"Avere un grande tempo, vi auguro sono stati qui." "Having a great time, wish you were here."

Again, we haven't been up to too much - just settling in and living life. We finally got internet into the apartment earlier this week, so it's been great chatting with people who are on messenger or facebook. Also, it makes Terry's life easier because he can work at home. We still make a point of getting to Centro every day for coffee, shopping and/or strolling.

Meryck has been doing some homework to make up for the time we were offline. At least he tells me he's getting caught up! Everyone asks about him, but he's not much for giving me an update. He really does seem happier since we've moved, and even more so since we've got the internet. He stays up late and chats with his friends in Canada til the wee hours, then sleeps in late. He's turning into quite the Italian - this seems to be the regular routine for young men here.

Last weekend Terry and I rented an audioguide and did a walking tour of Centro - we probably walked for a couple of hours and saw over half the sites. I think I'll probably do it again one day and see the sites we missed. Perugia has beautiful architecture and an amazing history. We have spent hours in Centro, and not seen the things we saw on the walking tour. We also heard the story of things that we pass almost every day - like Fontana Maggiore and many of the buildings on Corso Vannucci, the main 'road', though it is mostly pedestrian. Wikipedia has a good article on Perugia, if you're interested in reading more.

During our walk, I could feel a sore throat coming on, and the next day I woke up feeling like crap. Unfortunately, this was the day we were supposed to meet the Hartwigs in Firenze!! So Terry hopped on the morning train by himself, and I slept most of the day away. It sounds like he had a good visit with his old boss Gary and his wife Cath. They are staying with long-lost relatives in Tuscany.

We have lots of friends and family who are planning to come visit, and we're looking forward to seeing all of you! (yes, even you Doots!) On the right hand side of this blog, we have a link under visitor's calendar that says 'see when we are free'. click on this link and scroll through the calendar to see who is coming and when. If you have dates in mind - even tentatively - let me know and I'll put it in the calendar.

If you are looking for the easiest way here, you can fly into Perugia, but this might be more expensive than flying into one of the major airports. Rome or Florence to Perugia is easy by train, about 2.5 hours and €10-20 ($15-30), depending on time of day, number of transfers, etc. You can buy tickets online, but it might be cheaper to wait and buy them at the station - the big cities have self-service machines that 'speak' english. If you do it that way, be sure to validate your ticket using the punch machine on the platform.

If you find a great seat sale to somewhere else in Europe, it might be worth it to get there and then fly or train to Perugia. Ryanair is known for its awesome seat sales (sometimes you fly free, and only have to pay taxes, so as little as €25 or $40) Ryanair flies direct to Perugia from London or Barcelona. Other than than, you can fly Ryanair to Rome or Florence from most major European cities. Go cheap or go home!

Feel keen to really immerse yourself while you're here? My mom recommends this for learning Italian: "Italian in 10 minutes a day" Workbook and audio cds by Bilingual Books Inc. $39 in Costco! (not bad, considering that the one I'm using was several hundred dollars! (of course we paid for it!)

That's it for now, hope I inspired some of you to start your travel plans! Now I'm off to bed - I have to get a good sleep tonight because Eurochocolate 2008 starts tomorrow!

Ciao!