Terni and Perugia

Wednesday, March 30 the architecture students went as a class to Terni first thing in the morning. This was my first real trip to Umbria, which is the more mountainous region between Toscano and Latium (Roma). Terni is a pretty modern town which is heavily concentrated around the steel manufacturing industry. The town was totally blown up in World War II and has since been reconstructed in a very nice way. The town is also famous for the labor strike they've had ongoing for the last several years which has severely affected the steel industry around Europe.

So for the morning we basically just walked around and looked at some cool stuff. I've gotten a bit behind on my blog because I was travelling for 6 straight days, and the updates I have in progess tonight include 104 pictures making this my second largest update after Spring Break and just a bit more than the Rome / Sorrento / Pompeii updates. Given the volume of stuff I would like you all to see I think Terni is best told by the pictures.

One of the cool modern buildings in Terni's main Piazza


Italians don't usually share breakfast with the pigeons, but this guy did


Jim's face is actually only slightly smaller than this renaisance biulding in the main Piazza


All around the town there are nice modern housing complexes


This particular apartment complex was designed in the 70's by Jon Carlo di Carlo


Hi-rises behind the Carlo di Carlo complex


This grassy balcony is on the 3rd floor level...


Lots of greenery filled the complex


A cool planter


Some yellow stuff

So Terni was neat. I was running out of captions for that complex, but it was really cool and I took a lot more photos which you will all get to see when I get back to the US. It turns out the only problem with an all concrete building like that (besides the color) is that the walls chip... interesting delimma that one. So from Terni we headed north through Umbria to Perugia (the provincal captial) and saw a lot of nice stuff along the highway, which was definitely one of the most interesting drives of my stay in Europe.

Beautiful roadsides in Umbria


Umbria is greener than Tuscany


Some nice housing near an Umbrian Village


A little town in the distance

So after driving across the province we reached Perugia which is a really fantastic town. We arrived just in time for lunch, which we had at a little restaurant on this side alley in the middle of town. We then hung out in the central plaza for a while and had gelato, then took off to the train station area (WAY away from the Centro) to see some modern stuff that was pretty ugly. After that we hopped back on our bus and went home. So here is the photographic version of the story.

The bus stop where we arrived in Perugia


The middle of town in Perugia


Main street in Perugia


A nice fountain at the main Piazza


Us walking down some swanky huge stairs


Ara not expecting to be photographed


Alexis and Stephanie making fun of themselves or something


Part of the newer downhill side of Perugia


A more modern Piazza


A view through two buildings walking down the hills of Perugia


Another nice Piazza in town


The hills in town


This is the 2006th photo I've taken in Europe, A-A-A-Whoop!


Perugia was just really beautiful all over, even the roads were nice


A very nice park near the train station


More of us in the park


The neat spaceship looking bus that we rode around in

Ok, for some footnotes. The bus is significant because its brand new and quite nice. We use the same bus company (Morretti Autobus di Arezzo) every time we go anywhere, and this was the maiden voyage of their newest cool bus.

With regards to our travels, I have to say I think Umbria is prettier than Toscano. A lot of people consider Tuscany the prettiest part of Italy, and its nice for sure, but the whole country is amazing so it is hard to say which part is the best overall. In my mind, however, Umbria is a more unique place than Tuscany, and it is in many ways more colorful. The region is not as developed as Tuscany, which is good because in Italy development is almost like litter strewn about the farmland. The way things are built here is very disorganized, which is fine in some ways but in Tuscany this is manifest in the feeling that there isn't really a countryside you can get away into, only some suburban farmland and cities. Umbria on the other hand actually feels rural, without such dense clusters of housing and shops in the corners of every farm road. Furthermore Umbria is much more mountainous than Tuscany, and the whole region is colored a richer, darker shade of green. Lastly I think the principal city, Perugia, was much nicer than the principal city of Toscano, which is Firenze. Now a lot of people might argue with me about this, because there is arguably less to see in Perugia from a historical standpoint and there is not so much of a medieval center as compared to Firenze, but I found the city much more pleasant to walk about and I felt the views here were quite a bit better than in Firenze overall. The city is sunnier and greener, and honestly if I had to live in Italy I would for sure live in Perugia before Firenze. So take that for whatever its worth. Regardless if you ever find yourself in Italy this place is directly between Roma and Firenze on the A1 and a major rail line, so you have no excuse if you don't spend a day here. Alright, on to Sienna...