An Aussie in Perugia

What makes a place so memorable? Is it the food, history, architecture, people, service, or the connections we make with people.

A lot of the towns and city’s we have been to have great food, service, architecture, history but its the ones that we make connections with people that are most memorable. Whether it’s a regular chat with the local ice cream shop owner who tells us his life story or maybe an encounter with someone special.

On our first day in Perugia, Nasser, Yusef and I went on our usual initial discovery walk. On this occasion however as we were chatting we heard someone ask “Are you Australian?”.

As I turned around to respond we were met with the amazing Trina who was extremely friendly and welcoming. We explained we came from Perth, “so do I” responded Trina. What!! It turns out Trina is originally from the hills in Perth but had lived in Japan and Hong Kong. As we continued our conversation we found that Trina had also studied art in Florence as did Yusef. Well that’s all it took for an invitation to Trina’s studio. Trina now calls Perugia home and showed us her amazing paintings and photos that she had taken.

I organised a photo shoot with Trina, it was such a lovely experience. I have shared some of the photos taken in the video section of this site. If you are in Perugia and would like a photoshoot as well contact Trina direct via her website trinaohara.com or instagram trinaoharapainter.