... 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.

Trapped

One of the moss ladies, always sprinkling water, its naked stone body covered by the green layers of time and water fashioned clothing.

Silently guarding

Whether it is the streets full of people or the chaotic traffic overflowing with cars, the statues majestically watch our lives unfolding.
All kisses and cars honking, all cries and seldom moments of quiet Italian observation are caught in these guardians, preserved for those who can read the language of the still.

Still in bloom

Listening to the boom
of the earth and the sun
The wind on the run.


Blossom smell is in the air,
coloured petals in our hair.

Purple haze

A photoshoot on the picturesque streets of Perugia, while the cameraman leads the bride and groom to the spots where memories find their best frames.

Purple....Like the lilac trees? We´ll see about those soon.

Pre-Easter

With a little anticipation, here is what is happening tomorrow evening in all over Italy: the procession of the Death Christ. It must be something!
Happy Easter to all of you!

Asymmetry

For chance, the terrible earthquakes that are continuously happening in L'Aquila have no effect in Perugia. But looking at this picture we could ask ourselves if it did not happen yet...? Has the Earth gone crazy? Actually, we know already the answer. Yes, it has, and for quite a while from now on... unfortunately.
Let's give all our support for the homeless people in L'Aquila...

Class

Isn't this window great? So, nothing special to comment about except that Italian have class not only when dressed up but also just by decorating their store windows. May you like it or not!

Burano in Perugia

Down Via dei Priori you find Via della Spesa on your left, a very charming street with pastel coloured houses and green shutters as always. It just changes from the common grey old houses in the city centre and that makes this street appear very different from the Via dei Priori area. Well... we could say that it is Perugia's small Burano island!

A Taste Of Umbria Jazz

Perugia is especially well known for its International Jazz Festival in July, simply called Umbria Jazz. But as an antipasti, Perugia could enjoy this really jazzy concert in the Conservatorio di Musica. A pianoforte, a guitar, the drums, a double bass, saxophones, trombones and trumpets made us swing on our chair for more than an hour. Musicians' faces getting redder and redder the longer they went into improvisation and got caught by the rythm and spectators' faces more and more relaxed. Well, for sure, it was not a classical concert but, indeed, a good taste of what is waiting for us during the ten day Jazz Festival!