Only in Italy

I spent this past weekend in Perugia visiting a friend of a friend. Anna (the girl I was visiting) is from Arizona originally, and has recently come to Italy as a missionary and is going to language school in Perugia. Perugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria. It has a very long history, first occupied by the Etruscans and later by the Romans, so you can see within the architecture the layers of different civilizations. It’s so amazing to see arches that have been around since about 700 years before Christ, talk about history.

While in Perugia I had the chance to go to an Evangelical Italian church with Anna and some of her friends from language school, and the people we met there were so welcoming and kind. We even sang some hymns that I recognized (thanks of course to growing up at HBC), and I was able to understand the main topic of the service so my Italian must be improving, at least as far as comprehension goes, speaking is still a whole different matter.

Okay, best story of the weekend… after the church service we walked around the historical center of Citta de Castello. Now you have to understand that the historical centers of these Italian towns were not built with cars in mind, even the tiny little cars that they drive here in Europe, so we drove just inside the city walls and parked. We had lunch and walked around a street festival (market) that was going on and of course went shopping :). When it was time to leave, we all piled back into the minivan, and headed for the only way out… however when we got there we found a car parked in the middle of the road, blocking the exit. After turning around hoping to find another way out, we returned to the exit to find that the car was still there, and starting to attract a crowd. Other cars lined up behind us, then gave up and went back home. All the men gathered together to try to solve the problem. (I thought for sure that at any moment, they would lift up the hood of the car and give their opinions on what was wrong :). One little old Italian man kept suggesting that they just pick up the car and move it out of the road (a sight we were really hoping to see :). Finally the police were called and the car was to be towed, however, who knows when that would be. One of the police officers called Rick (our driver) and waved him over to a set of stairs. He wants us to go up the stairs… in the minivan… we wondered? But no, he was just trying to show Rick another way out. However we were in a minivan, so the men now had to discuss whether the van would fit down the streets. Finally after much discussion and measuring, it was decided that it would, and the little old Italian man was going to lead us out. So here we are driving down these winding streets, the wrong way, with the little old man running in front of us waving us on and blocking oncoming traffic. I was quite sure that either he was going to have a heart attack or the van was going to get stuck. But we all held our breath, turned the side mirrors in so they wouldn’t get knocked off, and finally made it out. It was hilarious, everyone was cheering, the police, the crowd, the occupants of the van… as the little old man raised his arms in victory. I wish I had my camera with me… but alas, I had not expected to need it at church.

So here are some other pictures that I did take in Perugia, hope you enjoy.