What a busy week so far! On lunedi' we took a field trip to Perugia, a hill town, where we visited the Universita' degli Stranieri - the University for Foreigners. After taking several escalators up and climbing several sets of stairs we arrived at the University, where "il Rettore" (the President) greeted us with a small reception, including champagne.
They offer many courses, including those for teachers who want to brush up on their Italian. Maybe in the future I will take a course there with some of my studenti...
Unfortunately, we did not have time to spend in Perugia and had to run back through the city, past the chocolate shop to make it to the publisher on time. As we drove through the industrial part of the town we did go by the Perugina, now Nestle factory.
Now those of you who know me well, realize how dangerous it is to take ME to a publisher, but fortunately for me and the baggage handlers at the airport, they cannot sell books from the warehouse, but gave us each one of our own choice. We were also fortunate to see some old printing presses - with individual tiles for each letter.
We left around 6:00, planning to be back at our hotel by 8:00 for dinner, but we did not consider that it was a holiday in Rome - Saint Peter and Paul Day - who are the Patron Saints of Rome and everyone had taken a long weekend and they were also returning home. So we were stuck in enormous traffic jams; the worst being where 12 tolls booths fed into 2 lanes of traffic!!
Needless to say, when we got back to the hotel after 21:00 we were famished and tired.
On martedi' however we continued our studies in the morning and then headed out again in the afternoon to Piazza Barberini. We walked all around the area visiting churches and works of art by Bernini and Borromini. We also were at the intersection of the Quattro Fontane (4 fountains) that represent 4 rivers.
Josie and I stayed in the city in order to go to Feltrinelli to find a book we need and ended up doing some shopping! I hit some good sales at Benetton and even found my dishes at a shop (but held back).
couple comments....It amazes me the structures and age of the architecture and art. I saw on the news that the entire mall in Washington DC is falling apart and sinking and in general disrepair and that is less than a cetury old.
ReplyDeleteIt's also funny to see the glasses they use for Champagne. haha
Hope you're havingfun!
It IS so amazing that the buildings we are seeing are not only 100s of years old, but in the case of the Colosseum, thousands of years old and still strong. They built things much better. Even the water that flows out of many fountains, including the Trevi Fountain, comes from aqueducts built by the Romans.
ReplyDeleteI am having an awesome time, but it is going by so fast! The tears are going to flow when we finish our course.