabulous chocolate.  Try a Baci when you see it next, if you haven't already.

A replica of the record setting Baci, my kinda chocolate.

We did find a great pizza place that had good house wine and we ate there twice, the second night we were ushered in to a table ahead of others, that was nice.  The pizzas were super tasty and the meals were cheap, I highly recommend Pizzeria Mediterranea.

Don't be a pizza hater!!!!

Perugia is a nice little town, far too hilly for getting back and forth from the train station with backpacks so we took a taxi, actually too many taxis up and down, but sometimes the convenience is worth the cost.  Our day trip to Assisi cost more in taxis than the train tickets.  

Time for some good Italian food, ciao a tutti!