I suppose that everybody in Italy has heard of Perugia but the British and American tourist asked to name the places they most want to see in Italy probably would first name Rome, Venice and Florence. I have been to Italy many times. My parents drove to Italy when I was a teenager. We visited Venice. We flew our own car over (unheard of nowadays) and drove down the Amalfi drive to Positano. For about fifty years, from the nineteen fifties to the year 2005, a painting of Positano was on the walls of my late parents' kitchen.
As a teenager I went on a group holiday to Lake Garda. We stopped at Sicily on a cruise. We went to Italian operas in London. My parents learned to speak Italian. We had an Italian au pair girl and after she left us and went back home we visited her family's home in Bologna.
We loved Italy. Italy had brought ice cream to England. Before the arrival of Chinese and Indian restaurants, eating out was to Italian restaurants, favourite foods being spaghetti Bolognese, cannelloni, ravioli and pizza. First we had espresso coffee. Now cappuccino, latte, Americano (so called because it's the way Americans like their espresso, with added hot water to make a long drink) and all over England, Costa Coffee shops.
When I was writing about honeymoons for Brides magazine and other magazines and newspapers a tourist board took me to Viareggio to sit on the beach. Then this year I was invited on a trip to Umbria. Perugia region.
Perugia Student City
By now, in the year 2016, I had heard of Perugia. Everybody in England and America had heard of Perugia. It was in the news, double page spread in the Sunday newspaper, not as a tourist destination, from the point of view of those making a living from tourism, or proud of their city, and their reputation for hospitality, for the wrong reasons. A British student, an American student, an Italian student, and the tragic murder of the the British student.
My first thought about Perugia and students of the Italian language was, why did they study in Perugia rather than nearby Florence? Was it just because of the lower cost?
Perugia Language Schools & Foreign Students
Perugia is a magnet for foreign language students. It has a Foreigners University college.
Whilst there I met a student who had graduated posing for photos on the steps of one of the grand buildings. She was from Poland. She was wearing a wreath, like the Romans did.
I can see that people in Europe might know about Perugia. But what are the Asian students doing here? The Chinese are invited over by the music schools to study music. First they must complete a crash course in Italian.
How did the English speaking students from UK and America learn about Perugia. What did they know about the history of the historic city of Perugia?
Etruscans
I looked up Perugia. The walls of the city are Etruscan. I'd heard the word Etruscan. But history and history books have not been helpful and kind to the Etruscans. The Romans gave us Latin used in churches, Christianity, and we can learn Italian. Etruscan is a language nobody speaks. What's left of the Etruscans and where?
I don't even know what the Etruscans look like. I asked my friends from the tourist board. To my astonishment one of them says, "I am Etruscan!" She is tall and has long black hair, brown eyes and slightly dark skin. I would have thought of her as glamorous Italian.
We drove around the valleys surrounded by green hills and tall poplar trees like dark green pencils. Perugia is left to the last day. Perugia is nearby, only the next hilltop, always in sight, but far away. Perugia from afar, like the other Umbrian cities, is like those backdrop hilltop cities in medieval paintings.
Enjoying the enchanting scenery, I have almost forgotten about my other worry, earthquakes. We are less than fifty miles from a place which has had not one but two earthquakes. And they want to rebuild in the same place!
Earthquake
The place with the earthquakes, it's name begins with N, Norcia, is the other side of the mountain, apparently through a tunnel which was initially blocked by rockfall, hampering rescue efforts. Oddly, hearing about the tunnel, I feel safer, knowing, or imagining, that a mountain or hillside is both a visual and protective barrier between me and a rock fall.
San Francisco Safety
I imagine that Americans will be more immune to fear of earthquakes. San Francisco was rebuilt twice after earthquakes. Building regulations get tougher and buildings get safer and better constructed. I went there after the more recent earthquake and was shown by a San Francisco hotel manager how tall skyscraper swayed in the wind and the rooftop chairs were fastened to protect them from getting damaged, damaging the building, or falling on cars and people below.
Mr Fixit, Marco
At the Caprai Winery I met Marco, the ebullient head of the winery, who greeted us literally with open arms. He was late to meet us because he had been out all day, driving to Rome, all day there to discuss the redevelopment of the earthquake area, then driving back to meet and greet us.
He told me that the meeting took so long because everybody had to contribute their say, the politicians, The country, area, town, the religious order, the architects, health and safety, tourism. I wondered, what about the aid agencies, volunteers, accountants, donors, sponsors, fund-raisers? Money?
Reassuring, he told me, that if agreement on action could be reached, money was not a problem.
My first thought was how were people living? We'd heard they were relocated and scattered about the region in hotels. That is demoralising, temporary, not a home, cuts you off from family and friends, costs a lot of money, blocks beds for visitors in high season.
Marco said that people were housed in Portacabins. The main concern was not accommodation, but the huge logistics (and how to spend the money) rebuilding the historic cathedral dedicated to St Benedict. The most demoralising things was not fear of another quake nor lack of rebuilt homes but that building, the centre of the community, it's tradition, its importance locally and nationally, its symbolism, its supplying the residents with a reason to be proud and to invite travellers and tourists to the area.
Frankly, I was puzzled. I was far more familiar with St Francis of Assisi than St Benedict. What was so special about him? St Benedict and St Francis of Assisi are complete contrasts.
St Benedict
It was St Benedict who founded the idea of organising and increasing monasteries worldwide, gathered together scattered hermits, who had prayed and ate alone, begged food or gave alms to others. He wrote the book of rules still in use which governed the communities with rules, rule books, books, ornaments, chapels, frescoes, dress codes, hours of prayers and either chants or silence. Subsistence and employment for all types from the intellect to the cook to the gardner to the orphan, the sick, the beggar, the landless, the traveller. The monastery was the school, the library, the hospital, the hotel, the orphanage, the employer. All those monasteries you see, the huge buildings worldwide, that's the result of St Benedict. Other subsidiary or rival orders were set up copying his system.
The Benedictine monks are named after St Benedict. How did he get his name? Bene in Benedictine is good as in the word beneficial, doing good and bringing good. Dict in the word Benedict is speaking, as in dictation.
By contrast, St Francis of Assisi, seemed to like nature and animals and birds. He lived more simply. He was more of a loner, went out into the fields, and reputedly was seen talking to the birds. Yet people, like birds, flocked after him.
Safe Hands
When I looked at beaming Marco, enthusing about St Benedict, with his arms outstretched, I felt, we are in a safe pair of hands. I remembered the song, He's Got The Whole World In His Hands. You have only to look around what has been done in the Umbrian area by the wineries and the families which own them. Winery and cashmere factory. Winery and wine museum and oil museum. Truffle hunting and restaurants and hotels and bars.
So much to do, to taste, try, learn. After a few blips, setbacks, the tourists and students will be coming back to Perugia and Umbria in increasing numbers.
I shall explain more about each area in later posts. Please come back and read more.
Why do graduating students in Umbria wear wreaths on their heads? This is done all over Italy as well as in Sweden, Finland and parts of America.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurel_wreath
More information on Umbria in Italy from:
www.umbriatourism.it
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com.
