NEDRA GOES TO SCHOOL

We had to get up early this morning to take Nedra into Perugia for her first day of school. Although I didn’t have to pack her lunch, we did have to get organized. She had to be at school at 8:30 a.m., check out her apartment at 12:30, then move in to the apartment before or after her afternoon classes. Additionally she’d need to store her luggage somewhere while she attended her early morning classes. Perugia is a very hilly city with lots and lots of steps, and unfortunately there are no electric escalators near the school.

We were all lucky that Bob and Rosemary are not only in Perugia, but that they also attended the University per Stranieri so they could offer not only a place for Nedra to store her luggage, they could also help with information about the school itself.

We drove into Perugia and drove up to Bob and Rosemary’s apartment, located at the highest spot in the city. I showed Nedra the stairs that would lead her down to the administration building of the school where she’d take her placement test, pay the balance of her tuition and get her class schedule. She knew where the office was to pay the tuition, and knew that she’d have to take her placement test then check back in about two hours to get her schedule.

We parked the car temporarily and took Nedra’s suitcases to Bob and Rosemary’s. We couldn’t find a place to park near the centro so we decided to go to the parking lot we knew on via Pellini. Luckily when we arrived there was still plenty of room so not only did we get to park without waiting in line, we also go to park on the lower level out of the sun.  We walked back to the centro where we’d planned to meet Bob and Rosemary.  Since we had to get up early and come into Perugia this would be a good day to see a few of the museums that we hadn’t yet visited.

Bob and Rosemary had to go to the local bank to get information about transferring money from the states. They’re about to buy a car and will need to open an Italian account and transfer money from the states. Luckily for them their landlord is helping them look for a car and has promised to find them one with low mileage and to have his mechanic check it out as well.

Since they’ve been here since April they’ve already seen the museums, but have a yearly pass so they don’t have to pay individual admissions anymore. They enjoy the museums and didn’t mind revisiting a few with us. We agreed that we’d head to the museum in the Rocca Paolina, and if their business at the bank finished quickly they could meet us there, or if not we’d be in contact via cell phone to hook-up for the archaeological museum.

The museum for the Rocca is small but interesting. It’s a medieval cave under the city, a place I’d love to be able to wander through without restrictions. The museum has a short film about the history of the Rocca complete with 3-D animation, something that really helps us to understand how things really looked in the past.  We were surprised when Bob and Rosemary showed up at the Rocca, but it turned out that both the people who could help them were off on vacation, so their bank account would have to wait until tomorrow.

We walked down to the archaeological museum and went into the San Domenico church first. The church is huge, dark and filled with artwork. Unfortunately the huge stained glass window is covered up while work is being done, and the one painting we had an interest in seeing is being restored! With so much restoration being done, it’s almost a certainty that something you want to see will be unavailable.

The work we were interested in was done by a relative of a friend of ours who lives in Atlanta…actually I think both father and son were painters, and although not household names, they are known to art historians. We even discovered that there’s a street with the name of our friend, via Caporali.

After the church we visited the museum which was interesting but a little less so than I had anticipated.
While we were in the museum Nedra called to tell us that she had been place in the advanced beginner’s class and was on her way to the first class. She’d called her landlord to re-schedule her apartment viewing, had made several new friends and sounded like she was settling in quite well.

After an hour or so the museum we decided to get lunch and we took Bob and Rosemary to a place we had found when we were in language school. It’s one of those places down a side street, filled with locals and where no one but us spoke Italian.

By the time we’d finished with lunch Nedra called to say that she was in her apartment! She was very relieved that the inside was a cute as the outside, and although it wasn’t’ cleaned as well as it should have been she saw no reason to change. We told her we could bring her suitcases to her and get the first look all at the same time. Once again, everything just seemed to fall into place.

We agreed with Nedra that her apartment was indeed a find…the neighborhood seems nice and her location will probably be very quiet. She’d make a quick stop at the grocery for a few essentials to get her started in her new kitchen. I know by the time her month is up she’ll feel as if this place is home.