We rode the bus ALL through the night to get to Bologna, Italy around 8 a.m. the next morning. I was smashed against the window. The heat was also ALL on the wall under the window. I was roasting for a lot of the trip. I did manage to get some decent sleep, though.
One of my students happened to be on the trip with his mom and three siblings. That was kind of funny. This boy is in ninth grade and definitely has a crush on me. He is just so funny. Always smiling like a fool when he talks to me. Jenna said he blushed everytime I talked to him on the trip. She also said she noticed his younger sister teasing him a lot about me. Pretty funny. He's a nice young man, though.
So we got to Bologna around 8 or 8:30. Italian flags were hanging everywhere. The day before had been the 150th celebration of Italy. We had a tour that started around 9 a.m. The weather started out a little cloudy, but cleared up after the first couple of hours. It ended up being sunny with beautiful blue skies. I didn't wear my jacket for a while either.
We got to go in the Town Hall. It was a huge building. We were able to see the room where marriage ceremonies take place and also another really big hall. What is really interesting at the Town Hall is that the stairs are really strange. They are at a strange slant and are very big. It's basically a slope with ridges that separate the "steps." And the "steps" are really big and awkward. Reason why? They were stairs for horses. Interesting, eh?
We went into the Basilica di San Domenico, which is the church for the patron saint of Bologna. It is the main church right in the main square near the Town Hall. It was built over 700 years ago.
Bologna is also known for its university founded in 1088. So we got to go to the main university building. We saw the Theatro Anatomico, which is the classroom where human dissections took place. The room is like a theater where the stage is down in the middle of the floor. Seats are all around the main floor in the middle and go up so students could look down to see the dissection. The room was actually destroyed during a bombing during WWI or II, so it was just a replica of the original. It was still really cool.
During the days when dissections were taking place, it was a big market to sell a dead body. When there weren't any bodies, people would follow funerals and then dig up the recently-dead bodies to sell to the university.
After that we got to see the old library room. There were a lot of very old books in cabinets along all the walls. Graduations also take place in that room. There were chairs and a stage set up.
We also went to see a really old church Santo Stefano, which is actually comprised of four different churches all connected. The oldest one dates back to the year 200 BCE. That oldest church is very simple and holds the sarcophagi of two martyrs. This whole site is very important because it contains a crypt from 1019 and precious art pieces. Another church is a replica of Christ's tomb and holds the remains of the patron San Petronio. It was really neat to see this church. There are a couple of neat courtyards there too.
After this, we ate lunch at a local restaurant. We were so hungry that we ordered entirely too much food. We ordered an appetizer plate of bread, cheese, and lunch meat. For my main course I had this pasta, sausage, purple-colored thing. It was so strange, but it was pretty good. There was a piece of baked cheese on top. It was so strange. Haha. It was really purple. I took a picture of it, but it just didn't turn out well.
After lunch, Jenna and I went to the market. There is a market in Bologna on Fridays and Saturdays. I got so much cool stuff! And for great prices too. I bought a couple of necklages and a ring, a cute summery dress, a pair of shoes, and a pair of sunglasses.
We left Bologna around 4 p.m. to go to Hotel Ibis in Padova. It was about an hour and a half drive. Our room was nice. Since we had been touring all day from having been on a bus all night, we could not wait to take showers! Wonderful. There were two other young, single people on the trip just across the aisle and a row in front of us, so the four of us all palled around together. Charlie and Sharon--they're both soldiers at other bases. Anyhow, the four of us were all going to go to dinner together. They came to our room around 7:45, but I was konked out on the bed. Haha. I didn't realize how tired I was. Plus, our room was REALLY hot.
Anyhow, about 15 minutes later I woke up. Jenna and I were going to see if we could order food from anywhere or get room service at least. We were looking at the menu when I saw the fine print informing all food is frozen and just heated up. We passed on room service. So we got real clothes on and went to the front desk to ask for a taxi to go someplace to eat. We ended up eating at a really neat pizza place. We shared a pizza and got fountain Fantas. We decided to get ice cream for dessert. This particular ice cream they put espresso on top of. Very interesting, but good nontheless.
After dinner we went back to the hotel. I fell asleep pretty quickly and had a great, restful night. The next morning we ate a good breakfast at the hotel and were on our way to Florence. Our tour guide thought it was only and hour and a half drive to Florence, but we quickly found out it actually takes two and a half hours to get there.
When we got there, it was cloudy and looked like it could rain. It did spit a few sprinkles around noon, but then cleared up and was beautiful. I didn't really wear my jacket at all once the sun came out.
We had another tour for about an hour and half when we got there. We saw the outside of the library. We saw The Duomo (cathedral), Baptistery St. John, and Santa Croce. These three are all right beside of each other and kind of connected. They are pretty cool and pretty. Michelangelo, Rossini, Machiavelli, and Galileo Galilei are all buried in the Santa Croce.
