Last Day in Perugia

Today we decided to visit a small museum outside the city walls.  It was also outside the ubiquitous map that we had.  It is clear that Perugia is not as tourist oriented as other places we have been, this is both an advantage and a disadvantage.  We ventured out hoping to see a small free laboratorio.  A museum that has medieval looms and uses ancient weaving techniques to create beautiful tablecloths, clothing and table runners.  The woman who showed us around was the great granddaughter of the women who founded the enterprise.  The museum was in a disused Franciscan church, established when Francis of Assisi was still alive.  Her father purchased the run down church as a place to store machinery and she remembers playing tennis inside the spacious area when it was wet outside.
Our visit here was an absolute stand out for me.  (Bron, you would have loved it).  She showed us how the early looms worked (very physical to operate) and then she showed us the 'new' French jacquard loom, which had binary cards that dictated the pattern of the weave and whose pedal pressing weight was between 70 - 90 kg!
We also visited the Art Gallery of Umbria.  Although the interior was beautifully cool, there is a limit to how much religious art one can absorb.  We did like the decorative wafers irons, used to make communion wafers a bit like large jaffle irons.