Sorry about the delay but it turns out schoolwork actually has a way of getting in the way of much more pleasurable activities...such as writing to all of you.
This past weekend, I visited the city of Bologna located about a hour north of Florence. Joining me on the trip were five others: Meredith and Sara from Syracuse University and Ben, Kobe and David from Tufts. We got to know each other during orientation as I roomed with the three guys when I first arrived and we all met the two girls later that week.
Our first experience on the way to Bologna was the super-fast, quick-moving, ludicrous speed bullet train. It took a little more than a half hour for us to arrive in Bologna despite the cities actually being 123 Km apart (which according to Google maps would take about an hour and a half driving.) Although the train moved really fast, there was no view because we were in a tunnel for most of the journey. Every so often I would look up and we would pass out of a tunnel and then into another tunnel. Kind of frustrating, getting your camera out to take a picture and then missing the scenery because you're moving so fast.
Upon finishing the scenery-less trip to the Stazione Centrale, we stepped outside in order to find our hotel. The second thing we hadn't planned on was the weather. Florence is by no means in Southern Italy and the temperature is consistently in the higher 40's, Bologna is an hour and a half north and is considerably less warm. Stepping out of the station was like going back to Syracuse... windy, overcast and kind of gloomy. Although we could see our breath like we were smoking heavily, we continued on to find our hotel nestled in a back alley near the city's center.
The rest of that day was spent looking around the city's center for famous landmarks including the oldest university in the world and the famous statue of Poseidon. We also walked around to see the Due torri (two towers), not the two from the book... sorry, and the Cathedral in the same square as the university. Although quite imposing from the outside, the cathedral was quite spacious (one of the largest I've been in) and beautifully constructed. When one of my friends asked about the scaffolding inside, a worker replied that the church is actually still under construction after about 600 years. As we looked we could indeed see where parts of the ceiling had unfinished portions of the beautiful frescos and were currently being worked on.
That night we sampled the delicious pasta that Bologna is famous for: the Tortellini and Tagliata Bolognese. The famed Bologna sauce had a variety of spiced beef or sausage meat and when we sprinkled the fresh parmesan on top... delicious.
The following day I woke up early and went with a walk through the street market with Meredith and Sara. The market was quite large and we spent a good couple of hours wandering through the variety of shops and stalls and looking for anything interesting or unique. When we began to get hungry, we traveled to find a small pizza shop not far from our hotel. Once again, Italian food did not disappoint and we quickly finished our delicious pizza.
Upon returning to the hotel we met up with the other three who had slept in and decided to make the trek to the Basilica of San Luca which came highly recommended by our helpful manager at the hotel, Giuseppe. After about 20 minutes on a bus we were greeted by a 4 Km walk up the side of a mountain. However once we arrived and saw both the beautiful church and the beautiful view of Bologna from the beautiful church, we all agreed that it was well worth the wait and the walk.
That night we once again sampled the delicious fare that Bologna had to offer before retiring early in order to catch our train the next morning. When we got back to Florence, 30 more scenery less minutes we all were relieved and elated when instead of putting more clothes on, it was actually warm enough to remove our jackets. As we got off the train we parted ways for the rest of Sunday to finish homework.
Although the adventure to Bologna was over I was glad I went and saw everything. I then made a mental note to travel South for the next trip. Hopefully somewhere on the Mediterranean...
Ciao for now as I hope to write again soon
John
No comments:
Post a Comment