[ Aug.2019 ] After lunch we headed for the north tip of Perugia in Umbria, Italy.
We walked down the staircase which went under Via Battisti, the road we had walked on in the morning and went into the narrow road called Via dell’Acquedotto.
This is the path which goes in between residential houses and it seemed that it used to be a aqueduct which was built in the middle of the 13th century.
The road went downwards first and then upwards.
It was quite a long way, but we arrived at Tempio di S. Angelo (Church of Sant’Angelo) which is located at the north edge of the town without losing ourselves.
This church is the oldest in Perugia which has the history since the 5th or the 6th century.
They think it used to be a pagan temple.
It had the circular shape and inside was very simple but charming at the same time.
When they restored it in 1948, they found ancient frescoes and sealed windows apparently.
After seeing this, we moved to the next door Porte S.Angelo, because the local people on the way here told us that the view from the top of this gate was very nice.
The weather in the morning was so good, but now the rain started.
Porte S.Angelo is the city gate built in the 14th century.
Currently they use inside space as an exhibition hall and when we were there, there was an exhibition of the old musical instruments.
It was a collection of a professor who is specialised in old musics.
According to the leaflet, there were as many as 200 instruments exhibited there.
When we were looking at those exhibits, the person in charge called to us and said “You had better go up and see the view before the rain becomes worse”.
So we hurried up, but it was too late.
It was already raining heavily.
We ventured out in the rain being soaked wet to see the view and took some photos.
I could tell that it could have been really a good view if the weather had been better.
It was too far to walk back to the hotel in this rain, so we called a taxi from under the gate.
The taxi driver told us about the hidden reality of Perugia.
Apparently Perugia, the university town has a serious drug related problems.
So there are as many policemen as the students.
In fact we saw many on the first night of our stay in the town.
The immigrants are used as pawns of drug dealers, so in his opinion, they should stop the immigrants coming into the town.
The criminals are arrested now and then, but the wealthy dealers will pay for their release, so the problems are never solved.
That reminded me of the horrible murder of a British student, killed by her American flatmate and her Italian boyfriend in 2007.
The court case went on and on, turning the decision several times and in the end the two who were thought to be the killers were released.
It was something to do with the drug, too.
Perugia was a really beautiful town with a long history and it is so shame that it has this dirty aspect.
