Days 65, 66, 67 (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday)

            Tuesday was beautiful.  Unlike yesterday, I had a rain-free run.  We had a discussion day in art ed of various issues that arise in the art classroom.  I began my final project in bookmaking.  I actually changed my mind about illustrating the children’s story for my final project.  I am still going to do that, but not as my final project because I decided my final project should be completely by me.  Instead, I am going to make an obnoxiously fat book (fat because it has so many pages sewn in) inspired by the antique objects I have collected at the antique markets I have visited.  (I am making a fat book only because I like the overall aesthetic of a book overflowing with pages).  I am planning to collage the cover with pages and drawings from the antique children’s Latin school book in addition to the vintage photographs, which are also going to be integrated throughout the pages of the book.  The pages themselves are a sepia hue, which in itself appears antique.  The overall theme of my project is going to combine the concept of time and history with the idea of memory.  There is also an element of anonymity considering that I am using only artifacts of individuals who I do not know or have any relationship with.  There is still a lot of room to push this project in a slightly different direction, but I am quite excited at where it is headed.  After book making, I went on a wonderful walk before dinner.  Our fearless leader and program director, Rick, has returned to us from working on administrative stuff in the states for several weeks, so it was nice to have him back at dinner.  His 64^th birthday is coming up soon before we leave Cortona, and he is throwing a Beatles-theme party for everyone in the program on his birthday.  This is of course because of the song, “When I’m 64.”  Everyone has to dress up like a Beatles song.  I still am not sure about what song to be.  We have all be contemplating this since the day we arrived in Cortona when Rick forewarned us about this birthday event.  If anyone has any ideas of how I can dress up like Rocky Raccoon or Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds or any other song, please let me know as soon as possible!  I will gladly accept all suggestions. 

            Wednesday was another picture-perfect day.  It was particularly difficult to concentrate on homework.  I decided to bring my art history notes outside to study, but of course I was distracted by all the flowers, dandelions, passers-by, and cats roaming around.  In the afternoon, my art ed class went on a special excursion to visit the school we would be working with the following week during their day devoted to the arts.  I was picturing a school much bigger than the one in Cortona, but it was more or less the same size.  It was right down the mountain from Cortona, in the middle of a grove of olive trees.  The third graders, (the class I will be teaching) was in the middle of recess when we arrived, and they were the loudest, craziest children I have ever seen.  However, they were so excited to see us at their school.  When my co-teacher and I made it into their classroom with them, all twenty-two of them huddled around us asking us all sorts of questions.  I was proud that I recognized a few of the questions from my limited Italian vocabulary:  When is your birthday?  How old are you?  Do you have brothers or sisters?  What are your favorite colors?  How do you spell your name?  Do you like cake?  Do you know Lady Gaga?  Or Barak Obama?  Unlike our small class of twelve in Cortona, this class was mostly boys, which might have been the reason for the overall rambunctiousness of all the kids.  It was really fun to (attempt) to talk with them.  I wish we had more than one day of art making with them.  Their school was completely adorable and colorful.  I felt at home here.  Back in Cortona, I went on another walk (IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL) and then later on for art history, we had a scavenger hunt in the history museum in Cortona.  I had no idea how gigantic this museum was.  I had never explored it before.  I soon realized that a scavenger hunt was not a good way to properly explore the museum because everyone was racing to get done with the scavenger hunt first.  (The first group to finish would receive extra credit).  Each group had a list of things we had been studying in class to find and take a picture of.  Items on the list included a Franciscan and Dominican monk, a Madonna and Child, a sculpture in a contrapposto pose, a painting displaying linear and atmospheric perspective, a roman column…The competitive spirit was fun, but I want to go back to the museum when I have enough time to properly explore this amazing place.  When my friends and I all finished the scavenger hunt, we all treated ourselves to some well-deserved gelato.  (This time I had melon, strawberry, and yogurt together.  So delicious.)  It was definitely a perfect pre-dinner snack. 

