Trip report 1984, Italy and Spain part 1

In the summer of 1984 I visited my sister in Perugia Italy and studied Spanish in Madrid. I thought I'd write a report on it, as it was a memorable trip. My sister was studying at the University for Foreigners in Perugia, so that June, once I was done with my junior year in high school, I flew to Zurich en route to Perugia. (why Zurich you ask, I'm not sure really perhaps my parents found a good deal on a RT ticket to there). I took the train from Zurich into Italy transferring in Milan, IIRC. Somewhere around Florence everybody left the train, and an English speaking passenger told me that we had to get off due to flooding. We then took a bus to Florence I believe.
I have vague memories of some uncertainty at that point in getting to Perugia but ended up on another train and finally making it there and taking a city bus into the town. From there I asked people how to find my sisters address and a nice young guy actually walked me all the way there. I was instantly struck by Perugia's charm, the old buildings, the winding streets etc..
For the next two weeks or so I hung out with my sister. She introduced me to her friends, and I met a variety of Italians, other Europeans and Americans. We took a day trip to Florence with an Italian friend of hers and rather than do tourist stuff we hung out in the Boboli gardens and watched the movie Papillion. We also visited Siena with her.
Then as now I was interested in politics and in my first week in Perugia the election campaign for the European Parliament was on. There were posters everywhere but not many rallies to speak of (European parliament elections aren't usually major campaigns compared to national parliament ones), outside of thinly attended rallies by the MSI party, the neo-fascists who held several outside of their headquarters along the Corso Vanucci. My sister translated some of the speeches for me, nothing too radical, IIRC. The big political news was the death of Communist Party leader Enrico Berlinguer (the Italian Communist Party was Italy's second biggest at the time).
I mention this because on a day trip to Rome my sister and I by accident wandered by the reviewing of the body of Berlinguer. I don't remember much else about that one day trip to Rome, but I do remember my favorite day trip location from Perugia, Lake Trasimeno. I went there at least once by myself to swim and hang out, and at least once with my sister and some of her friends.
I stayed at my sisters apartment which had many rooms, being a student apartment. I paid rent to her landlady. Not sure how much, but pretty modest per night. I believe I had my own room, but can't remember off hand. For meals I can't remember too much, but do recall going to this really cheap student oriented restaurant called La Botte where I would get Penne Arabiata for a really good price, maybe 3 or 4 thousand lira. The lira was then at 1700 to the dollar.
My sister seemed to know everybody, both from her regular classes, and from acting classes that she was taking on her own. I recall going to some of them and hanging out while she did voice lessons. In the evenings we would join the rest of town and do the Passegiata along the Corso Vanucci. I remember getting the stracciatelle ice cream (chocolate chip) pretty much exclusively.
I was due in Madrid to start my language classes on July 1, so toward the end of my time in Perugia it was time for us to do a vacation in Italy, and actually vacation like Italians. We went to the student travel office, and found out about a really cheap bungalow low budget seaside vacation option in Tropea in Calabria on the toe of the Italian peninsula. But that is a matter for part 2.