Wait, the bars don't serve alcohol?

We're all learning something new everyday here. Lesson of the day: "Bar" in Italian refers to a coffee shop, NOT an American bar. In Italian today, our professor took us out to her favorite bars in the city center, and we learned what different types of "coffee words" mean (like the differences between a caffe lungo, caffe macchiato, caffe corretto, caffelatte, cappuccino...) The list could go on forever. Before we knew about the "bar" connotation, a girl in my class asked the professor if going to a bar meant she was going to buy us drinks!

Cappuccinos are delicious! Here is a picture from Sunday morning of my first cappuccino. Breakfast barely exists in Italy; if you are hungry, you can get a cappuccino and a scone. However, breakfast is never a full sit-down type of affair.

I also had a scone and Nutella. I was quite thrilled to learn that Nutella is very popular here! My UMass roomie (hi Robin!) would understand this. She frequently watched me eat it out of the jar...

(A layer of Nutella coated the inside as well).

I've been really busy the last two days with Intensive Italian! We have grammar lessons from 9-12 with a short break at 10:30, lunch/resting break from 12-1:15, and then "survival Italian" from 1:30-3. During survival Italian, we cover a different topic each day that is useful for our stay. For example, today we learned about the bar. Yesterday, our professor took us on the "Mini-Metro" (a rail type thing that moves by itself and feels like Disneyland!). We ventured downhill to another part of Perugia to go to the large supermarket called Coop. We learned how a supermarket works in Italy. There are so many differences from US stores! Instead of just taking a shopping cart, you have to pay money to get one. If you return the cart at the end of your shopping, you get your money back. This is to prevent robbery, as well as the need to hire people to wrangle all of the stranded carts! I'll post more about the supermarket (including pictures) next time I'm there!

I think that's all for now! Tonight Umbra is treating us to dinner at a local restaurant, so that should be delicious. Stay tuned for more postings in the coming days! Ciao!