            Thursday I went on another great run.  Each morning, I usually see the same people in the same places depending on my route for the day.  Even though I do not know their names, we all wave at each other; there is such friendly interaction between everyone in Cortona.  Before heading back up to the school building, I stocked up on my usual red peppers, pink lady apples, tomatoes, carrots, zucchini, and broccoli from the wonderful produce people.  It has been such a treat to be eating such fresh produce.  Everything is grown locally and the produce people (I still have to learn their names) are the kindest people I have met.  They are always amused that I come right after my run, panting, sweaty, and out of breath.  But as far as I know, they do not seem to mind.  I was quite proud in painting today, when my painting teacher, as kooky and crazy as she is, told me that my painting had grown a lot this semester.  I feel that my artwork has gotten stronger here in Cortona, and it is especially nice that my teacher noticed this.  Later on in the day, I went into town to study in a café, although I did more people-watching than actual art history studying.  Once again, a group of us got a pre-dinner treat of gelato…it is becoming quite a bad habit craving gelato at this time of day; I figure though that we only have a few more weeks left here, so we might as well make use of the wonderful gelato while we have it.  This time I had some mixed berry and lemon together, which was actually very refreshing.  The only problem was that it had gotten significantly colder, and we were all shivering on our way to dinner.  Luckily, we had soup (my favorite!) at dinner, so everything worked out in the end.  The one last significant moment of this particular Thursday was that in the middle of dinner, Rick, (our director) called me out on my running.  For some reason, all the teachers had just received a gigantic chocolate egg from an anonymous gift giver (maybe they were on sale because it was now post-Easter).  Rick apparently did not want his, because he stood up in the middle of our dining area, and announced that he was going to give his chocolate egg to the person who was able to run to the town down the mountain and back in the shortest possible time or any time at all.  And he proclaimed, “That person is Hannah!” and handed me his egg.  As many of you can imagine, my face was BRIGHT red.  

Days 63 and 64 (Sunday and Monday)

Sunday was quite dreary all day.  It rained non-stop from the time I woke up.  I am just glad that we had a rain-free day in Florence.  Even though I never actually left our building, I made myself be productive all day long.  I painted for hours and hours and I am excited about how my newest painting is turning out.  I am juxtaposing a pepper with my own limbs (legs and feet) in a fresh color palette and composition.  I especially like the juxtaposition because it truly makes one doubt whether or not the other form is in fact a vegetable at all.  After painting, I met with one of my friends who is writing a children’s book for her creative writing class.  We came up with the idea of doing a collaborative project, where I illustrate her story and make it into a book.  It is the first project idea that I am enthusiastic about for my final project, although it is completely different from anything I was considering before.  Her story personifies colors, kind of like the children’s book, “Little Blue and Little Yellow.”  I am not sure what medium well best suit this illustration endeavor, but I began sketching with markers and ink.  I am very curious to see where this project will go.  For the final hours before dinner, I literally hand-washed all my clothes.  I laid them on the heaters throughout my room and the rest of the entire upper story of our building to dry.  For dinner that evening, I went with my usual dinner group to explore a new restaurant.  We had one in mind that we pass each day; it had caught our eye with its beautiful pots of flowers all along the outside.  However, when we walked in, the owner turned us down.  I am pretty sure he said we could not eat there if we did not have a reservation because they were full.  However, the restaurant looked quite empty to me…regardless, we kept on walking and found another restaurant a little further on that was entirely adorable and quaint from top to bottom, complete with a stone fire place and very low wooden ceilings.  I was worried I was going to bump my head as we climbed the creaky staircase to eat on the balcony area.  I ordered the ribolita, which is an extremely hearty and thick vegetable soup.  It is so thick because it is filled with hunks of bread soaking in the soup.  It is actually known as “poor-man’s soup” because one can get such a filling meal with such simple ingredients.  We had one slight faux-pas at this restaurant.  As a couple sat down at the table next to us, we noticed that the woman had a ridiculously huge clip of fake hair on her head that looked completely obnoxious.  We were talking about how awful it looked until we realized the couple was speaking English to each other…so who knows how of our conversation they heard.  Oh well.  The servers here were particularly friendly and gave us a huge discount on our bill.  Yay for saving money!  Despite the rain, this was another delightful end to my week.   

