And we didn't even see Amanda Knox

Today was Hal's birthday--15 years old, OMG! Hal had the choice of whether to stick around Assisi or go to a nearby hilltown. The choice for today was to visit nearby Perugia.

Now for those of you who aren't from Seattle, you may not be subject to the barrage of images we get in the great Northwest...but Amanda Knox is one of our hometown icons. She was a girl that went off on a college exchange progam to lovely Perugia. But things went very badly for her there. She, her boyfriend and an African are accused of killing her roomate in a drug-induced craze.

Perugia is one of the larger hilltowns of Umbria with over 100,000 residents. It is the capital of Umbria and is home to much history and art. Perugia is also home to several universities and has been a college town for 1000 years.

We visited the National Gallery of Umbria and took in the 40 rooms of 11th to 16th century local art. The paintings and sculpture of this region tracks the works of Italy as a whole. We saw Raphaels and hundreds of pre-plague pannels of Madonna Con Bambino. But with each painting we could see an evolution--an evolution that let straight to the Renaisance.

We also toured a pre-Roman, Etruscan well bored 37 meters below the street level. This was a well that was the basis for the city's development. During times of seige it provided the city/state an ability to weather the storm but was abandoned in later years as the electric pump and peace made water supply a more mundane affair. (Although during WWII, the well was used to supply the town during the Allied bombings).

Later we sat across from the Tibunal Appello and snacked on gelato. Ostensibly, this is the place were Amanda is going through her appeals trial. We watched the Policia/Penitentiaria vans coming and going and couldn't help but wonder if Amanda was on board--on her way to her next exchange program. It's funny, if it were the States there would have been a bunch of T-Shirt vendors selling "Free Amanda" T-shirts. Didn't see a-one.