Addios Perugia

We couldn't believe this was the last week at Perugia. It seemed like just yesterday when we first arrived on a stuffy hot Sunday, when we cleaned out the cubby hole at 19 Via Colombo Antonietti, and how I've struggled with the iscrizione all' universita' and the merda di permesso di soggiorno. We got our test results back on martedi (cos Rita was lazy to mark all) and everyone did quite well (cos she was lenient and distracted with her cat, mamma, tv, weather, ecc). Anyway I didn't care less, as far as I know, I did my best and I did good. L was my best gauge, and said my italiano has gone up the roof specialmente with the parolaccia (I can even swear in napolitano now!)

I popped by the secretariat all'universita to collect the last bit of the scholarship money and paid 10e for the attestato di frequenza (cert of attendance), plus another 7e for postage and 14,62e for the miseria marca da bollo. We all couldn't believe how much shit and add-on expenses there are to everything here. On mercoledi, L's cugino Angelo came by to stay with us after his year-long stint in the militaria at nearby Viterbo. Angelo's a bit of a madcap but at times a shy quiet boy, you never know what to expect.

Anyway we brought him to a farewell cena with my classmates at Da Mi Coco (only 13e); there were 11 of us, most of the Japanese girls, Mic, Paola, L and me. Angelo was instantly attracted to Yuko Prima and I think she also found him cute, because they were soon posing for foto together and having a private sigaretta pausa. Ooh la la. Angelo said that he had invited Y to come visit him anytime at Napoli and she said she'd come with us that venerdi when we'd leave together! Talk about being interested!

We ate and drank to our hearts' content, poi braced the windy cold outside for a nightcap at a bar. The next day, L, A and I took off to nearby Foligno (40mins away) for the festa dei primi piatti d'italia, our 4th sagra of summer 2008. There were various 'tasting villaggi' spread out across this flat-footed town, come Toscana, Umbria, Veneto, ecc. Our first pitstop was for gnocchi and fresh tagliatelle, plus a whole bottiglia of vino rosso to chase away the cold. Brr, it was freakin' freddo when the wind blew hard.

We then trotted down to 'Veneto' to load up on free formaggio, birra, badges and pencils before signing up for the 7e degustazione menu of the regione's famoso polenta and risotto. Still hungry, we dug into a portion of lasagne al tartufo and free samples of cheese, cioccolato and biscotti given out at the night gourmet market. Foligno was buzzing, man. Everywhere else seemed more interesting than Perugia!