Italy has so much to offer, from Rome, Florence, Venice, Amalfi, Sicily, Cinque Terre, to name a few. It’s hard to see everything, but that’s Why I Decided to Study Abroad in Rome. From Rome, there are so many day trips and weekend trips. I could’ve spent the whole four months exploring Italy. We took a few day trips from Rome, but my favorite one was to Perugia. Perugia is in the Umbria region of Italy. It was our first trip.
9:30 am:
Depart Rome Tiburtina Bus Station
We took the metro from our apartment in the neighborhood in Trastevere to the Rome Tiburtina Bus Station. We couldn’t find the correct bus terminal and ended up having to run to make the bus. Our bus cost €4.99 round trip for each of us from FlixBus. The ride was about 2 hours.
11:45:
Arrive in Perugia
We arrived in Perugia at 11:45 pm. It dropped us off at the bus station, which was also the mini-metro station. The mini-metro is a mix between a ski lift, a metro car, and a slow rollercoaster. It’s unique to Perugia and is a great way to get around. The metro car is the size of a large gondola and takes you to different places around the city.
We walked to the restaurant we planned for lunch, Il Paiolo. There, we had the most amazing charcuterie board, with all different kinds of meats, cheeses, fried potatoes, polenta, fried mozzarella, and bruschetta. Then I had pasta with cheese and pancetta. The people in the restaurant spoke little English, which made it a little difficult, however, some of my friends spoke Italian well and helped us communicate.
2:00pm
After lunch, we took a cab to the Perugina Chocolate factory. Here we got a tour of how they make chocolate and we also got to sample a ton of amazing chocolates. We had dark, white, mint, caramel, and many more. We also learned about the history of the Perugina/Bacci chocolate factory.
4:00pm
After the chocolate factory, we made our way back to the main town square, where we hiked up to the highest point in the town. We took pictures, admired the architecture, and we were blown by the wind. As we were walking to the Corsa Vanucci (the main square), we were talking to a local and he asked if we wanted to see the city from the top of the University. I said, “Of course”! He led us to the top of the University of Perugia and we took pictures and got to look out over the whole city.
5:30 pm
We knew that there was an underground part of the city, hundreds of intrigued walkways underneath the city. We explored it for about an hour. We then went to the Piazza Italia and sat in the park and watched the sunset over the clouds. We saw a beautiful sunset, with an array of lovely pink hues.
7:30 pm
We stopped at a nearby cafe for some hot chocolate and to warm up and then took the mini-metro back to the bus station.
8:00 Left Perugia
Our bus took us back to Rome and we got there around 10:00 pm.
22:15 Rome Tiburtina Station
Perugia is a beautiful city and the region of Umbria offers many other amazing day trips from Rome. If you are looking for a quick one day trip to escape the hustle and bustle of Rome, try visiting Perugia!