            Even though it was still raining on Monday, I went on a fantastic rain before lunch.  In painting, I decided to make one more huge larger than life-size canvas for my last painting of the semester.  It was slightly sad taking my first gigantic painting off the stretcher bars, but hopefully another wonderful painting will come out in the process.  I am growing more and more wary at the thought of having to ship all the paintings home.  It is going to be the most tedious process ever…but I do not have to officially think about for another week or two.  Monday late afternoon, Jeanette and I explored as many shops as we could around Cortona because neither of us had been inside most of them.  Although Cortona was still extremely crowded because Monday is still considered Easter, we were still able to wander through the abundance of leather shops, jewelry stores, ceramic stores, shoe stores, and clothing boutiques.  The ceramic stores here are my favorite; ceramics are very popular in many parts of Italy, so these types of stores are very prevalent in all the towns we visit.  However, none of them were as quaint as the ones in Cortona.  I fell in love with the little bowls and teacups and salt and pepper shakers and honey jars…Jeanette and I were both frustrated by the large amount of American voices we heard, all tourists.  It is because we feel very possessive over Cortona now.  It is such a special place, and we do not want to share it with those that do not fully appreciate it.  Or at least, that is how I feel.  After also falling in love with several pairs of sandals, scarves, and delicious smelling perfumes, we made our way to dinner.  (We had spinach as our side course!  Yes!)  

Day 62 (SATURDAY!!!)

          On Saturday, my friends Jeanette, Charlotte, and I decided to go to Florence for the day.  We actually did not make this decision this very morning; we had been planning our mini-trip from the beginning of the week.  We had already purchased our bus and train tickets.  We had to take a bus from Cortona to the train station in Camucia.  From there, we would take the train to Florence.  Because we were slightly confused about the bus schedule, we missed our first train to Florence, which delayed our trip by an hour.  However, we eventually made it to Florence.  It felt so good to return to this beautiful and historically rich city.  It felt good to already be so familiar with it and how the city is laid out.  The day was perfect.  Our first stop was the famous Zecchi’s, the art store in Florence where two months ago, I spent a small fortune on art supplies.  Afterwards, I remembered there was an American book store (American meaning that the entire store was in English) a block away from the art store.  We spent a long time perusing through the shelves; it was refreshing to see so many English titles.  I decided to by a used book, because I can never have enough to read in Cortona.  As we were making our purchases, I noticed a flyer that read, “Mama’s Bakery.”  I asked the shopkeepers about it, and they urged us to go visit it.   It was a bakery that was across the river, and they had BAGELS!  We were all thrilled with this news, because we had not seen bagels in FOREVER!  I truly thought they did not exist in Italy.  We planned to eat lunch there later that afternoon.  Before that, however, we visited the San Marco Monastery, which is now a museum.  It was probably the coolest art historical thing I have seen since Michelangelo’s David.  San Marco was a Dominican monastery, and you can explore each of the numerous monks’ cells in the upper story where there is a fresco painted in each one by the artist (and monk member) Fra Angelica, a major Renaissance artist that we are studying in art history.  As you walked in each tiny room, you could see a beautiful fresco depicting some scene Jesus’ life.  During the times of the monastery, the monks would rotate rooms, and would stay in a room containing a fresco that was most appropriate to the circumstances of their life at that point in time.  Walking through the monastery, we realized you could definitely see similarities to the structure of our own monastery that we live in, although we have no frescoes on our walls, and much more spacious rooms.  It was such an interesting visit to see San Marco.  Afterwards, we explored the large markets of Florence, where vendors are selling all sorts of leather goods, from bags and jackets to journals and sandals.  We eventually made our way across the river and following our map, found a very deserted part of town where the bakery was supposed to be.  We were losing hope that we would never find it, when we turned a corner, and there it was!  Despite its remote location in Florence, this bakery far exceeded our expectations.  It was obvious that people knew about this place, because it was bustling with people eating.  In addition to its very cute interior decoration, I was so excited to see that not only did they serve bagels, they had all the essentials of an American coffee shop: muffins, chocolate chip cookies, brownies, cupcakes, and American-style coffee.  I had never realized how much I missed all of this stuff (and I definitely was not thinking of how un-Passover friendly everything was…all chamutz!)  I had a delicious grilled vegetable and melted cheese sandwich on a sesame bagel.  So wonderful.  And I decided a muffin and a chocolate chip cookie to go would not hurt.  The owners (who were American) were so friendly.  I am ninety-nine percent sure they were Jewish because they had a collection of Jewish cookbooks all along the shelves of the bakery (and they looked Jewish).  There was actually one cookbook that I want to look for when I get home.  If anyone wants to do research on it for me, it is called “Secrets of a Jewish Baker” by George Greenstein.  It is a collection of bread recipes and explanations on them from around the world.  I realized I had not even mentioned what challah was to anyone since I had been here, so I gave a detailed explanation to Jeannette and Charlotte about challah and Shabbat in general, mostly because I missed that so much.  After our perfect lunch, we spent the later half of our afternoon shopping and exploring.  Florence was PACKED with people that day.  At some points it was slightly overwhelming with how many people there were.  Before our train ride home, we bought some gelato (of course I got a combination of mixed berry and mango flavors).  The only slightly nerve-wracking part of our day was when on the train ride home, one of the train conductors told us that we never validated our train tickets (we did not realize we had to do that) and the penalty for that is a large fine!  We were nervous as he starting writing out a ticket for us (kind of like a speeding ticket), but then because he probably assumed we were dumb Americans, only fined us five Euros each, as opposed to the monstrous fine.  PHEW!  When we got back to the train station, we caught the last bus back to Cortona and made our way back to the school.  The day was quite an adventure!  

