Day 2: Perugia

Falling asleep was easy after yesterday’s long day of travel. Staying asleep for a normal amount of time was more difficult. Eventually, we all managed to sleep enough to wake up and get ready for the day. Jo figured out the most important part of the house — the coffee maker. Once everyone was up, we ventured back out to the grocery market for some essentials like fruit, bread, and eggs.

Grocery shopping. Just don’t touch anything.

Cortona Clock Tower in the morning

Local architecture

We then realized we should shop in the street market. We bypassed plenty of clothes and shoes (which were very reasonably priced) and looked at the meat and cheeses. Since we weren’t exactly sure what each meat and cheese name meant, we copied the order of the Americans in front of us and ended up with prosciutto and a sharp pecorino of some sort.

Local cheesemonger

Happily ordering meats and cheeses

We walked back to the house to eat our spoils. Belinda cooked up the eggs, prosciutto and cheese sandwiches were made, and the apple (with a surprisingly pink inside) was sliced. Next on the plan for the day was to drive to Perugia to go to the world famous chocolate festival, Eurochocolate. We followed the website’s instructions to get to a parking lot, which we realized was about a mile and half away from the actual festival (but near a Kung-Fu competition!).

We figured there must be some sort of shuttle or something to bridge the gap. Then we figured out that the long line of people at the ticket counter were getting tickets for the Mini Metro — a rail car about half the size of an L car that comes every few minutes. Since the ticket line was long, and the line to get on the Mini Metro was even longer, we decided to walk. We pretty much followed the Mini Metro rail to the center of town. The walk was gradually uphill with a few steep sections.

Fall vibes on the walk to Perugia

Cordwood says always follow the escalators

It was a more complicated route than expected, but we made it! And then were rewarded with chocolate. There were many booths of different chocolate vendors. We started in the official Eurochocolate store for their famous Baci chocolates. We made a variety bag of flavors that we snacked on throughout the day. Fun fact: the wrappers include a fortune-cookie sayings, but sometimes more ominous sounding.

Made it to the Chocolate Festival!

Eurochocolate!

Views from Perugia

Walking around Perugia

We perused the festival for a while and shared a plate of fried dough (similar to a funnel cake) with chocolate sauce on it. Having satisfied all our chocolate cravings and purchasing needs, we explored the Rocco Paolina, a Papal fortress built in 1540 when the Pope decided it was high time the locals stop complaining about paying a Salt Tax.

Exploring the fort under the streets

Underground city vibes

Use this 3d model to plan your attack

Before the Pope fortressed the place, the Baglioni family was pulling off red weddings here

Porta Marzia (Mars Gate) features part of an Etruscan Arch from 3rd century BC

The walk back to the car seemed faster as we were more confident with the directions. We also found more escalators to make our way down the hill, so that helped as well.

Before driving all the way back to the house in Cortona, we made a brief stop at Lago Trasimeno just in time for sunset. The city also has a Rocco (or fort) which we explored a bit, but sections were already closed for the night.

Sunset on the lake! Hurry!

Sunset selfie

Exploring the narrow alleys

Don’t see many garage ports in these old towns

Trasimeno also has a clock tower

Overlooking Lake Trasimeno

Once we got back to Cortona, we stopped at a bodega type store for a few items, and walked around the town a little. We showed Matt a few of the shops he missed last night. Tonight’s dinner was sandwiches from the walk-up window. We brought them back to the house to enjoy with a bottle of wine only to discover there seems to be no wine opener in the house. We made do with Fanta.

Sandwiches!

Finally, we figured out the transportation/parking situation (we think?) for tomorrow’s 10K in Florence and headed to bed early to catch as much sleep as we can before leaving around 5am tomorrow.