Day 12: Stage 10: Perugia, 14 km, Sun, 26°

Short, But Very Sweet!

I had two things that I wanted to finally accomplish today. One was to arrive in Perugia and the other was to finally have a gelato! I know, right? Hard to believe that I left home almost two weeks ago and today I finally enjoyed my first gelato. Crazy! However, as my good friend David pointed out, I have been walking rather remotely this time. He’s right. I thought I might have gelato earlier, but my one opportunity was thwarted by a very long line. Look at this beauty! Half dark chocolate and the other strawberry. It was pretty good too. 

Yesterday I mentioned that I would post some photos of Ripa. It’s a circular hill town and not too big. 

The main square. 

This is a house over top one of the two city gates. A gate house? 
Last night I stayed in just about the only accommodation in town, a nice little bed-and-breakfast with a great owner. We had a nice chat this morning over breakfast. He told me that they are setting up in the main square for a dinner tonight that they do once a year leading to a week of festivities the first week of June. There are apparently two major families in Ripa, and this celebration is all about that relationship. They were settling up late yesterday. 

This is the view towards Perugia from his deck. The house is part of the outer western wall. By the way, the fact that Perugia is located on the top of the hill didn’t escape my attention!

And then I was on my way and headed for Perugia! 

As I walked away from Ripa I started to look back, trying to capture a good photo of the town. A few of my efforts. 




Finally losing the town to another hill I walked on. 

The first half of the walk past her, some really beautiful countryside. The walking was easy and the sunshine was pure pleasure. 

For a minute I thought I was back in Tuscany.
After walking through a light industrial area, every city has one, I came down to a river running below Perugia which sits high on hill above. I didn’t really walk with a plan today, sort of winging it, but I knew that I would have to cross the river at some point.

Hey Caitlin, this is a different variety of those bulb flowers. Quite cool! 

Our Saint friend.
I arrived at the bridge, and after climbing up the stairs, decided there was far too much traffic and no place for me to walk safely. So I went back down and under the bridge and found a river side trail which I followed until I found a foot bridge.





The trail ended at the sight of a very old mill. It was probably a going concern in its day.


I follow the road until my map showed a smaller road, and then a trail heading up towards town. As always, it was a long grind up to town. 


All was forgiven when I glanced my first views of Perugia. Molto bene!!





Although I didn’t leave ripper until 9 o’clock, because it was such a short stage, I arrived in town just in time for lunch. It was too early to go to my Airbnb, but I contacted my host and told her I was going to find lunch.

My host lives remotely and so she arranged for me to meet with the person who cleans this little apartment, and her young daughter. Their English is much better than my Italian, which made for a nice conversation. My unusual apartment has been built into a very old building. I imagine I’ll hit my head more than once on these really strange ceilings! 

I am sitting outside as I write this blog on the main piazza in the city. Wedding occurred today at the main cathedral, and the bride and groom just walked past with their wedding party. A massive, spontaneous clapping and cheering your rupted all along this huge piazza for the couple. Pretty cool. One of the spontaneous joys of travel. 

And that’s about it for today. I have a full day off here, and I’ll report further on this amazing city tomorrow.