Talking about that...

I remember the first time when I tried to talk to people about Perugia, people who never lived here. Outsiders. And I realized I couldn't. People nagging me about what's happening, asking for a story and I just stayed mute. I tried to talk in the beginning but then I realized there is a serious communications breakdown happening. Later I changed my habits and started to talk about something totally casual. After some time I realized a lot of us are haunted by this strange sensation. The mystery of it never stopped coming back to me.

Why? Could it be that we cannot talk of things because there is nothing real here anymore? Nothing that truely exist? Nothing? What if the old city has been dead for centuries by now, without anybody noticing it? And now as we love and caress it there is nothing else we hold between our arms, but a two thousand year old mummy? Maybe the only living things left here are the human beings that are called here by the darkness that lives in the middle of the mountain, called from different places of the globe, and then they are left alone wandering around in the dark mist of the Valley of the Shadows. Our eyes clouded by fog, our hearts filled with despair. We just float around like the particles of physical gas, people who rarely find one an other but when they finally do, they really stick together, gaining reassurance by feeling the light of other living creatures, because it really helps to keep the nothingness, that surrounds us, away. Little fireflies in the night. Chains, strange forms, circles of light. Maybe that's why we come here. The spectacle of light is always clearer in the darkness. We can see the beauty, the shining of the soul much better in this ethernal valley of the Umbras. A merry christmas to everyone. I love you my friends, this post is for all of you who enlightened my life.
(this picture is temporary i'll replace it as soon as I get my laptop back on the 11th of january)

Santa magic

As one walks it's path down the road in the twilight, as the end of the year approaches we sink deep down into our thoughts thinking about all the things we have done. Maybe in a way of good and bad, of darkness and light, how much harmony was there in the melodies we sang, how much hope we have left and how much love we could find, if we would just have the courage to look up a bit, and not just walk blindly onward down the path, on this twilight road.

Memories

We don't have memories. In Perugia the past the present and the future are all mixing up into a big mass of existance. The substance is a bit nubbly and in occasional moments we find fragments of our memories lurking behind the corner, attacking us with a sudden clearness that seams bewildering. Like little drops of the truth that is being witheld from us because the ever happening town doesn't let our mind focus on anything but our momentary social life. We are damned and blessed people without past and not thinking about the future. We are cripled by this way of life as much as we are gifted with it. The city wasn't built for us, it was built for people who leaved deep down in the sewers of history, but now we are using it, we live amongst it's aged stone walls, we walk on the labyrinth of it's roads each of us following our own personal Ariadne's thread, blindly holding on to our individual fates. This alters our perceptions too. We are living in a dream. And the dream is true. As I make my long conversations walking on the streets of perugia I realize, everybody relates to this town. Few can resist it's magnetic charm, and yet only a few can stand it for a long time. The photo here was taken right in front of the church of Monteluce. May peace rule the world.

Via Brunacci - Il cielo e sempre piu blu

Light and darkness can be devided sharply or softly... The harsh climate of the mountains of the shadows doesn't really leave a lot of room for the grey place between black and white. Our world is changing even though our Perugia in it doesn't. Recent studies suggest that global warming is happening even much faster then the previously anticipated worst case scenario. The permafrost lands in Siberia are melting, and thus letting loose a huge amount of metan in the atmosphere, greater and greater every day. The iceacapes are disappearing, suggesting that in about 10 years this planet won't have permanent icecapes, just seasonal ones... The seasons are getting divided as sharply as does the light in umbria... When you wake up the morning you can see the ever warming weather battleing with the air coming from the poles, the air that is cooled down by the melting ice. You can never know which will prevail, the collapsing summer or the desperately rampaging cold that gets nastier and nastier as it feels it's end closing up on it. This was a beautifull day, leaves getting yellow, and the people slowly walking on the streets, leaving there car behind as they are approaching the centro storico. So shall we arrive there soon as well. Yes a good omen we always need, because winter is coming soon. I can feel it.

Walking - bony hands in the dark

Friendly, you might think the trees are, when you start your walk to the city. Autumn has it's tolls, and life is slowly diminishing from the leaves, but in the light the shining colours of autumn are a joyfull view. After nightfall everything changes. The naked branches seem to be moving, trying to grab you, try to stop you, to not let you pass. You can only hope to reach the pale light that shines from a faraway house, shelter from the wreckless wind that blows between these mountains. 

