Passignano (pah-sin-yawn-o)

In grad-school structures we learned to calculate the exact center of gravity of a strangely-shaped piece of steel. I guess we used it to figure out where the forces would accumulate, I can't really remember, but it's how I picture lake Trasimeno (tra-see-meh-no) in Italy. Like if you took all of Italy and tried to figure out where it's center of gravity was? Lake Trasimeno.

Passignano is on the east side of the lake, about halfway up. It's an hour or so north of Perugia. At one time that was really important because with all the warring factions in Italy, Perugia had the biggest army and most of the little towns around here swore their allegiance in exchange for protection.

The first picture is Passignano from the water. See the building to the right behind the clocktower? That's our building (although unfortunately not our windows). We're about halfway up the street between the clocktower and the tower of the castle above. Now to get from the level of the water up to our house? You have three options. You can take the street or stairs on the north side of the old City which wind up the hill more slowly, but there's no shade over there, so it's an unlikely choice (unless you've just arrived in town with your rolling luggage). You can take the winding switchback stairs (picture 2, showing switchback 3 of 4), which are lovely, but only shaded morning and late afternoon. Or if it's the middle of the day, you take the really long staircase (picture 3) and then walk up the street (picture 4). That's if you really must be out in the middle of the day, which we're learning, you don't want to be. In the last picture, you're on our doorstep looking back down at the water.

Charles Dickens spent a year traveling through Italy and wrote a book about everything he saw. The descriptions are great, often invoking either fears of savage pre-roman societies, or appreciation of rustic living. I think his descriptions are wonderful, but I'm awfully glad I can describe everything with a few photos instead.