Monday,
July 02, 2007
The
ANNOTICO Report
At the five-star
You will
want to walk the Corso Vannucci, a
spacious thoroughfare down which people pass each evening in the Italian ritual
of the passeggiata, the leisurely amble between work
and dinner when everybody wants to see and be seen.
There is
Perugias University, founded about the same time as Oxford, the Carducci
Gardens, the Collegio del Cambio,
the medieval headquarters of the citys moneychangers guild, the Collegio della Mercanzia, seat of
the merchants guild, the marvellous
24-sided Fontana Maggiore, the most beautiful medieval fountain in Italy, and
the deep buried ruins of the immense Rocca Paolina, headquarters of the bloodthirsty Baglioni family who once dominated the city and were
finally crushed by the equally appalling Pope
In July,
In
October, chocoholics and chocolatiers from all over
Suppose
you love
You can walk in
streets so narrow that you feel lovers could lean out and kiss across them; and
eat your pasta in an osteria carved out of the
Etruscan wall that was built centuries before the Roman bullyboys arrived.
Indeed, if you go to the five-star Hotel Brufani
Palace, right at the top of the town, and go down in the lift to its health
spa, three floors below ground level, you can swim in a pool with a transparent
floor revealing the Etruscan artefacts underneath.
They date from
about 600BC. On the other hand, perhaps youre more
interested in jazz or art, antiques or chocolate, or learning a bit more of
that lovely language. In all these cases,
The obvious place
to start is the mighty Corso Vannucci,
that spacious thoroughfare down which people pass each evening in the Italian
ritual of the passeggiata, the leisurely amble
between work and dinner when everybody wants to see and be seen.
Half-close your
eyes till those hundreds of Perugian heads become
small black dots and you can imagine yourself back in the Middle Ages perhaps in one of those dreamy paintings
by local-boy-made-good Perugino (real name Pietro Vannucci,
c 1450-1523).
At the southern
end of the Corso lie the
The Sunday we
arrived, though, was the third day of the monthly antiques market, the biggest
in Umbria, with acres of stalls selling paintings, silver, statues, jewellery and antiques, and with dozens of well-heeled women
bargain-hunting in furs: sable, seal, leopard and ten-a-penny minks the animal-rights movement has made
little impression in Italy.
Strolling north,
we must certainly pause at Collegio del Cambio, the medieval
headquarters of the citys moneychangers guild. Since usury was
frowned on by the church, it got hold of Perugino and got him to paint a series
of frescoes that depicted Christian, classical and secular virtues but with each person shown in it dressed
in the haute couture of the time.
So we get a
catwalk view of what the fashionable world was wearing when Perugino was at the
height of his powers. The result is one of the finest Renaissance rooms in
But now its
time to sit on the steps outside the cathedral in the sun, as people have done
here for centuries, and contemplate the marvellous
24-sided Fontana Maggiore, the most beautiful medieval fountain in Italy, which
has stood here since the 1270s.
Many of those
enjoying the afternoon sun are students; for this is a city where learning has
flourished since
It teaches
students aged anything from 16 up the oldest so far was an American woman
of 82 and the courses are
tailor-made. A bewildering range of students make their way there: Japanese,
Americans (
When
class begins to pall, the countryside beckons. On Saturday we hired a
guide who drove us round the enchanted little hilltop towns that ring the city.
We went first to Assisi, and saw the little chapel where St Francis, the
playboy turned pilgrim, had slept on straw, then visited the Basilica of San
Francesco, so miraculously restored after the earthquake 10 years ago. We drove
on to Spoleto, where the composer Gian Carlo Menotti decided to site his
Festival of Two Worlds half a century ago and where the magnificent Roman
amphitheatre still provides the principal mise en schne for its orchestral concerts.
We stopped at the
sleepy, sun-soaked
Our majestic
backdrop throughout all this was the Umbrian countryside, with its range of
snow-topped mountains, and, at every turn, the pale pink stone that gives the
buildings that inimitable motif of crushed strawberry.
St Francis made
The divine Sarah
Vaughan swung here, Stephane Grappelli
worked his legerdemain, Wynton Marsalis blew his
fabled horn, and Charlie Mingus got the joint
jumping. This month, the soaring tenor saxophone of Sonny Rollins will startle
the saints in their shrines.
HARDLY HAS the
city settled down after the last cat blows his tailgate farewell than its
time to prepare for the great chocfest.
In October,
chocoholics and chocolatiers from all over
Or if you thirst
for less Visceral delights, book now for the first
Pinturicchio exhibition in
For questing
minds, theres a popular new diversion: urban trekking. Its a
demanding four-mile walk up and down the precipitous city, unfolding for the
locals many new insights into the historic place they inhabit. They take a
thousand on each walk, in groups of a hundred at a time. Four in five on this latterday odyssey are locals; but youre very welcome
too.
In the end,
though, the most romantic, if slightly scary, way to understand
You can still see
their shells down in the rocks echoing vaults and corridors now used for exhibitions. And this August
some student film-makers are presenting Le Nozze di Sangue (Wedding of Blood) part tour, part film to recreate the dire comeuppance that
befell the Baglioni family.
Travel brief
Getting there:
fly to
Where to stay:
budget:
Primavera Mini Hotel, Via Vincioli 8 (00 39-075 572
1657, www.primaveraminihotel.it);
mid-price: Priori, Via dei Priori (075 572 3378, www.hotelpriori.it); luxury:
Restaurants:
budget:
La Botte, Via Volte della
Pace (075 572 2679); mid-price: Altromondo, Via
Cesare Caporali 11 (075 572 6157); luxury: La Taverna, Via delle Streghe 8 (075 572 4128).
Events: the antiques market is
held on the last Friday, Saturday and Sunday of each month. Festival
of Two Worlds, until July 15 (www. spoletofestival.it).
Eurochocolate takes place October 13-21 (www.eurochocolate.com).
Institutions: Comitato Linguistico, Largo Cacciatori delle Alpi 5 (075 5721 471, www.comitatolinguistico.com). University for Foreigners, Piazza Fortebraccio 4 (075 57461, www.unistrapg.it
). Perugia National Gallery, Palazzo dei Priori (www.galleria nazionaleumbria.it). Amici della Musica, Via Danzetta 7 (075 572 2271, www.perugiamusicaclassica.com).Activities: Rocca Paolina is open to all. Urban Trekking, www.comune.perugia.it
. National Archeologicalhttp://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/ travel/destinations/italy/article2004582.ece