Mountain Riding

I wrote this post a while back but didn't post it. So here it is.
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I decided to explore around Perugia Friday after class. There’s a fellow in my class who is a hardcore bike enthousiast and brought his bike to Italy, although only a short distance from Switzerland (He’s German though). I’ve always wanted to do more road biking so I went and rented a bike for the weekend.

So we get the bikes and I suggest we go for a *short* ride on Friday. Now remember, we’re on a mountain. So at the end of any ride, it’s one hell of a trip back up the hill. We get down the hill and Uli, my friend, says “How does a three hour ride sound? Too long?” So you can see these bikers are hard core. Three hours is a short ride for him. I tell him it’s too long, but that didn’t matter. I got back home 5 hours later.

It was a great ride though. We went through all these villages down neat roads past actual homes. Because so far I’ve spent most of my time in cities where it’s all high density housing. So these are all your typical countryside home with a few pigs, chickens, vegtable gardens etc. The only tough part is the terrain. There’s not a single piece of flat land around for hundreds of miles. So it’s up and down, up and down and quite often up and up.

We had a map and found a route to take knowing nothing about the actual route itself except it was on a map. So we started to ascend a small mountain, and it just kept going up and up and up and felt like it would never stop. Finally we found a really old man 2/3 of the way up. This guy was a really friendly and excited that we were on bikes. It was a peculiar sight because he was picking fresh blackberries and putting them into his little basket, but he also had a giant rusty old sicle that could take your head off. And if you don’t know, Italians like to speak with their hands, so a few times this thing was flying through the air.

We stayed and chatted for a bit while eating berries. He informed us the road became dirt just ahead, no more ashphalt. And we were on road bikes, crap. But we didn’t really want to turn around because there were thunderstorms following us. So we proceeded on.

Also, things in Italy are generally smaller, including the bikes you can rent. So the bike was a little small, and I was trying to bike up steep roads with a road bike. I was also incredibly tired having not done much activity in the 4 weeks I’ve been here. That meant I was standing up on the bike pushing and couldn’t get traction. It’s an experience.

Shortly before the top, Uli went ahead because I was holding him back. I came across a small house and with an old couple working the garden. Stopping, I made it very obvious I was out of water and very thirsty. The signora looked over and asked if I would like some water. So I got invited in, and met two very nice people. Eventually my friend Uli came back around looking for me and he came in too.

So again, we sat down and had a friendly chat with the locals for about an hour. They had just picked three big crates of pomodori, and they were delicious! They offered to give us some to take home, but we had no means to carry them unfortunatly. I had somewhat been planning this to some extent. I told Uli earlier we needed to stop and ask for directions even when we didn’t need help, simply to chat to the locals and just see what kind of an adventure we get into.

So I kind of expected it when after a few tomatoes they offered un café, and we graciously accepted. But what surprised me most was that immediately after coffee comes grappa apparently. If you don’t know, grappa is pretty much straight alcohol, at least in my past experiences. Luckily for us, this stuff was only 40% and didn’t taste like straight alcohol.

The rain was starting to worry us because the roads become slipperly, so we thanked them for the hospitality and moved on. It seemed like that mountain was never going to end. Then after we hit the summit, we couldn’t even enjoy a lot of the ride down because it was still dirt roads and we had to keep it slow. Eventually however, the paved road came back and we flew down the mountain. Perugia was still a long ways away, and I was incredibly sore from an uncomfortable bike, and getting tired.

So we made our way to a town with a station to catch the train back to Perugia. It was really starting to rain, and we made it to the station just in time. But trains here are very unpredictable, and the schedules are often complicated and completely wrong. By this point it was 6pm (we left at 2), and the schedule said a train came at 6:20. But there were some notes. Only during the summer, only on Saturday 2, not during the weekends (it was a Friday) and only on the weekends. So we just sat at the station. The station is a building that is all shut and locked up and just a place for the train to stop. So no one to ask.

Lucky for us a train came, and back to Perugia we went. All in all it was pretty fun, and the plan is to do it all over again today. But it was pissing down rain all morning, so we’ll have to wait and see.
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And I did go on another bike ride. This time to a lake. Here are the pictures.