Days 60 and 61 (Thursday and Friday)

            I cannot believe it is already April!  Yikes!  This morning I woke up to a note that was posted that stated that in honor of the upcoming holidays (not Passover, rather, Easter) the archbishop was coming to visit and bless our school.  Thus we were told to dress nicely, and if we happen to encounter the archbishop, to courtesy and kiss his ring and when speaking to him, use the title, “Your Eminence.”  I of course thought this was so exciting, so I made sure to actually shower when I got back from my run and pick out a nice outfit.  In painting, my teacher was excited too, because she had all our best work displayed nicely for when the archbishop was going to come see our studio.  Sadly, however, he never came.  Much to my and my painting teacher’s disappointment, the whole thing was an April Fool’s Day prank.  As many of you can imagine, it took me a long time to fully understand the fact that it was a prank.  I guess most people realized this right away, due to the tone of the note that was posted.  But of course, it took me the whole day with many people blatantly telling me it was a prank.  I am still slightly confused about it. 

            Friday was GORGEOUS!  I had a wonderful run, although class today was a struggle, because all anyone wanted to do was play and frolic outside.  In art ed, we are preparing for our additional art teaching day in a much larger elementary school outside of Cortona.  Although we still have one teaching day left in Cortona after the Easter festivities come to a close, after, we have a day planned to go down to the neighboring town of Camucia where the school has a full day devoted to the arts.  The art ed class is going to be driven there for a few hours to teach an art project and eat lunch with everyone after.  Although this is not for a couple weeks, we are planning now to get ready.  In book making, we actually went back to paper making temporarily and did a paper making project using abaca with the visiting professor, Zena (the woman who grows her own garden of fibers and dyes).  Abaca is a fun fiber to work with because as the paper dries, the fibers shrink, thus pulling and stretching the sheet of paper in various directions creating a rippling, sculptural effect.  It takes a few days for the abaca to fully dry, so I have yet to see the ending result of the sheets I made.  Later that night after dinner (where I by accidentally sat at the Italian table and had to make use of my extremely limited vocabulary, which was more or less the word gratzie) there was a  GIGANTIC procession throughout all of Cortona for the holiday of Good Friday.  This is a very important event for everyone here.  People come from all over to participate or watch.  It was very much worth the long wait in the cold we had to endure before it started.  The procession consisted of huge groups of monks, each group in their respective robes and hoods, carrying a huge, much larger than life statue on a big pedestal.  There was a large number of these groups processing by, each carrying a different statue.  As the statues went by, I realized that they were illustrating the story of Jesus.  The entire effect was extremely eerie because the monks were all hooded in a Ku Klux Klan-like fashion, even though the two groups are not at all related.  The statues they carried together loomed above everyone in a ghost-like way.  All sorts of prayers were being chanted.  In the middle of the procession, an actual archbishop marched through (no April Fool’s prank!)  At the end of the procession, a group of hooded nuns carried the large statue of the mourning Mary, and following them there was a marching band playing various funeral tunes.  