As the weather’s been getting better in Perugia I’ve been sitting on the steps outside the Duomo every opportunity I get.  Its quite possibly the best place to people watch in the world. There is always a bunch of people around, but never too many.  There is one Perugia personality who I just love.

            He’s an older man who has a fantastic white beard, and always wears the same jacket and red baseball hat while he sits around the center of the city and just plays the guitar.  I don’t really know why, maybe it’s the fact that he’s always smiling, but he just makes me happy. The best part of his whole performance is when you throw a few Centesssimi his way and he throws a quick “Grazie!” into his song.

            Last week when the steps were packed he came to the bottom and just started to play.  He stood there are played about 6 songs, grinning the whole time and loving the crowd.  Everyone applauded for him and its clear that he’s a beloved person in this small city.  I definitely keep an eye out for him whenever I’m walking through the center (so pretty much every day).  Its people like him who make you fall in love with Perugia.

            On a completely different note, this Sunday morning I walked into Caf� Turreno with Tala and Sakeenah to grab a cappuccino.  We walk in to the caf� where its completely silent and everyone is STARING intently at the TV screen. We all get a little nervous, thinking that something terrible in the world happened (because I haven’t seen people ever stare at a TV that hard). We slowly and slightly awkwardly make our way into the caf� when we finally catch a glimpse at the TV. Its not a world crisis, it’s a soccer game.

            Now I’d been told about how crazy Italians were about their soccer games, and how they’re fiercely loyal to their teams etc. But let me tell you that I had no idea about the extent of this until I was actually seeing it. Stunned. Completely stunned. I can’t even imagine what it would be like in a stadium, but I’m pretty sure there would be a lot of “vaffancolo”‘s being thrown around, if the intensity is anything like it was in the caf� this morning.

Location: Perugia, Italy