This morning we woke up early (luckily the clocks changed here on Saturday night so we got an extra hour of sleep) to catch our train to Perugia. We took the bus over to save us from schlepping our bags all through town, and it also gave us a chance to see some other parts of the city we didn't see while we were here. We got on the train, and I promptly fell asleep for another two hours (the extra hour wasn't enough, clearly) so I can't tell you much of what we saw except I was awake when we went by a lake so large it could have been the sea - Lake Trasimeno.
When we arrived in Perugia we had to take the "Mini-Metro" from the train station to the historical city center, which is almost 500 meters above sea level (I can't tell for sure but I think the train station is about 250 meters above sea level). The technical description of the Mini-Metro is "adorable". Its consists of one-car trains that carries about 12 people up the hill on what seems like a rollercoaster (without the big drop). The ride only takes about five minutes and the cars arrive at each stop every two minutes. Passengers get a pretty good view of the city along the ride, and then the train goes through some pretty cool tunnels. When the train gets to the end of the line there is a small turntable for the cars to turn around and go back the other way. It seems like it would have been a fun project to design and then see through construction. We'll get some pictures on the way back to the train tomorrow.
Once in the town center we walked over to our hotel. Which is amazing. We're staying in one of the oldest towers in Perugia - an old stone tower. They've done a great job maintaining the "old-stone tower" feel, but with modern amenities. The best thing is to recommend you look at the pictures, at the very least, of the living room/kitchen. Its a shame we'll only be here for one night.
After dropping off our bags we went out to see the town. Since today is Halloween (not really celebrated here) and tomorrow is All Saint's Day (a Federal holiday), there was a big on-street market being set up all throughout the town as part of the celebration (the funny thing is that some of the merchants are the same that we saw at the market in Genoa AND Firenze). Since we don't have a tour book about Perugia we went to the tourist info center to find out what's open and what is going on in town. We found out about a good deal - for a reasonable price we could visit five of twelve museums including two special exhibitions. The odd thing is: the tourist map of the city doesn't show where any of the museums are...so we had to go back to the tourist center to find out where the places are that we wanted to visit.
We started out at the Museum of the City Walls and Gates, stopping along the way to see an Etruscan Arch and the oldest church in Perugia. At the museum we climbed some ridiculously steep steps and found ourselves at the top of a tower, with great views of the city. The museum was all in Italian so we didn't get much from it, but we did see how the city grew over time and how the walls were expanded to surround the growing city.
From there we took a great windy road back towards town. The road that really captured the essence of fall (and Halloween), which we seemed to have forgotten how much we liked - the cool weather, gray skies, leaves changing color and falling off the trees - it was great. Some of the trees here are crazy (I've started calling them tennis-ball trees). They have these huge (bigger than tennis balls) green balls that grow on them and then drop to the ground. At close inspection they seem to look a little like brains. We also saw them in Volterra, but after seeing them twice I've decided they're worth mentioning. We even stopped along the way to help two people push their car into the street so they could get it started on the downhill (not the only time we saw this "Little Miss Sunshine" operation today).
Near the end of the road, we found the old aqueduct which is now a pedestrian path. On either side of the aqueduct there were some amazing stairways (from the pictures you might realize there are stairs all over this really hilly city). At the top of the stairs we were back in the town center.Next, we went to visit the oldest well in Perugia. For looking into a hole in the ground, it was a pretty neat site to see. The well is 37 meters deep and still has natural springs that flow into it - they have to constantly pump the water out to maintain the water levels. There is so much water flowing in that its hard to believe. The walls are soaking wet, and it sounds like its raining when you walk in to see the well.
We also saw the San Lorenzo cathedral which is unexpectedly beautiful on the inside considering that they still haven't finished the facade (no pictures inside, sorry). Our last museum stop for the day was the Baldeschi Palace which turned out to be special exhibit on Climate Change (from the New York Natural History Museum, no less). We're pretty well aware of the climate change issues and alternative fuel concepts so we didn't learn much and were a little disappointed in how little of the palace we actually got to see. 
We stopped at home to do a quick internet search to find out where to go for dinner - turns out the New York Time and Frommers recommended the restaurant that is literally out our door. The place was cozy and the food was good (the eggplant parmigian appitizer was AMAZING).So far, we are two satisfied customers in Perugia. Its a great place to walk around, there are lots of people out and about, and the food is good. The only thing that is lacking is in the sweets department: the gelato options are negligible, and the chocolate, which this place is famous for, is even more expensive than if we got it in some other town. This requires an explanation.
Happy Halloween, if you've made it this far!
No gelato today...but we got some treats to get us through the day.
And a quick note, we are trying to figure out the internet situation in Rome, so might be a day or two before the next post.
So what's the name of this wonderful hotel? would love to stay there.
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