Perugia and a Railway Education

I spent this Friday into Saturday in Perugia, a lovely little hill town with gorgeous views and lots of those little picturesque archways and cobblestone streets that one expects to find in Italy.

I made my way back to Rome yesterday, due to the fact that I was feeling a little under the weather and in need of some Benadryl and a little time to sleep off the ickiness in my own bed (tiny and cot-like though it may be). My route home was a touch annoying (I did a lot of waiting around in train stations yesterday), but as I waited out the train to Termini in Terontola, I noticed a plaque on the wall devoted to a one Gino Bartali. What I could decipher from the Italian text on the plaque was that this guy was a cyclist, and an accomplished one at that. I wondered what kind of cycling legacy earns someone train station plaques, and while nosing around for some info on 'Gino the Pious,' I realized that not only is my Italian icons-of-sport history a little shaky, so too am I un-savvy regarding contemporary cycling. In all of our football fervor, we've been ignorant to the Giro d'Italia, which has been in progress since we arrived in Rome. The race ended today(!); Russian Denis Menchov is the winner.

Top left: Kids playing football in Perugia.
Bottom right: Gino being not-so-pious. Image found here.