OOOHM-bree-uh

That's how you pronounce the region in which we arrived today. Turns out that Francois has some unexpected time off, so we took the two days notice we had and planned a great week in Umbria and Tuscany. We got to Perugia (Pare OOH jhee uh) today, and although it's not quite what we expected, we're having a fine time. We left our apt. a little after 7 in the morning and didn't check in to the hotel until after 3. Umbria is known for its rolling hills and well-preserved medieval towns. I think we were thinking "rural" and instead ended up in a large university town with a small historic center... However, our hotel is nice, the historic center is VERY historic (we're planning tomorrow to see an Etruscan well from the third century BC), and although we can't see much of the hills most of the time, there is a fantastic view of them from the roof terrace here.

Sine we arrived so late, there wasn't time for much after Simeon's nap except to walk to the main piazza and see some of the architecture, peek inside the cathedral, and find some dinner. We happened upon our best meal yet in Italy! We were the first table seated this evening at a great small ristorante a few blocks off of the main road. There were only a few other tables there when we left, of which one was a giant Italian family. The head waiter translated the menu a bit for us and ended up choosing / suggesting our meals, which were incredible. Simeon was an even bigger hit than usual and another waiter even brought him a baseball cap with the restaurant logo on it at the end of our meal. The most touching part was that he had already tightened the back strap such that it was small and would fit his head; this and the fact that they took a huge sword off the wall and let him hold it pretty much made his night. We also tried to teach him a thing or two about how to impress the ladies, as a young Italian girl (maybe 8 or 9 years old?) kept waving to him -- poor Simeon has a lot to learn. At one point he got up the courage to go over near her end of the table to say ciao, but choked at the last minute and ended up just running back to his seat and sticking his finger in his nose.

The house wine was so smooth, and the people so sincerely friendly. It was an unexpected great meal and one I won't soon forget!