Who woulda thought? - Perugia Italy, Italy
Perugia Italy, Italy
Where I stayed
Via Paradiso 5
What I did
Perugia Epiphany
Who would have thought/believed that after everything I've been through in the past year I would make my way back to Perugia!! Well, the tale of getting here is worth telling. It all started on the morning of Thursday, Jan. 2. It was snowing like crazy on top of the hill in Franklinville. Our hired "limo" driver was to pick us up at 2:30 for a 10PM flight out of Toronto. We would pick up our colleague, Carol, on the way, at 3:30. He called in the morning and said we better start out at 1:30 since the weather was so bad. OK. So an eight and a half hour shlep (including checking in, security, etc) and THEN an eight and a half hour flight. What the heck. At 1:45 the driver is not there yet and the phone rings. He is not able to get up the snowy hill to our house and he has no idea what to do! I was actually speechless at the thought that the limo agency provided this poor guy with a car that did not have snow-worthy tires. Anyway, he tried again with no luck. We had no clue what to do. If we drove our car down the hill to meet him, we would have to leave it on the side of the road for a month. Unacceptable. At last I remembered our good neighbor and friend, Phil. Fortunately he had just gotten home but was happy to put his snow gear back on, jump into his SUV, come pick us up with all of our bags and drive us down the hill to meet Bill, our driver. It was apparent, when we transferred the bags from Phil's car to Bill's car, that there would not be enough room for Carol's bags but Bill kept saying "Oh we'll just have to rearrange everything."
So off we went into the snowy road, awful visibility and little plowing, to pick up Carol in Orchard Park. Sure enough, we had to pile her bags on the front seat and the three of us had to scrunch in the back all the way to Toronto! The roads were slippery and there were several bumper to bumper slow downs. Now, although we had left so early, we were actually concerned about being late for the flight. Apparently there had been a 30 car pile up on the QEW (the road we were on) an hour earlier. So if we had left on time from Franklinville, we probably would have been car #31. OY!
After this ride from hell (that the 3 of us are still talking about, not quite believing we actually did this and survived) we had a very nice overnight flight, landed in Rome and were met by our dear friend Mario. He drove us to Perugia (with a mandatory stop to purchase some mozzarella di bufala) where we arrived around 5PM 11:00 EST). Mike and I began to settle in. I guess we had
major jet lag, because we were here about 2 hours before Mike said "Where's my suitcase?" OMG! After much mental restructuring of the scene at the baggage carousel, the packing of Mario's car, the carrying of the bags from the car to the apartment (did we leave the bag on the street and someone ran off with it?), we concluded that we must have forgotten to pick it up at the baggage claim carousel. Really???? That's a bit more than a senior "moment." It's a way of life, don't you think?
Well, of course this being Italy, there was no way we could get anyone at the airport or Alitalia Airlines who would help us on the phone. Mike would have to go back to the airport and look for the bag.
Fortunately Mr. Lucky was able to get a ride the next day on the bus that Umbra was sending to pick up students, as well as a ride back to Perugia. Yep - there it was, in the lost and found at
Fiumicino.
So now we could relax and settle into the apartment. The apartment we've been in since 2006, mind you. Where we are able to pack up some reusables (like adapters, power cords, hair dryer, legal pads, calculators, etc.etc.etc) in a big box with the name CHIARIELLO in marker. This box is now nowhere to be found. We also notice that things we contributed to the apartment - salad spinner, bathmat, mugs, maps, brochures - are gone. The apartment is pretty stripped down. It's never been like this. The landlord is being evasive and seems to be pretending he forgot a lot of his English. We are in the process of negotiating reduced rent. HA! Good luck to us.
So for these reasons and others we are glad that we are only here for a month. BUT. . . reuniting with our friends and especially our colleagues at Umbra makes us very sad that we are only here for a month. We were welcomed with such warm hugs and included in everything (as was Carol) - the faculty lunch, the field trips, help with technology and doctor appointments (Mike raised a fever of 102 the other night and a doctor appt. was set up for him but the next day his temp. was normal and he continues to be "normal.) Two initiatives that I started here - the Writing Center and the Education Internship continue and I feel really good about that. Mike's Umbra colleagues are disappointed that he won't be teaching, and so is he. One of them, Antonella, has become a good personal friend and we will socialize with her. She and Mario have a theater connection and I am hoping that when my cousin, Martin Sherman the playwright, comes for a visit we can all get together.
We have connected Carol Wittmeyer from SBU Business School, with Ray Shaw, who teaches International Marketing here at the Umbra Institute. They will be working on some projects together.
And how's this for small world amazing. We're at the faculty lunch and Mike discovers that the prof. sitting next to him (new last year when we were not here) not only is from Brooklyn but went to the same high school as Mike. Very interesting guy - a city planner and teaches a course in urban spaces.
So, notwithstanding all the practical hassles, we are extremely happy and fulfilled here. And I haven't even mentioned our reunion with pizza, pasta, wine and baci.
The weather is pretty crummy but not 30 degrees below zero! Rainy and cold. We take the students to Assisi on Sunday. Unfortunately, rain is predicted, But on the bright side, in addition to our 3 SBU students, 10 or 12 others have signed up for the trip. So we feel like we make a
real and appreciated contribution here.