“Happy Day” By Universita per Stranieri Students Meredith Would Surely Have Got Along With

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At a quick count my guess is Meredith would already have seen most of those places.

Approximately the third scene with a girl in a brown leather jacket is on the steps at Perugia’s highest point which Meredith presumably used, she could look up to them from her place. There’s also a shot up some other steps, below the English girls’ house, where Meredith walked home with Sophie. The funicular was not yet working. 

Perugia is really mostly about the universities which make it smart and wealthy and well preserved. If you have not yet been there one thing that might surprise you is how high the top of the massif is, the roads wind up for a considerable distance. The other well-known university town on a massif is Sienna but that is a molehill in comparison.

This below is another video with students from the language school. The point of the school is as much about Italian culture and inside - you can walk right through it - it is very ornate. Its an administrative part of the main university but not an academic part and if a student completes only one semester they are still welcomed. If the requirement had been a full year (which is what Meredith signed up for) Knox might not even have gone there.

<iframe width=“600” height=“450” src=“https://www.youtube.com/embed/5FlZ6L_ig1Y” frameborder=“0” allowfullscreen></iframe>

I wouldn’t say Siena is exactly a molehill. While Siena only has about 53,000 people (versus Perugia’s 166,000), in many other sectors Siena equals or even bests Perugia, especially in terms of ‘quality of living’ index. The two towns are not that far in terms on height either; Perugia is around 500 meter and Siena around 325 meter, roughly. Siena also has a Foreign Student University, a regular university (one of the oldest in Europe) and a very rich history.

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siena

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perugia

Ha ha! Familiar argument not lest among visiting students. Big molehill then?! Its an easy drive right across, if one avoids the small massif with the cathedral.

Perugia had to build a tunnel. Headed down the hill from central Perugia is either very windey (to the railway station) or quite dramatic (to the bottom of the valley from Meredith’s place). Sienna… maybe nicer but less fun driving!

Very nice “Perugia is Happy” video!  I suppose they are happy someone has gone back whence they came 😊

Eat your heart out Obknoxious.

This is the kind of natural exuberance that will go right over our anti-heroine’s head. It won’t be “centre-stage” enough for her. Thus she must perforce find such pleasure as she can in delusional amusements like drugs and writing creative fiction (and we are never allowed to forget she “majored in” the latter). And gazing adoringly at her reflection in the mirror.

She surely underplays her achievements. She also majored in Murder and Getting Away With It,  and if not constrained by wiser (or at least saner) counsel she would likely waste no time in shouting that from the roof tops.

Happy people, living, learning and laughing. Just as it should be, just as it should have been for Meredith and her friends. Of course, there’s nothing to stop Guede from returning to Perugia when his sentence is served, Sollecito says he has frequently returned to Perugia, Knox may be emboldened by time. But they’ll never be able to join that infectious joie de vivre because there is something in their natures which would have always put them on the outside of normal, happy, healthy behaviour. I hope they all see this video and realise how it could all have been so different, that Perugia and its students have such wonderful times and take away with them wonderful memories.

Where next:

Or to next entry Only In Italy? A Complete Orchestra - Of Women Playing Harps

Or to previous entry Buon Anno 2016! Bay Of Naples Has A Fireworks Show Like… Not Your Normal Town