Everyday Life

We try to have breakfast club each morning. I’m pretty bad about consistently showing up, but I do try to go as often as I can. This particular morning, Kristen decided to make crepes, and it was a fabulous success! I was fortunate enough to decide to go that day.

Suzanne and Lauren in their apartment

I’m the designated pepper cutter

What Andrew does to help

Kristen and I debating over how many tablespoons are in a stick of butter back home…she won. She’s the culinary expert.

The crepes and the creator

This Friday I had to go on a fieldtrip for my marketing class. There is a travel agency called AltraUmbria that offers unique services. They have various houses to rent in the Umbrian countryside as well as organize daily events like wine tasting, horseback riding, and cooking lessons. They are a fairly new company and need some help revamping their website. Our final project for the class is to present a new marketing strategy for them with a focus on the website. It’s a contest between the groups in class, and the staff at AltraUmbria picks a winner to implement their ideas.

In order to get a better idea of what the company does, we went to one of their properties and participated in some activities they would normally do with their clients. We started out with a breakfast and presentation from them with a Q&A session to get a better idea of the company and their mission. Then we walked around for a bit. Not a shabby place to be!





The cats were precious!

On the farm


Learning how flour is made


Corciano (one of the smallest towns…only 181 people)

It was dead quiet

We went to an olive oil making place and had lunch. We were able to try various types of olive oil. They had lemon olive oil which we put on bruschetta with rucola and proscuitto. Then we had a pasta dish with mozzarella and tomatoes that we put basil and peperoncino olive oil on it. It was the first time I’ve had anything authentically Italian that was spicy. It was great!

Olive branches

The only person I saw in Corciano

The next day Saturday I went to a wine tasting in Sant’Enea, which is only about 15-20 minutes outside of Perugia. From the vineyard, you could see Perugia, Assisi, and Todi in the distance. It was amazing to learn about how wine is made as well as how to truly sip and appreciate a glass of wine. Francesco owns the vineyard, and I fell in love with him, as did every other girl. He was really great and incredibly knowledgeable.

Lessons learned:
1) Open a red wine at least an hour before drinking because it needs to breathe and have sufficient time to get to room temperature.
2) Pour yourself the first glass after opening a bottle so that you will get any possible corks bits or to check if the bottle is bad.
3) If you are at a restaurant, the first sip they pour is to check the temperature. You should respond with an OK if it’s fine, or tell them to put in the fridge for longer if it’s not right. You cannot determine the full flavor of the wine by the first sip, so you shouldn't say, "Oh that's a good wine."
4) Hold the glass by the stem. Holding by the glass will affect the temperature. This is especially bad if drinking a colder glass of white wine. Also, the smell of your hand may interfere with the smell of the wine.

To get the full effect of wine, do the following:
1) Swirl the glass so the wine comes up on the sides of the glass. You should see “legs” coming down the sides, which shows it has a nice alcohol content.
2) Tilt the glass away from you to check the color.
3) Smell it.
4) Drink it.

The vineyard with Assisi in the background.

More vineyard


Francesco and the massive vats of wine. Never have I smelled anything better than that room.

Machine to crush the grapes

In the front…still obsessed with those trees

Name of the vineyard

Wedding photo?

Dad and Mom: I got you a prize…or 3.

When I got back yesterday from the wine tasting, Kristen and I finally decided to walk through Perugia and take some pictures. I still didn’t get the main Piazza, but I’m working on it.

This street is the 2nd most busy in the center of town.

The view


Kristen

Me (it was REALLY windy)

Uphill…all the time

With such a great background, we couldn’t resist using the self-timer and hopping a brick "wall" on the side of the street

The new MiniMetro

Narrow allies

Where I live: Via Deliziosa


A side street off mine is “Via dei Gatti” = Cat St. in Italian



The street name doesn’t lie…cats are everywhere!