Phone Number

Ok, so I broke down and got a phone, otherwise there is no way to connect and meet up with people. If you want to reach me, dial +39 320 561 1344. From Canada it would be 011 39 320 561 1344. Or I can get text messsages too. It costs me nothing to recieve calls or messsages. Ciao.

Told you I lived on a hill

They really don't care about perfection here at all. Back home, roads are always repaved, buildings fixed up, everything has to match. Here, what you see is what you get. For instance, here is a car parked beside a building. You park where you can. In this case, not all the wheels need touch the ground.

More Apartment Pics

Ok, I promised the rest of the pictures of my bedroom. Here they are.

It's a very bright room with a giant window. Great for letting in lots of light, and of course, sound. There must be 10 different bell towers in this city that ring every fifteen minutes, or not. It just depends on something random. Or, the other night some guy started sorting bottles at 2am right outside my window. Sure it's about 4 stories up, but it's diffferent here. In Canada, the noise has places to go besides into your living space. Here the streets are so narrow, that the sounds bounce their way up the buildings and into the rooms. You can hear absolutly everything.

Next, here's the two beds in my double room. I kind of fit, but only when curled up into a ball. It's ok though, I'm always really tired when I sleep so no problem. This place really reminds me of my grandparents place in Toronto we used to stay at 15 years ago. I think there were two beds, it was built by my Italian grandfather and the place even smells the same. Really bizzare. The bedding is from the 70s I think, and there are little doilies on every surface. We also have a TV. I'm starting to almost comprehend what's on TV.

Lastly, here are two photos of the view out my window. If you can't tell, we're on a hill. The whole city is on a hill. There isn't one level road in the city. But this helps you navigate. If you look at a map, the city makes no sense. Yet somehow you just know how to get through it after only a couple days or two. And it's all because of the hill. The main piazza is basically at the top.


This is a very basic map, I don't think it shows all the streets, and this is only a small section of the center. There are much more complicated parts. Everything is named for some historical importance, so maybe if I knew the history of Perugia well it might make sense, but if you come from somewhere like Calgary that's on a grid of numbered streets, this place appears to be a nightmare.

I live right on the top left corner just off Piazza Matteotti, right beside the word "Via" (steet), only you enter from the other side.

What we discuss in class

If any of you have taken a language class at school, you probably recall have disucssions about basic things. You talk about the weather, food, taking a voyage somewhere. You might talk about what you did last night, but it's pretty basic stuff.

Here, not so much.

For the first while, things were somewhat simple, and then we starting disucssing some pretty tough topics: For instance, Does true love exist? Now that's a tough one to answer in English, let alone basic italian. But I think we understood each other. We're also learning a bit of history, again a tough subject with a limited vocabulary. But you know what, that's how you learn a language, immerse yourself in it and best of luck. You wont learn much always talking about food.

More thieves?

Well, unfortuntaly, during a recent trip to Orvietto, my camera dissapeared (small point and shoot, not my SLR). A friend and I went there on the weekend, there's a very large and impressive cathedral, and some underground caves and such. On the way back I was lying down on a bench, waiting for the train, and had my camera on my chest as it was uncomfortable in my pocket. The train arrived and I picked it up and can't recall if I held on to it, or put it in a pocket, or what. When I went to enter the carriage, an elderly lady was getting off. She had a bunch of bags and, being the friendly Canadian, I helped her get her bags off. I then gave her bags to her son (in his 40s) and got on the train. I recall going to the washroom after the train left, but can't recall my camera. I realized it was gone half an hour later when the local train musician came along playing his accordian looking for money. So I have no clue when it went missing.

My parents think I might have been set up, but I'm not so sure. I'm being super optimistic, and hoping it ended up in the bag of that old lady and she found it and will turn it in to the police, whom I will give my cameras serial number to and all will go well. That would be a miracle, but I'm willing. Maybe someone grabbed it from my seat as they walked by?

