Day 92

Clare and I (obviously, who else would I have been with..?!) went to Perugia on Saturday! Waking up pre-5am to leave the house at 6 for a 7am bus was a bit of a killer though. I'd say I'm usually the one out of the two of us who is good in the morning, but I was just not functional! And it's amazing that we both were ready and out of the door on time - our tendency towards being late for plans with each other is astonishing, and not in the good way. I think we've both adopted the Italian idea of time management! 
It was a 2 and a half hour journey there (100km north of Rome), and we both used our time wisely and slept. Perugia is so incredibly beautiful. When you arrive at the bus station you go up a flight of stairs and then up a couple of underground escalators that go into an underground fortress thing (I need to do more research on this, but it's incredible! Clare's host dad was telling us last night that the first Pope built a castle on top of it (?) to keep the Perugians in and stop them from fighting!) and then you go up another escalator and arrive in the centre of the town. I'm not sure whether it counts as a town or a city; the surrounding area makes me think it's a city, but the historic centre feels very town like. Our day was spent exploring the side streets and chocolate shops (especially good!) and the market place. We also visited an underground well that dates back to Etruscan times and went on a Ferris wheel! Oh, and I ate 400g of chips (proper chips) in one sitting - call it making up for lost time, as I hadn't had them since the end of August probably! Plus, it was much colder there than Rome, and there's nothing quite like chips on a cold day. 
Before getting back on the bus back to Rome we had a further explore of the underground and looked around an art display that was through a few of the rooms, and then sat and chatted and started making up random stories which continued until we parted ways at her house so that I could get back to babysit. 
Clare's taken to talking to me in French for extended periods of time, so while being in Italy, I'm not only picking up Italian, but also improving my French understanding - who'd have thought it eh?!
Ciao!!
(Pictures will follow soon!)