This City Vs. Mine

Something that I have struggled with a lot since coming here is the difference between Perugia and the cities at home that I’m used to. The biggest struggle has been the difference of transportation. At home, in the New Jersey/New York area, there are many viable options for traveling. Though they can be disorganized and slightly unreliable, there is always an accessible way to get where you need to be. I find that here, it’s much harder to get to and from Perugia, or even get around Perugia itself. The mini-metro closes at 9 pm, even though places are open much later than that here. Last weekend, I was traveling home from Barcelona, and the train and bus options from Rome to here were really limited. There was only one for both modes of transport. In Barcelona itself, it was no problem to get around the entire city using their metro system.

I started to think about why these traveling options may be limited, and I begun to realize that Perugia is a smaller and more modest city than the ones I’m used to. Travel is much easier in cities such as Rome, London, and Barcelona. I chose Perugia for it’s quaintness, so I begun to have an appreciation for the fact that there’s not large and busy modes of transportation (such as the subway stations that crowd NYC). The limited access helps to maintain Perugia’s charm.

However, in observing it through a placemaking lense, I think there should be more thought put into Perugia’s transportation. People in Italy are barely eating dinner at 9 o’clock. If life is still happening, the mini-metro should be open later to help it’s citizens get around the rest of the city.


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