I was in complete awe of how the entire community came together for this major holiday and city-wide procession.  (I was also amazed at how the monks carried these 10-foot tall statues and even larger crosses up and down the steep hills of Cortona.  They must have some major upper-arm strength and incredible balance).  Every single member of Cortona, from the very young infants, to the very oldest people were there, either in the procession itself, or watching it go by.  Anyone had the option of joining in and processing with all the monks and nuns and everyone.  This was a time where I realized that it was a very special moment to be here in Italy; I could never imagine anything like this happening at home.  

Days 57, 58, 59 (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday)

            Monday before we could do anything, we had to double check the bus and train schedule for Elli and Lauren’s journey onward to Florence.  To get to the travel office in Cortona, you have to go through this glass-tube door.  It reminds me of the cylindrical tubes that money comes out of at drive-through banks, except it was (of course) human scale, complete with blinking lights and colorful buttons as one side facing the outside opened and closed, you stepped in, and then the other side opened for you to step into the office.  The actual travel office experience was not anything remarkable…but that glass tube door was beyond thrilling.  Because my favorite produce people are closed on Sundays, I was extremely eager to take Elli and Lauren to one of my fruit and vegetable market, which very well may be one of my favorite locations in town.  When the date for our art exhibition comes closer, I plan on inviting the produce people to come.  I believe I should learn their names; that will be my task for this week.  After buying some delightful produce, I took Elli and Lauren to our grocery store in town, Mollesini’s, where they can make you incredibly delicious and cheap sandwiches to go (remember that amazing sandwich I had a few days ago…)  Now fully stocked with food, we went on another beautiful walk along the mountain before they had to head down to the train station.  It was beyond wonderful to have Elli here…and in just a month we will be reunited again in Paris! 

            After Elli and Lauren took off on the bus, my Monday resumed to its usual activities.  I had painting, where in my critique, both my class and my teacher loved my pepper with the bold background stripes.  I plan to apply this concept of the push and pull of the flat brush strokes with the gestural brush strokes in future paintings.  That night at dinner, I was slightly homesick because it is the first night of Passover, and I was missing all the seders going on at home.  It was the first time I wished that I could zoom home for a seder and then come right back to Cortona.  As for keeping Passover in Cortona, I will not be as strict as I usually am, only due to the lack of Passover foods available here.  I am collecting ingredients to make my own charoset, although I have not made it yet.  I only wish there was some way I could have some fried matzah…That evening, we had a mandatory meeting the mapped out the schedule of our LAST month in Cortona.  We discussed logistics of our upcoming art show in town and then the processes of shipping home artwork, which I quickly learned is going to be a very tedious process, especially because I have such large paintings.  Either way, everyone is in shock that we are leaving our beloved town in only four weeks to travel on to Venice before the program ends.  I am trying not to think about that.