- A - 

The arrival - spotting the city

Kindest follower,

in "Perugia Photos" first autumn sequel I invite you to take a walk with me from the outskirts of Perugia, from Monteluce, the mountain of light, to the core of Perugia, Perusia Augusta, Perusia vecchia, the ancient town, the meeting point of the shadows that are always lurking in Umbria. The City lies between it's aged walls, some of whom were erected even before the counting of time began in these lands. And they are still standing proudly, well preserved, virtually unchanged by the constant sieg of the tides of the ages. They had withstood these attacks so well, that even today on almost no other gap then the old gates it is possible to enter or exit this cage, this anthill of lost souls.
The traveller who first sets his eyes on the City in a sunset, like this, might wonder if he has left the surely bounds of reality behind him and set foot on the shores of a tale that is about to happen. The town is magnetic, you can hear it whispering in your head, you can feel it after a while as an entity, as a person as a friend as an enemy, as your love. The adventure grows more and more exciting after the first quick flirts with the City, and as the game intensifies, it sooner or later changes everybody but the blindest or the most callous hearted. Few can resist few can stay insentient. Can you?
Well a lot had been told today, and much more hadn't. Let's take some rest, maybe a good night's sleep shall we, before we continue this journey to the heart of this charming little place?

-a-

A new Era

After months of silence and a long wait a new era has come. The october sun is fading and winter is creeping upon us. The dark shadows are getting longer during the nights, the silence of the city in the cold hours after midnight is torturing our brains if we dare to listen to it through the drunkness we force upon ourselfs to escape this reality. Myriam has left so it's upon me to run this blog if I can. So try to get through the distance my kind reader, through the pointy bars, try to penetrate through this fake window through the thick walls that lie between your reality and ours, who live and fight to stay alive, here in Perugia, mystic city. Or WTF. The picture was taken on the way to Monteluce, one day before the arrival of the big cold. The cold that shall rule our life for quite some time from now on.
A.

Giotto

Giotto di Bondone, San Francesco feeding the birds from the lost polyptych of Siena

Tempietto

The San Michele Arcangelo Church, commonly called Tempietto, is the oldest church in Perugia. With a circular Paleochristian groundwork from the end of the V century or beginning of the VI century, the same internal structure as the San Stefano Rotondo Church in Rom, and its gothic front door from the XIV century, this tempietto is a pure visual surprise at the end of Corso Garibaldi. An isolated place in an extreme part of the city where silence, peace and spirituality emerge at the most!

Arco etrusco

Archi

Mitica Cinquecento

Not in Perugia but it could be as you can find Fiat Cinquecento more and more when you go down South Italy...

Vertical vs. Horizontal

Beyond the trees, the university of Perugia...

Dante

"Intra tupino e l'acqua che discende del colle eletto del beato Ubaldo

Fertile costa d'alto monte pende,

Onde Perugia sente freddo e caldo

Da Porta Sole..."

"Between a sand martin and the water that flows down the elect pass of the blessed Ubaldo

Fertile cost of the high slope mount,

Where Perugia feels cold and warm

From Porta Sole..."

Divina Commedia, Paradiso XI

Terrace!

... Because Perugia is not only made of arches and stairs but also by some private terrace right in the centre...!

Stairs and arches

Perugian equation: stairs + arches = città affascinante!

The Hottest City In Italy

Today, it was said that Perugia and Roma are the two hottest cities in Italy. And precisely now, it's exactly 29,5°C, not bad... not bad!

The sun is shining while the nature is giving its best, what a dream team!

Outdoor Life

The weather getting always hotter and hotter, people get more curious to what is happening outside... 

This old man stayed at least one hour in his balcony watching and glazing on the few passing people on Via Maturanzio.

Well, how do I know that?

I might have stayed staring at him for more than an hour too while enjoying my first sunbathing!

But do not think people are all enjoying the sun.... most of the windows blinds are down the whole day... hopefully to keep the cool inside!

Sad, isn't it?

Holy Water!

20, 23, 26° degrees!

Getting hotter and hotter in Perugia!

Finally a real good reason to eat gelati everyday!

The only sad side of Perugia in Summertime is that there is no water... the water of the Fontana maggiore being inacessible... the only solution is to find other fountains... any idea where this one could be?

Nb: notice the soap to wash your hands after your melting ice cream :-)

Looks Like A Village

From some points of view, Perugia just looks like these small Umbrian or Toscan villages.... small houses coming out from nature, the wide blue sky behind...

