Perugia - Umbria's Capitol City
It is always a pleasure to walk through the center of Perugia. The view from the Cathedral looking into town is impressive. There are a lot of shops restaurants, and interesting buildings.
Perugia is Umbria’s capitol city with a population of about 170,000 people. It’s an ancient city with a deep history. It has a famous international university. It’s a real challenge to drive in Perugia. Oh, it’s also Seattle’s sister city!
Although we live less than 30 minutes from Perugia, the Tandem spirits don’t go to the big city very often. We normally go to shop at the Asian grocery stores. However, when we returned from our last visit to Rome, having visited the Galleria Borghese, we noticed that there was an interesting exhibit at Palazzo Baldeschi. “At the Time of Canova, an Umbrian Itinerary”. We decided it was worth a visit.
Chiesa di Sant' Agata
We parked in a different lot than the one we normally go to, and on our walk up to town we cane across the Chiesa di Sant’ Agata. This is a lovely little church that was built in the early 14th Century. It replaced an older church, San Severo, which was demolished to make room for additions to the Palazzo dei Priori (Town Hall).
At the Time of Canova, an Umbrian Itinerary
The Canova Exhibit displayed some of his works, which were quite beautiful. Our favorite was “The Three Graces”.
Its main focus was on artists who were inspired by or had worked with Canova during his association with the Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia between 1812 and 1822. Some of the themes of paintings and sketches in Umbria were the tempietto near Trevi, the Cascata delle Marmore,
Other artists: Giuseppe Valadier, Vincenzo Pacetti, Carlo Labruzzi, Pietro Labruzzi, Cristoforo Unterperger, Abraham-Louis-Rodolphe Ducros, Stefano Tofanelli, Tommaso Maria Conca, Pietro Benvenuti, Vincenzo Camuccini, Jean-Baptiste Wicar, Tommaso Minardi, Giovanni Sanguinetti.
PermanentArtwork from the Palazzo Baldeschi
Palazzo Baldeschi also houses a large permanent collection of art, ranging from early religious art to modern works. Here are some of the pieces and artists we admired:
Lunch at La Prosciutteria
By the time we left the museum, it was time for lunch. Fortunately there are plenty of good places to eat in Perugia. We looked around a bit and found a little place called the Prosciutteria. Once inside, we realized that it is one of the places Stanley Tucci visited in the Umbria episode of his show, “Searching for Italy.” There were a lot of nice options on the menu, and we finally opted to share the large meat and cheese board. The food was delicious.
We finished our trip to Perugia with a quick trip to the two Asian supermarkets to buy soba noodles, sesame oil, ……, and, most importantly, cilantro.
