We’re getting a tiny bit antsy spending a full month on top of a hill in Italy {Perugia}, but I wanted to share some of the amazing things we’ve seen since we’ve been here.

We walked up a different part of the hill to a really high point where there was a 1200 year old church - Chiesa di San Michele Arcangelo. I’m not sure how to describe it, but as soon I walked through the door it took my breath away. To be in a structure that old….the energy is palpable. It was something I’ll never forget.

And then of course…there’s Sandri. Sandri is the most amazing cafe I’ve ever been to.

The interior of the shop is long and narrow. When you first enter, the coffee bar is immediately on your right and a man in a black slacks and a red coat with shiny gold buttons greets you and is just so happy to make you something. One of the older gentlemen introduced me to cafe d’orzo, which is roasted barley that is ground and brewed like coffee and is a popular drink to order in the afternoon when you don’t want caffeine. He’d prepare it for me in the most beautiful china cup on a saucer with a twist of orange in it to deepen the flavor.

If you continue walking deeper into the shop you’ll find a case of gelato and then case after case of pastries the likes of which you’ve never seen before in your life. They’re all like art pieces and are sold by the pound. On Kris’ birthday we bought a whole cake and it was so dense, it was $40! But it was so worth it and it took us several days to eat:

Outside of Sandria there is tons of seating situated right in the main drag of Perugia in a pedestrian only area. In the afternoons we’d sit outside with our coffee and treats and write and oogle their staff made up of the most beautiful people ever:

And at night they’d roll out a bunch of carts packed with gorgeous food for their evening buffet. It was only 10 euros per person and was all you can eat. It was so fresh and so amazing. We did that several times.

We made many delicious, cheap dinners with grocery store fixins:

And of course all the ingredients that are super expensive to import in the U.S. are dirt cheap and totally normal here. Like this gigantic hunk of truffle we got for FOUR DOLLARS:

There was another cafe we frequented called ABC Cafe - it’s now called Pinturicchio Cafe+Kitchen— they had the most gorgeous interior and lots of really warm and cozy seating areas, plus free wifi and really good sandwiches. The walking around in Perugia is just pretty epic. The layout of the city is just so unique — all the hills, the random inclines, the stairs. It’s nuts:

I’ll never forget this, but from our apartment — just to get outside the door and to the first street as 283 steps. That’s a frikkin lot. And you don’t get used to it and my fitness level didn’t magically improve. Ha!

There was an amazing pizza place, Mediterranea, right around the corner off the main square. A couple of times we ate in, but mostly we just ordered them to-go and would bring them back to our apartment. Their “lasagna” pizza was a favorite.

Another night we had an amazing dinner at a steakhouse in town that was highly recommended. The interior was seriously beautiful, but the terrace was even better and we ate outside:

Another day we discovered an American style burger place that was a nice little taste of home. When we first walked in there was nobody in sight and we just sort of hung around for a minute until someone appeared. We ate outside on the empty patio and it was actually really nice. They always provide you with a shitload of sauces — I guess that’s something synonymous with Americans? Ha.

Another night we had a lovely dinner at a seafood place called La pecora nera— again eating outside and I think this was one of our first meals where we got through the service almost entirely in Italian:

And of course we just had lots of fucking glorious pasta (before we got tired of it!)

So, um -- Perugia has been a mixed bag... {2014}