We went to the different squares in Florence and learned some history. We ended our tour in the main square where the town hall is located. In this square are a lot of replicas of old Roman statues. That is really neat. Jenna, Sharon, and I ate at outside at Ristorante Pizza Orcagna in the main square. It was yummy and so cool to eat in that location. We shared a small bottle of the house wine and each had out own small pizza.
Are you wondering why Charlie wasn't with us? He overslept. He was such a chump. He showed up Thursday night to get on the bus with a bottle of wine, which he drank. He told us he'd already drank a bottle before that too. He also drank six bottles of beer on the bus. On German buses, you can buy drinks (soda, water, and beer). At one point, he woke our tour guide up at about four in the morning (Thursday night) to buy a bottle of beer. (I was asleep for this; Jenna informed me the next day) Anyhow, she asked him how many he'd had and informed him this one would be his last. Haha! Anyway, he was obviously wiped out Friday, so he overslept Saturday and missed our bus to Florence.
Back to my day now. So after lunch, the three of us set off for the old bridge, Ponte Vecchio, to see some pretty scenery. There are a lot of artists set up on the sidewalks and piazzas, so we took a look at what they had. After that, Sharon and I walked up this big hill right past the Giardino delle Rose (Rose Garden) to look out over Florence. It was so pretty. Up there is a replica of the statue David. There were vendors up there. I bought a couple of cool t-shirts for five euros each. Normally I don't buy really touristy things like that. I also bought a zippie sweatshirt for 10 euros. They all say Italia or Firenze.
So after that we decided to take it easy and get some gelato, which was SO good. We chilled out and bargained for a couple of prints from African guys selling stuff on the streets. It was pretty fun and funny. As we were going back to the bus, it started to get cloudy again and as we were leaving Florence it started to rain a little.
When we got back to the bus, we were surprised to see Charlie! He got a train to Florence and just happened to find our bus. Weird.
Anyway, so we got back to the hotel. After a bit, the four of us decided to go get dinner together. Charlie had the bright idea to just get a cab to the "main" area in Padova. So we got there and started walking... not finding any place to eat. And we were starving. I really wanted some pasta! I never got my pasta. We finally found a place that was more lunchy. I got a panini and it was pretty good. We shared a bottle of wine with dinner.
After dinner we started walking and decided to go into this place we called the Blue Bar. We really don't know the name of it, but all the lights inside were blue. It looked pretty cool, but once we got in there and sat down at a table we realized it was kind of dirty. haha. It was funny. I had a mojito; it was good. We had a fun time just talking and laughing.
When we were ready to go back to the hotel we asked if we could call a cab. The place didn't have a phone and none of our cells worked there. So off we went walking. We couldn't find any main traffic areas where there were cabs, so we asked a couple of police men where to go. They pointed us in the right direction. I was pretty proud of myself. I saw a cab coming, I stepped out into the street a little bit, raised my arm... and the cab stopped! We hopped in and went back to the hotel.
The next morning was another good breakfast at the hotel. They had a fancy coffee machine that made all kinds of different copies. There were also about four sizes of cups to choose from. The morning before none of us could figure the thing out so I asked someone who worked there. I learned how to work the thing AND learned what cups to use for the different cups. Haha. So Sunday morning I knew what cups to use and how to use thing.
At 8 a.m. we left for Venice, which was only about a 30 minute drive away. The weather was the best yet of the whole weekend. We got to Venice and had to take a 25 minute boat ride to the main part. Once there, we had all the time to ourselves. The four of us palled around all morning and afternoon. The canals are cool and the little streets/sidewalks wind around everywhere. We did a lot of shopping. There is Murano glass everywhere.
I made quite a few purchases in Venice. I got a couple Murano wine bottle stoppers, two Murano rings, a scarf, and a couple of glass decorative pieces. We ate lunch at the main canal by the Rialto Bridge at a place called Cafe Saraceno. It was really nice. We sat outside in the sun. It was lovely and warm. I had a macaroni type dish with a red sauce and tuna in it. It was really good. We had bread and shared wine again. It was a really nice lunch.
After that we had to get back to the dock for our boat. We realized we got lost. We had a map and could not figure out how to get back because of the little windy streets/sidewalks that are really narrow. We finally got back after running. We were only a couple of minutes late and luckily the boat hadn't left yet.
We took the boat back and got on the bus around 2:15 to head back to Germany. We drove through the Alps in Switzerland. Roads in Italy were being redone. The one lane was really bumpy and traffic was SO backed up. It was painful. Because Baumholder was the first base to get picked up on Thursday evening, we were the last people to get dropped off on Sunday night. We got home at 3:30 a.m.
I wake up at 5:30 or so Monday through Friday, so needless to say, Monday was a little rough. It was a great trip, though. Lovely weather. I got some sun on my skin. I love Italy, especially Florence. I think I could live in Italy.
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