As for the weekend, we did the trip to Orvietto on Saturday, and then Florence on Sunday. There's an incredible well in Orvietto, built because the pope was using it as a hide-away from constant attacks on Rome. Orvietto was also being besieged often, so a well was needed inside the city walls. This thing must have been 100 meters deep. There are intertwined steps the whole way down, so they could use donkeys (I think) to go down and get water while another was coming up. Very impressive indeed.

I couldn't believe how touristy Florence was, I can't imagine having to live in a city that is a constant show for the rest of the world. Line ups to get into the Cathedrals and musems and such are so long, and it's a sunday so they're aren't open long. We made it into a few places, like the Santa Croce, an old Cathedral and a bit of a museum. Contains some famous works and even the tomb of Michelangelo.

Well, I must be going, I will post more often, I promise. But maybe not this weekend. I'm off to Sciliy!

Still Alive

Sorry to those of you who have been eagerly awaiting a new update. I'm just having such a good time, I kinda forgot about you guys. I'm only kidding. To be honest, I just encountered another typical Italian custom. The internet shop I used and prepaid for closed up on the weekend so the staff could have a holiday for the rest of August. No warning, no signs. It just didn't open one day. I figured it would open again soon, but they finally put a sign up indicating 'chiuso - ferie'. Closed for holidays. Like half of this city.

August is the time Italians take their holidays, and it appears to be one of the few Capitalist societies that doesn't care so much about their business. There are so many tourists here, and more each day it seems, but no, it's holiday time.

We've also seen this in local wine bar we often visit. The owners are Yuri and Sara and are very friendly. A few friends and I decided one night to make a potluck, and I offered to have it at my house, as it's one of the largest, but still very small. Ryan (a fellow Calgarian) talked to Yuri and asked if we could bring our food there. The plan was to make the food and Yuri and Sara would provide the wine and join us. Instead, he offered to close up the wine bar and bring a selection of wines to my place. Crazy! We didn't want them to close up, so we went there, where they provided all the dishes, cuttlery, bottles and bottles of wine, water, dessert cookies and finally a coffee thing at the end. There were 8 or 10 of us, and it cost 60 Euros.

We still don't know how they charge us, it's all so arbitrary.

Apartment tour

Got the pictures working as you can see. So I thought I would take you on a quick tour of my apartment.

First - the front door. There's two apartments on this floor in the building, and the door must have 4 or 5 different locks that go into solid stone or rock walls. Looks like a door you'd see in a New York apartment.

At one end of the apartment there are two single bedrooms. Only one guy is living in one of them right now, a fellow from Latvia. His name is Nicolai and he's in the fifth level here - I'm in the second.

Next you're looking down the other end of the apartment, where the double bedroom, bathroom and kitchen are. That hallway 'door' you can see is abot 6 feet high. For some peculiar reason, every opening is about 6 feet in this place, some shorter. But it makes no sense. My bedroom must have 14 foot ceilings, the kitchen 12 and the bathroom 8. There's no method to this madness.

This is our splendid bathroom, I'll complain about the shower later. But like everything else, it's not designed for someone 6'5" despite the tall ceilings. It's decent, clean, and it works. It seems every apartment here in Perugia has a beday too, but I have yet to see a urinal anywhere.

Here is our kitchen. A gas stove, fridge, freezer, sink, the usual stuff. There's a seperate hot water tank for the taps versus the shower. Kinda nice. But this time of year all you want is cold water. There's also a small clothes washer in the kitchen. You can't see the next building, but it's about 6 feet away. I really really wanted to hang my clothes between buildings, I thought that's what happenend. but apparently not here, haven't seen it yet.

I've got more pictures of my bedroom, but I'll put them up later. I need to go meet some friends. We might goto the coast this weekend for another concert of the most famous Italian Rock singer. I still don't know who it is, but it's on the beach and bound to be interesting. Arrivaderci.

The Italian government is watching me....

I bet if I write words like bomb, train and Vatican someone important will read this.

You see, for the past little bit, I've had to show ID to use internet here in Italy. I couldn't quite figure out why. Turns out Italy has Information Police, they try and protect Italy from terrorism. Basically they track your internet and phone usage in public places like this. The internet cafe here says it keeps records of what you do for a couple of years.

