April 27: Bologna to Perugia

Previous day: April 26: Rimini

Today is a travel day, from Bologna in the central east to Perugia in the central west, midway towards our last six days, which will be hiking in Umbria. Tonight, we stay at Alla Residenza Domus Minervae.

We started the day with the help of Barbara, our ever-gracious host, trying to troubleshoot a problem with our TIM phone SIM: despite sending only two text messages, and having talked only a few minutes to Fabio on the phone, we had only a few centi-euros left on our phone balance. This nominally started at 5 euros in the plan we chose, with 100 free minutes but no texts. Theory is, we’d use the phone only for meeting Fabio in Rimini, and then only for emergencies. Unfortunately, it turns out that 4 euros are deducted from the account as an activation fee—something not mentioned in any of the documentation Shoshanna examined before buying. And if the account drops to 0 euros, the SIM is deactivated without possibility of reprieve. So we had to stop in at the TIM store again to argue with them about this. It’s not clear whether this is just spectacularly poor documentation or deliberate deception; either way, the problem was solved by throwing another 10 euros (the minimum) into the account, which should now last us the rest of our trip.

It was cool (around 18°C) and cloudy, so we decided to walk down to the train station rather than taking a taxi or bus to spare the poor fellow train passengers the scent of well-sweated Geoff. About half an hour, so eminently manageable despite the large backs. We had a short wait for our train, and an entertaining time people-watching. We sat behind a group of Polizei and soldiers who were on security duty. These ones were only armed with pistols; yesterday we saw some armed with assault rifles. This increased military presence, and ubiquitous smoking, are obvious “you’re not in Canada anymore” signs.

The train trip was uneventful. We had a tight connection in Arrezzo, and our train was running about 15 minutes late. Fortunately, so was our connecting train to Perugia. Things got a bit exciting, and not in a good way, when we got off the train in Perugia. Perugia is very vertical, so to spare people the need to trek up a long and steep hill to reach the historical center, they have a mini-Metro (one-car train) that runs about four stops uphill from the train station. We were happily headed for the mini-Metro when we heard a yell behind us. When I turned to look, thinking someone had tripped, I saw a young Japanese girl who’d been on the train with us on the ground with a young Black man. My first thought was that he was helping her up, but within a second it became clear they were fighting over something-which he snatched and ran off with, leaping down onto the tracks, vaulting the low fence between the tracks, and throwing himself down the stairs on the other plaform. I yelled for the police, she yelled, and the woman ran after him, abandoning her luggage. There was no way I was going to catch the sprinter wearing a 40-pound hiking pack and holding my daypack, particularly given his head start, so I stayed to guard her luggage in case he was working with an accomplice.

A Trenitalia staffer on the far side saw him running and heard us yelling for help, and called in the police. But the thief was long gone by then. Nonetheless, we stayed with her, as she was quite distressed, until the police arrived. We didn’t get a good enough look at him to provide a description (his back was to us the whole time), but we nonetheless left our IDs and phone number with the police in case we could help. I felt like shit because I didn’t intervene directly. If I were an action hero in one of my own stories, I’d have thrown myself on the guy while he was still getting up, and maybe have been able to hold him down until the police came. But my brain just doesn’t work that fast, and I’m not on constant plot device alert like a good action hero.

Barbara, our host in Bologna, came across a statistic the other day suggesting that 90% of such thefts are never solved, which is sad. What’s more sad? That racial profiling means some innocent Black youth at the train station will be hassled or even arrested for no good reason other than that he has the same skin color as the thief. And when we belatedly reached the mini-Metro, and found four young black men lounging around the entry, we were primed and immediately went on high alert. We might have been just as wary if they’d been white, given our recent experiene, but I really, really hate having my prejudice buttons pushed that hard.

We had a leisurely ride up the hill (you could walk faster than the train) to the station nearest our so-called B&B, which is inside the Hotel Europa. It’s not at all clear how it differs from the hotel itself, other than perhaps that breakfast is included. Still, the location is convenient. The only real drawback is the questionable security: the main door of the hotel seems always open, the locked door to our hallway is always open (no matter how often I closed it and despite a clear “close the door” sign), and the room key is one of those single-toothed antique keys for a lock you could probably pick with your little finger. Oh well... we’ll only be here 2 nights.

Shoshanna storming the walls

Shoshanna storming the battlements.

I had a nap while Shoshanna wrote up her version of our experience, then we hiked up the hill into the older part of the city. (There are escalators = scale mobili that take you the whole way, but we chose to walk.) More on this tomorrow, but the old city is a familiar mix of centuries-old buildings and more modern structures, with narrow streets and alleys connecting large, open piazzas dominated by restaurants and boutiques. We wandered for a couple hours, scoping out the local restaurants, locating tourist attractions, and gazing down at the beautiful vistas.Tomorrow, we’ll spend our day seeing the sights in more detail.

Narrow streets

Narrow streets.

All this will be punctuated, of course, by lots of eating. There’s a “porchetta” (roasted pork) wagon that our guidebook says has been there forever, and that should be good for lunch. There’s also a local variant of pizza that’s supposed to be interestingly different (baked on red-hot iron and served after scraping away the ash). But tonight being our 15th anniversary (anniversario quindiciani matrimoniale), we wanted something more special. The best-rated and most interesting restaurant we found was La Rosetta, in a hotel of the same name. They had a 25-euro tasting menu, and many à la carte options, so it looked like a good choice. Shoshanna had superb scrambled eggs (more like a really good frittata) with finely diced truffle chunks, bean and chick pea soup, and pork cutlets; I had savory boar ragù with chewy broad noodles, followed by “supreme of guinea fowl”, deliciously roasted with a hint of juniper. (Like richer and more interesting chicken.) My drink was an artisinal beer by Maistri Birrai Umbriani, a delicious unfiltered “special roasso” (red ale). Shoshanna’s meal came with a glass of white wine for the first course, a glass of red wine (San Giovese) for the second, plus mandorla (almond wine) for dessert (a huge heap of biscotti). When the waiter learned it was our anniversary, he brought mandorla for me too. Needless to say, we shared everything.

Vistas Vistas

A nice post-sunset saunter down the hill to our room, and early to bed.

Next day: April 28: Perugia