- Sunday - April 22 -
We took it easy this morning at the hotel. Finished packing and getting ready to leave for Bologna.
Our train was an Euro Express (bullet train) that got us to Bologna in 35 minutes. Pretty impressive. Unfortunately yours truly picked a hotel 20 minutes walking distance from the city center. The hotel is nice but it's no Florence resort.
In all honesty- Our first afternoon in Bologna was maybe the worst part of the trip so far. The hotel was to far, it felt like it was in the bad side of town, everything was closed, and a bit dirty and old. A real winner I thought (sarcasm). Plus on top of all of that no one wanted to try and speak English like in the other cities. We were able to get by on the 10 Italian words we knew in Rome, Assisi, and Florence. Here...it felt like we were going to starve and never get back to the ghetto we were staying in. Oh and we had to go to a laundromat where there are just to many problems to name from that situation. Just imagine Christopher and I in the bad parts of Bronx at 10:00pm in a sketchy laundromat with no English. No bueno.
So the first day was bad. Really bad. Christopher said we needed to experience this and not all of the pomp and circumstance the other cities have given to foreigners. Foreigner- I have never felt so foreign until Bologna.
- Monday - April 23
Next morning (today)...it's a new day. Boy, was it ever. The hotel seemed better, the neighborhood was wayyy better feeling, and Bologna....wow. I love you! We obviously were not walking in the right areas yesterday. Today it was Italy at its finest. Amazing shops, cute little cheese shops, fruit and vegetable stands set up everywhere, great restaurants, and a wonderful park where in the afternoon we took a rest as do all Italians. Nothing is open from 1-3:30. It's crazy. So if you cant beat em...join em! So this is a story about second chances. Bologna I am sorry I doubted you.
Last night when I was in the funk and thinking that we might not make it out of Bologna alive (I am serious the laundromat was sketchy)...we began to talk and ask the question where would an Italian go in America to feel the most "Americana". Probably our answers don't match yours but one thing is true...Americans would not try to conversate in the native tongue of the foreigner. The foreigner may also land in the Bronx thinking that is Manhattan. So in the end, we are learning many lessons from Bolgona.
The food here is absolutely amazing. Homemade rigatoni...for lunch mine were studded with ricotta...for dinner pumpkin! Oh yeah! So in the end Bologna has been great!
My pictures may show up at the beginning or at the end...I don't know. Enjoy!
One of the pictures is a latte macchiato that a girl we met today told us to try at this cute little coffee shop.
The other picture is of us waiting on our dinner reservation...we were getting hungry!
Tomorrow we are doing a tour of a parmesan factory, balsamic factory, and cured ham factory! Can't wait! :)
Ciao!
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