            Tuesday and Wednesday both started out with fantastic runs.  The weather has been perfect.  Tuesday was filled with class: art ed and book making.  I have to start thinking about my final project in book making, and I still have no idea what I want to do yet.  I have been focused so far on making books look perfect; I have not at all been thinking about applying meaning to them, to give them more significance than just being a precious object.   If anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear them.  Tuesday night at dinner, another Jewish girl on my program, Julie, and I had a brief seder at our table.  We recited the four questions, and explained the significance and story of Passover to the people at our table.  We recited the plagues with our drops of wine, sang Dayeinu, and even saved a cup of wine for Elisah.  Although it was brief and lacked any matzah, it was just what I needed to have some Passover here in Cortona.  That night after dinner, we had our final faculty presentations; this time they were given by Tricia, the English professor, and a woman named Zena, who is a visiting artist who specializes in paper making.  I was fascinated with Zena’s presentation because she has her own beautiful luscious gardens where she grows her own fibers, flowers, and plants to make her own fibers to make paper and dyes.  She brought some examples of the paper she makes, and they smelled so good because they were made of flowers.  She made me want to stop everything I was doing a plant a huge flower garden.

            Wednesday, I was as productive as possible until art history that evening.  Dinner was especially exciting that night because, I had happened to forget to bring my vegetarian card that tells the servors to not give me the meat option.  However, the meat option that night was actually salmon!  Yay!  I had not had salmon since I had been in Italy, so it was especially delicious.  To everyone celebrating Passover, I hope it is joyous and exciting.  

Day 56 (Sunday)

            Today was my day of being an official Cortona tour guide.  It felt good being able to show off the beautiful place I had been living and prove of its existence to Elli and Lauren.  In the morning, because it was Palm Sunday, there was a community procession throughout the town starting with a ceremony at the church at the bottom of the hill.  It was cool to see people of all ages in the procession singing together: young children, teenagers, younger and older couples, families....After we watched everyone go by, Elli, Lauren and I went on a gorgeous walk through the park and around the mountain.  When we got back to Cortona, we explored the exciting antique market that Cortona has the last Sunday of each month.  Once again, there was beautiful jewelry, lace, ceramics, toys, books, and other assortments of objects to touch and look at.  I fell in love with an antique box filled with an old collection of watercolor paints.  I took Elli and Lauren to everything that was open that afternoon: my favorite bread bakery, the thrift store, the chocolate shop, my favorite boutique…eventually we sat and had lunch at one of the many cafes in Cortona.  The guy who owned the café had a very exciting British accent that was far more interesting than any accent from the U.S.  It was a cozy café that had just opened up for the warm spring season.  In speaking of the warm spring season, we had just changed our clocks one hour later, so the whole day I felt I was an hour off.  After lunch, we had some delicious gelato, and wandered around Cortona some more.  Then, I brought Elli and Lauren to our monastery for a little tour.  I showed them around our quaint building and the beautiful studio where I paint, in addition to a mini painting exhibition of my work so far. 

            For dinner that night, a group of girls from my program joined us for an amazing dinner at a restaurant that has been recommended to us by everyone in my program who had eaten there so far.  The restaurant was slightly hidden, and none of us knew the actual name of the restaurant; we only knew that it was owned by a nice man named Mario.  Luckily, we stumbled upon it.  The restaurant was barely large enough to seat the seven of us.  After looking at the menu, Mario told us he would make us a couple pasta dishes for all of us to share as a table.  Our first dish was a simple, but completely delectable penne with a savory tomato, garlic, and basil sauce.  Our second dish was even better: it was a tortellini dish stuffed and tossed with savory zucchini.  We loved it so much, that we ordered a second dish of this kind.  For dessert, Mario insisted that we have some tiramisu.  Now, ordinarily, I do not like tiramisu at all, especially because I do not like the flavor of coffee.  However, this tiramisu was something wonderful, because I split a whole piece with Elli, and I could have had an entire additional piece for myself, but I was stuffed.  Food clearly fills my days with endless happiness.  

