Sunday 18 April

And indeed that's what I did. Breakfast yesterday at nameless hotel (in fact the sign and the scontrino: Villa Verde) consisted of plastic-wrapped everything: fette biscottate and jam, fine — but cornetti, really! And 8:15 found me sitting on a bench outside the tabaccaio; 8:30 the bus, which would wend its way to Perugia via every little place it could find Pianello, Prétola, everything except PSG of course; at 9:30‑ish I was at the Piazza Partigiani in Perugia looking at bus schedules.

The option was to go back home but finally lose a day: but a bus left for Città della Pieve at 12:05; I filled in the time by going back to the Museo Archeologico, hoping among other things to find the corredo funebre from the Tomba del Faggeto, but I didn't. At the same time I was relieved to see that my photographs of the Cippo Perugino last time was not as careless as I thought: there's a left side but no right side, I did fine.

12:05, bus to Città della Pieve: high-school kids, noisy, plus Radio Subasio — rain, fog, drizzle: and some nasty landscape for the first part, thru S. Sisto, S. Andrea delle Fratte, Mugnano; after which much nicer thru Città della Pieve where we arrived at 13:35. Drizzle, but a hotel right near the bus stop, and a room available, and lunch.

Lunch very good, my best meal so far this trip. Farrotto (is to farro what risotto is to riso) al tartufo, with radicchio as window-dressing to give it some color; and boar with apples and onions all' agrodolce, excellent. Fries — the cook's heart not in them (yet good fries can be just as good as anything else: I thought of Rosanna!) — and a grigliata di verdure with a very good aïoli; a coupla desserts — orange and almond cake, a crème brûlée — and a hot mandarine punch to wrap it all up; sensing a good meal from the start, I had half a bottle of Sagrantino (Adanti, 1999), and saved the other half for dinner.

Strengthened by this blowout rather than the reverse — I'd been hungry since Valfabbrica, where the cook, sweet as she was, and tho' she didn't poison me by any means, didn't believe in feeding her boobies — I then went on my exploration of Città della Pieve: various churches, up and down the streets, and walked out into the countryside in a couple of directions; all brick, even rather bright red brick, but the town is pleasant, even pretty, and I liked it.

When the rain started up again, I clambered into the hotel, took a hot shower and watched TV for an hour, then Part II of the Città della Pieve blow-out — Peruvian cook but he cooks better Umbrian than many Umbrians: a sample portion of the acquacotta, a tomatoed peasant soup with bread and a shirred egg white; agnello a scottadito, very plain and very good; spinach with raisins and pinenuts, less successful, a B. Crema-flavored ice cream affogato al Grand Marnier — wanted something light — and to bed.