June 16 Perugia

Once again, Edmund challenged us "wandering walkers" before our trip to Perugia, home of Baci chocolate and a famous chocolateria called Sandri. Cynthia and I thought we could make it to the far end of town to see Edmund's strange 12-sided Roman-era church. We arrived before noon, but it was really, really hot. Due to the heat wave, we're going to Rome tomorrow instead of on Wednesday, when it's supposed to be over 98. 90 degrees in Italy is a humid convection oven, the hot breezes cooking us thoroughly. Today, we had two maps, one with a clear orientation and the other cut and pasted from a travel magazine. One had more detail in terms of the streets and the other had the landmarks clearly depicted. This is to say we got lost, multiple times. We went in a circle around the Fortebraccio, later learning the namesake called a dinner with his rivals and slit their throats, ending the rivalry before the dessert course.

Being proactive, we asked for directions. The first shopkeeper sent us in the loop that returned us to Fortebraccio. Then a cyclist told us to go down a hill, but we knew the church was on top of the hill, so we went in the opposite direction. C's GPS didn't work in the narrow streets with ancient buildings. We were having fun with the mysterious alleyways, for rent signs, and alley cats, until finally I saw the sun. "We need to go this way," I pleaded. After some convincing, we took a "short cut" up a long stairway under construction. I thanked my orthopedic surgeon for shooting up my knees, and we made it to the top, only to face a city wall. Cars zoomed by to the left, and the way was uphill, so we figured we were close. We followed the wall and came to a music school that was on one of the maps. We were offered a tour of the tower for ten euros, and it had a great view, but we wanted to find this old church. Finally, we did.

The moment when you realize your wild goose chase has brought you to a place with no stained glass, no relics of renown, the smell of the mold you're allergic to, and a service about to start for nobody but us, who didn't have time to attend - well, we had that moment. Still, the nun who was preparing the altar had the same Birkenstock's as Cynthia, just in a darker color. That was interesting. There were eight ribbed vaults in the ceiling, 16 different walls, and as I walked around the center altar I entered a bit of a trance. Like a theater in the round, I couldn't find the door where we entered.  Once we were in, could we get out?  I walked the circumference twice before I became reoriented.  

And, what about the math problem? We were in search of a 12-sided church and we found a church that either had 8 or 16 sides. Like the wrong well in Orvieto, were we in the wrong church in Perugia? I started thinking about chocolate, and hoping it wouldn't be too hot to eat it when we went back down the hill.

We thanked the nun, dutifully dropped a few euros into the tin offering box, and their clanking noise elicited a smile from the young woman. In front, we saw a different configuration of walls and since we couldn't go all of the way around, we wondered if there were 12. 

Later, I learned the 12-sided church was actually a tower that we saw but didn't connect to our quest. Yet, the round Sant' Angelo church has an interesting history. Built in the 5th century (AD, CE, EC), the church utilizes columns from an earlier pagan temple. And, the pentagram I saw in the middle was indeed from the Knight's Templar. Hmm. Commonly called the Church of Archangel St. Michael, it was restored in 1948. The grounds are well-kept, and we liked the approach to the front door. Of course, we had not used that when we discovered the round church. 

It is the abbey church of San Pietro's tower that has 12 sides. It replaced a 4th century pagan church in the 10th century, and the abbey grew after that. We walked around it in the city center without counting the sides.

After leaving Sant' Angelo, we followed the temple road down the hill and merged on to the Corso Garibaldi, the street we couldn't find on the way up. At every corner, clearly marked signs pointed to the Sant' Angelo church. If only we'd seen these, we could have had a lunch of chocolate. Once we arrived at the main square, we saw our error. Following the medieval musicians to a small square to hear their concert put us off by a block. And that made the difference. We made it back to the square in 20 minutes, 2/3 less time than the way up. Yes, we were able to see some interesting places in the town, but the stairs...

The air conditioning in Sandri and the free chocolate samples refreshed us before our 1.5 hour drive back to Terni. I almost stopped by another Etruscan well, just because Sam's Irish Bar of Perugia was located inside. If that's not the label of a tourist trap... Actually, I felt trapped in Sant' Angelo, so perhaps I should shut off the judgments. I liked Perugia's plaza, cathedral and walks, but felt like I wasted too much time trying to find the church nobody else was interested in. 7 miles today. I wanted to get in my steps. 

We arrived to the meeting point in time to visit the Etruscan site under the main square. The Rocca Paolina was the main way into ancient Perugia, with folks having to pass under a classic Roman arch. I found some beautiful scarves in a shop in this underground city. People lived there until 1848, when papal forces destroyed part of it before Perugia became part of Italy. There's an annual jazz festival there, with different bands taking over different homes as venues. That's on my new bucket list.