Days 54 and 55 (Friday and Saturday)

            Friday was another long day of classes filled with art ed planning, book making, and art history.  We somehow got on the topic of gruesome stories in book making and my book making teacher told us the most disgusting story of a time she was stitching a book while in bed but she dropped her needle and could not find it.  Eventually she went to bed.  The next day, she noticed a sharp pain in her shoulder and felt a prick on the surface of her skin.  Apparently, she rolled over the needle in her sleep, and it got stuck in her body!  She ended up having to get major surgery because it began moving around inside her body near her heart.  I could not stop shuddering for the rest of class while stitching my own book.  After dinner that evening, a group of us was taking a walk when an American family (a husband, wife, toddler, and baby) behind us heard us talking and asked us if we were vacationing.  After we explained that we were studying art here for the semester, the man excitedly exclaimed that he was a painter who had come to Cortona to paint landscapes for the next month.  He teaches art at a University in California, but brought his family here for a painting sabbatical of sorts.  His name is Bryan Mark Taylor (look up his artwork, it is beautiful) and he agreed to come visit our painting class in the upcoming weeks. 

            Saturday we went on our field trip to Assisi and Perugia.  Assisi is known for its famous cathedral dedicated to the Franciscan order, where St. Francis (my personal favorite saint of all time) is buried.  The church has two levels, and on the upper level, there is an ornate fresco order illustrating the life of St. Francis.  The town itself is very touristy, but probably for good reason: once again, I loved wandering through the stone alleyways, staircases, and streets.  I decided to buy my one and only touristy item here, which was a set of St. Francis salt and pepper shakers (I could not resist).  In the churches we explored here, I was fascinated with not only taking in the breathtaking artwork, but also the numerous rituals performed by the many nuns, monks, and other people praying in the church.  There are so many different gestures and movements that go along with the prayers that it was hard to keep track of them all from my people watching. 

            At noon, we boarded the buses to go on to Perugia.  The buses took us to a metro station.  To get into the city, we had to take these tiny mini-metros.  They were adorable small individual metro cars that move on what looks like a roller coaster track from stop to stop, until we made it to the older part of Perugia.  Perugia is famous for being the birth place of Bacci chocolate, a very popular type of chocolate in Italy.  Because of that, there were fancy chocolate shops every few feet, displaying beautiful chocolates in all varieties, in addition to giant chocolate eggs for Easter.  (These chocolate eggs are everywhere, not just chocolate shops…grocery stores…even produce stands!)  Although I did not end up buying any chocolate myself (some people bought a lifetime supply it seemed) it was fun wandering in each shop.  I actually got in trouble in one of the more snobby stores for touching cute little chocolate boxes, thus ignoring the Do Not Touch signs.  Later in Perugia, a group of us ate a delicious lunch at a restaurant.  Tables were set up in the middle of a wide street, with shops lining up along the street on either side of us.  It was fun to eat in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the city going by.  I ordered an AMAZING grilled pepper pizza…maybe the best pizza I have eaten so far?  It is a tough call.  I also had some amazing gelato in Perugia…it was a combination of fresh pear (basically, it was like the experience of eating a frozen pear) with lemon…so refreshing!  We did a lot of wandering: we stumbled on a book store with a huge English section, the biggest pastry shop I have ever seen, and a candy store (Perugians apparently like their sweets) with an exciting wall filed with a million different varieties of colorful fruity gummies.  After taking the mini metro back to our bus, we headed back to Cortona.  I was really anxious to get back because Elli was coming to visit for the next couple days and I had no idea when or how she was arriving.  In Cortona, I thought that every curly haired person walking along the streets could be Elli.  I told some girls from my program to ask around for Elli just in case.  Later, from the limited communication we had, I was worried she would be stuck forever in Camucia, the town adjacent to Cortona, but all the way down the mountain.  Luckily, a wonderful taxi driver picked her and her friend Lauren up from the train station and they made it to Cortona safely.  Phew.