Bologna

Ah Bologna, affectionately referred to as La Grassa, or The Fat One by Italians, although nobody is really fat there. It is home to the oldest university in Europe and consequently is full of beautiful young people *B interlude...to say that everyone in this city is beautiful is definitely not an understatement*. I love being around fiery Italians. When I eavsedrop on people I cannot tell if they are mad and yelling at each other or are excited to see each other or maybe just making plans for lunch. It is all done in the same exaggerated loud tones, I am home.

Bologna is situaded in the region of Emilia-Romagna and is in the lush Po river valley. They grow lots of food here including a ton of wheat here and consequently there are about 40 different types of pasta. This town is famous for a lot of food and came up with Tortellini (my personal favorite), lasagna, pasta Bolognese, mortadella and nearby towns invented proscuitto, parmeseano and balsamic vinegar. Food is good here, really good. The first night we ate an antipasta plate (Mortadella, meats, cheeses, pickeled veggies), then I had Toretllini stuffed with sweet sausage and covered in Bolognese (meat) sauce. For lunch I ate two kinds of torellini, one with ricotta and sage and the other in a meat broth, kinda like Pho. Another night I ate lasagna that made me want to cry it was so good and I found another local speciality: It is a veal cutlet, breaded, fried in butter, coverd in ham, then cheese and finished with some sauce. Sweet jesus. Brooke got in on the tortellini train too, but does not remember with as much clarity the various things she ate. *I think I am still stuck on the Gorgonzola risotto that I ate in Lugano. Is there anything better than that? I had a big salad (it's like a salad, only bigger) and it was sooo yummy. In the land of all this pasta, I needed some greens.*

We went out one night with some friends that we met in Venice. We went to an Irish pub and talked about traveling and all kind of stuff. It was nice to share experiences past and present with new friends.

Bologna was nice but a bigger city than I had anticipated. A lot of the central area has porticos covering cafes and shops. It has a nice little old quarter with a Neptune fountain, cobbolstone streets and some towers that rich people pretty much built because they could. Bologna used to have around 100 or so towers, but time and the Allied bombing campaign of WWII has left only a handful. We climbed a tower, 500 steps or so *499 to be exact*, and got a good view of the city. I was talking to an older gentlemen on the way up and I asked if he was from Scotland. He said no, Northern England, York, if I was Scottish you would not be able to understand me. Right, noted. He said the best British beer comes from there and beer from London is crap. I want to explore Northern England a bit so Yorkshire might be in the cards.

Great city overall. Wonderful food. Nice to be away from the tourist hordes. Not a lot of tourists here because as one article I read said, the Colosseum is in Rome, the Boticellis are in Florence and the canals are in Venice. Bologna is great and well worth it, but on a limited time schedule people definitely bypass it. *If you love Italian food, and come on who doesn't, you should definitely visit this place. Everyone is so, so nice and friendly, it is gorgeous with arches everywhere (I learned the difference between Gothic and Roman arches), and lots and lots of churches. Next we went headed to what is so far my favorite town and the place I will someday move to - Ferrara. Now, we must go eat some Florentine food (which does not include spinach, but a lot of soup.) *