Procession Of Illusion

Tonight, going down Via dei Priori, a strange melody could be heard from the top of the street. Going down and closer to the murmer, a religious melody came out of a crowd in front of the San Filippo Neri Church. And suddenly, a white blinding statue was moving above the faithfu's heads! Magic or just an illusion, anyway, it gave the right impression!

Palazzo dei Priori

The Palazzo dei Priori: the most important, the most beautiful, the biggest palazzo in Perugia! How could we have never talked about it?

One of the biggest and most magnificient architectonic expressions of the Italian medieval population. The articulation of the volumes, the assymetries and the irregolarity of the foundation shows its long building phase, starting from 1293-97 until 1443, altogether with the use of preexisting structures. Nowadays, the palazzo is the city headquarter and Galleria nazionale dell'Umbria.

Here above, the front oriented to the Corso Vanucci shows the successive building interventions: at the first level trifore - windows with two arches, line up and above a fabulous repetition of 19 gothic trifore that repeat the below ones. On the same example of repetitions, on the top of the building are standing the becatelli, the cornicione and the merli. (Sorry for the non translation of the last words...)

Perugia Anima Mia

Perugia

Just a name initially

Then a city in Italy

In Umbria precisely.

A place to go?

Where else to go?

Meeting new people

Different but all adorable

And above all unexpectable!

A place to be

Where someone you'll be.

Hanging in the piazza

Eating a pizza

Pure dolce vita!

Sitting around a fire

Not a moment to hire

Surely a dream to live

Before you leave...

Perugia, cara mia

Perugia, anima mia.

Different Stairs

No, there are not only the stairs in front of the Duomo in Perugia... although they are far the most famous, used and useful! Here is a different type of stairs you may find in Università degli Study!

I precise, there are quite hidden and only the most privileged students can use them! So go and find them!

Use Your Balcony!

In Perugia, and most probably all around Italy, balconies are mainly used to hang linens on the clothes line or leave some stuff you do not need inside... strange that with such a nice weather coming for these following months, nobody seems to like to enjoy a breakfast on the balcony or a sunbathing in the afternoon... too bad, they do not know what they miss by closing the blinds...

Wonderful Roses Time

Together with the warm weather, beautiful roses are showing up in the forestage of Perugia!

Rear Window

Everything is a question of point of view as previously said... 

What about this point of view? 

From the open window of a bathroom you can see a girl in a room just in front through her open window...

Hear two old neighbours talking from their balcony about the nice weather, the noise of the never-ending work across the road, the song of the birds...

Feel the new warm air that announces softly Summer...

Smell the intense emanation of coffee from the kitchen...

What a waking up from an open window in a bathroom somewhere in Perugia... 

Like a rear window.

Teatro Pavone

The Pavone Theater was built between 1717-23 and was restructed and decorated as a theater in 1765.  Nowadays, it is an important auditorium in which movies, concerts, debates and other kind of cultural events take routinely place. 

Just a tip between you and me, the best sit is in one of the boxes - loggia - in the first floor. Boxes fit up to five or six people and sometimes people even bring their own pizza to share and watch a movie... practical and convivial, almost like in a drive-in!

Reflected Perugia

Reflected Perugia, black & white Perugia... just a different look for a city that appears different depending on the weather, the season, the people who live in, and, of cours, your point of view!

Interlacing

Branches interlacing 

Almost suffocating

But likely dancing

As the wind passes through

The birds only a few,

The light breaking out

As a laughter out loud

Kitschy San Francesco

At sunset, the sky becomes a colourful palette of numerous shades of pink, from very intense to very bright. And the light from the sun slowly disappearing behind Umbrian hills gives that pink colour to the warm stones of the buildings. Here, San Francesco seems to be made of pink stones... kind of kitsch, isn't it!

We Never Get Enough Of It

... because you simply never get enough of these little streets in the city centre.... what else to say?

1st May = 1st Relaxing Day At The "Beach"

The 1st of May is a public holiday in Italy and we were lucky to have a perfect sunny day. So for once, there is no picture of Perugia because it would have been a bit sad to stay in the city while the Lago Trasimeno can offer you relaxing activities at the lake side... beach volley, football or just lying on the grass and watching the marvellous view on the different islands in the lake...

... And During The Flood...

Yesterday and today suddenly, surprisingly and at any time of the day, it was raining cats and dogs. Seriously, we are talking about shower rains, just like South-West Asian monsoons. With the difference, however, that it was pouring only for a few minutes. Maybe for a short time but it is almost never hailing over there... meanwhile here, you had better not been outside like this woman hurrying up to go home!