Terrorists in Rome!

Stupid multiple digital camera cards

Well, I thought I would get a chance to put up some photos tonight - turns out not so much. This computer must have 4 or 5 slots for digital camera cards, but not ones that fit my card! Next time...

One funny thing I noticed today. First, to explain what a Piazza is. You can have one that is absoluty tiny where 2 or 3 roads meet, and then you can giant ones that are THE meeting place for people or are large intersections, etc. Also, as you will see by my pics, this is your typical Italian town with some very narrow roads.

So the main Piazza in Perugia is closed to vehicles except for some of the edges where you can drive through it. But imagine thousands of people, tourists and students mostly, who don't know how everything works. As I'm turning to go down a small side-street, this guy and girl come flying up the street, slow down briefly, and the driver then makes the sign of the cross in front of him before proceeding into the pedestrian laden street. I had a good laugh when I saw that.

First Day in Perugia

Wow, this city is pretty damn cool. Took the train tuesday morning north to Perugia and then a bus to the University. Luckily, a prof from Victoria who was here with some students came to my help. She took my registration in and found me some housing - basically saved me several hours worth of waiting in line and talking to people.

I actually felt kind of bad at the housing office. There's people waiting there for hours, with these really sad and tired looks on their face. Then I walk into the back room and sign some papers for accomodation I just got (the people in line already did all the registration and paperwork, but had to pay, get maps, etc) and walk out. It took about an hour for me. This is the efficiency of the Italian system.

I have two roomates right now, but will possibly get one more. And it's great - I'm in a double room, and my roommate is German, and speaks very little english. So the best way for us to communicate is in Italian! Crazy. It's even better in the classroom. Today for one of my classes I sat beside a Polish Priest. His english was non-existant, and we're both trying to learn Italian and communicate to each other. Pretty damn cool. Sure beats class at the U of C.

Pictures are coming later tonight. I'll put them where they belong in each post, and take you on a quick tour of my apartment.

Ryan Air

I thought it would be appropriate to pass on my Ryan Air experience. It's one of those low-cost carriers, only really low cost. I mean it.

For example, they don't have computers. They check your printout of a web-reciept against their handwritten list. Then they proceed to write down your name on another sheet (a flight list, in case the plane crashes perhaps?) and my number was 36. All it meant was I was 36th in line or something. They don't give you seat numbers, it's kind of a free-for-all.

On the flight itself, they come down the ailes and sell you stuff. I got offered beer, wine, hard alcohol, food, lottery tickets, chance to win an Audi, bus tickets at the final destination, and was even asked to donate to chairty.

They use airports like London Ontario, where you walk out on to the tarmac. And things seem mostly safe, except when I got off the rear of the plane and theres no real obvious place to go, I couldnt have walked under the plan if I wanted. And other planes were really close by...

But hey, for a flight across Europe for $1 plus taxes, I wont complain.

Concert in Rome

I made it to Rome alright, and luckily had booked a hostel for two nights because most places were full. I guess otherwise I would have slept in the train station. Looked like it would have been nicer than that bench in Tokyo... The first picture is my hostel. I'm in a room with 12 beds on one wall and 12 lockers on the other wall. It's pretty much a hallway with not room to pass anther person. But it works.

So what do I find on my first day in Rome, but a free Bryan Adams and Billy Joel concert. It was at the Colosseum and I was all excited to sit where the Romans did and listen to Summer of '69. But because it's so small, the Colosseum was only the backdrop, and the stage faced down a long street with hundreds of thousands of people watching. It was a pretty dramatic backdrop for a 'rock concert.'

And what would it be without pick-pockets? I actually caught a guy with his hand trying to un-velcro my pocket. He let go all innocently and completely ignored me. I was with two friends from the hostel (A Mexican and American) and so I warned them immediatly. But otherwise what do you do? Shout 'Polizia'? I was tempted to give him the map in my pocket he was trying to pick, but I kinda wanted it to get home.

It was a pretty good concert overall, with a Billy rounding out the second encore by playing Piano Man. I wonder if Billy or Bryan are Christians, because it would have made an even better show to have some lions come running out...