Perugino

It is time to know Perugian most famous painter: Pietro di Cristoforo Vanucci, called il Perugino. He was born in 1448 in Città delle Pieve close to Perugia and masterized his talent in Florence working for Pierro della Francesca and Verrocchio in their own workshop - botteghe - between 1470-72 together with Leonardo da Vinci. After travelling in Roma, Lucca, Bologna, Venezia, Cremona, Ferrara and Milano, he became one of Raffaello's masters, deliberately chosen by Raffaello himself. Perugino died in 1523 in Fontignano.

Here above, a detail of one of his most delicate and extremely beautiful Madonna and Child, of which Raffaello may have letf his genius hand touch too.

Pietro Vannucci and Raffaello Sanzio, Madonna and Child with the Infant St. John (ca. 1500), oil on wood, 73 x 52 cm, Kress Collection

Before The Flood

Who said Spring was here for good? Well, fact is that Spring in Perugia rhymes with raining! So thank you for opening your pink, green or whatever coloured umbrella to make the rainbow appear, together with the sun!

London, Montreal, New York?

Perugia, as previously said, has surprising buildings that do not really belong to Italian architecture... This door with stairs, for instance, remembers some typical entrance you can see in London with different colourful doors, or Montreal with higher stairs... or again maybe New York in Greenwich Village?

After a while of seeing Perugia as an Etruscan and Medieval small Umbrian city... maybe it appears to be not that Italian? 

Kidding, this door could only stay in Italy. Look at the colour of the wall. This orange that recalls sienna - terra di Siena, a specific orange clay from Siena - and this light coming from the top right, just like light hits buildings in Roma and gives it this famous atmosphere. So, despite some hints to other cities, Perugia will always be very Italian...

A brownstone in Perugia?

This brown-orange-blue building right in front of Teatro Morlacchi somehow remembers of New Yorker brownstones in Brooklyn... Perugia can maybe pretend to be a megalopolis? "Cosmopolitanly" speaking, defenitely YES!

Liberation of Italy, 25th April!

Today was the celebration of the Liberation of Italy from fascism in 1945. Perugia city centre was crowded and there were parades playing folkloric music and some other playing drums and throwing quarters flags. Corso Vanucci was full of life and enthusiasm and a real friendly atmosphere was floating all above Perugia, together with the first burning sun rays!

Italians take their time...

Italians take their time... everybody know that. And it is very common to hear: the more you go down South, the more they take their time. Well, Perugia is almost right in the centre of Italy so it may show a good average.

Let's have an exemple! San Agostino Church in Corso Garibaldi was first built in 1256-1260 with a gothic basement but was completly restaured in the XVIIIth century. Here we can see the lower part of the front probably built during the second half of the XIIIth century, while the upper part was defenitely built in the XVIth century.

Well, of course, that does not mean the church was under construction for three centuries, but it does show some typical careless to give the front an harmonious impression.

However, does is really shock?

"Umbria, the green heart of Italy"

Umbrian touristic slogan, "the green heart of Italy", could not be more appropriate these days. With the Spring, the warmer light and longer days, hills around Perugia are getting greener and greener. They leave their dark relief for an intense green and softer relief. Just to look at them from any panoramic views in the city brings you a new feeling of wideness and peace... 

Flowers Offerings

Napolitans might be devotional passing in front of small altars hung up on walls at every corner in the city while Perugians are devotional by offering fresh plants and flowers to any possible Saints. Nice way!

Street Art

There is almost no street art at all in Perugia except some stickers hung around the city. Usually they are small and not very aesthetic but this one just made me smile when I passed by. But how else could I have reacted in front of this back and white mustachioed old accordion player looking at me with his funny face?!

Paths to tread

Parco Sant´Angelo in spring.
This season makes everything ten times more beautiful, even if you think it couldn´t possibly get any better.

It´s all one big point of view.

Snowy path? Snow flowers.

Traces of old

Shedding trees and growing buds in the garden in the park.

Never to open again

For the sake of aesthetics, for the sake of symmetry, the windows once killed have been painted on the facade to leave people the hope that they might still find the window sills somewhere, that air will invade the rooms through the wide open wings once more.

False paradise

Hidden in a real paradise. Behind a gate.
Broom close by just in case the fake setting needs a bit of brushing up.