Our last day here! I know George is ready to go home. This wasn’t exactly a vacation or even much of a pleasurable trip for him. And I think I’ve seen just about all there is to see in Bologna – at least on the main strip. There are still lots of side streets that have yet to be explored, but something I’m smart enough not to do by myself.
Thinking yesterday was my last day, I had pretty much done all my exploring, so there wasn’t much for me to do today except find some sort of cookie my Mom had asked for with only a description of white on the outside & thin. Thanks Mom! Armed with that description, no clue where to go & a language barrier, I set off on my mission. I stopped at every bakery & grocery like store along the strip. Nothing remotely fit the description. I finally came upon one small shop & the woman actually spoke English! She didn’t even recognize the description. So Mom, we settled on . . . well, you’ll see when I get home.
Again, it was a nice morning for a walk . . . low 70s, low humidity. And I even managed to get across the streets without wiping out this time. I did venture onto one of the side streets, but a rather busy one, so I wasn’t in a remote place. I did find a museum, but wasn’t able to appreciate it because I didn’t know the history of what I was looking at & the plaques, of course, were all in Italian. Further down the strip were more shops. These people love their clothes & shoes. So if anyone is ever interested in going on a shopping vacation – Bologna is one of the places to go!
I’ve seen a lot of people riding old bikes, mopeds & quite a few people take the bus. A lot of people walk from place to place though, which makes getting through some of the narrow sidewalks a bit challenging. All ages are out at different times of day from elderly woman plugging along with their little pull carts to the fast moving young man or woman maneuvering through the crowds with ease. A lot of people with their dogs too, but I haven’t seen a single cat. So what does THAT mean? Be careful of mystery meat? EEEOOO!
George got back his usual time & said the day was mostly review. The instructor did take the guys to a nice restaurant & they had tortellini. At least ONE of us was able to have Bologna’s specialty. They also did a little bit of sight seeing & went to Bologna’s version of the Golden Gate Bridge – a very small version. George said it was only big enough for one of their small cars to cross at a time with about 6” to spare on each side.
We went out to dinner – just the 2 of us this time. Mike needed to do some much needed shopping to bring home souvenirs for his family. It was our last night & George & I made the most of it. We even had a liter of red wine. He usually doesn’t drink wine, but the Italian red wine seems to agree with him. Also, the restaurant we’ve been going to is called La Bella Napoli, but they had the Nastro Azzurro sign out front as well which is an Italian beer they serve on draft. Pretty good stuff too!
Afterwards, we were feeling pretty good from drinking so much wine & decided to head out to the Fontana del Nettuno. Wasn’t as crowded as we thought it would be for a Friday night – about the same amount of people as usual. We walked off our dinner AND our wine & made it back to the hotel. Tomorrow will be a long day. Our flight leaves at 12:10 pm (Bologna time) & we should be arriving in Norfolk around 11:08pm (Norfolk time) . . . you do the math.
It’s been a wonderful experience & I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Next time, I’ll need to bring a friend to share this with while George gets more training. Any takers?!
Before I forget, I did get to post a few pictures on another forum. Check ‘em out . . .
http://www.crappie.com/gr8vb3/showthread.php?t=45109
Thanks for sharing my adventure with me. Wish you could’ve been here!
Friday, August 10, 2007
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Since it was still a possibility of going to Venice tomorrow, my first task was to find out about transportation. I asked Anna the receptionist about the train schedule. She gave me a website to look up the information & the bus schedule to get to the train station. I got online to the website & stupid me . . . it was all in Italian. I tried to figure it out by picking up a word here & there, but of course that didn’t work. As much as I hated to bother Anna, I went downstairs & she was more than willing to help me out. I think it took her less than 2 minutes to get me the information I needed. Even though the possibility of going to Venice was still remote, I couldn’t help but get my hopes up a little. I always try to take things one step at a time, but when you actually plan for it, it’s hard not to get a bit excited. Guess we’ll find out one way or the other when George gets back from class tonight.
I did my usual morning routine & ate breakfast downstairs before making my way through the city. The temperature was in the low 70s & I was feeling pretty comfortable walking around & exploring the different shops by myself. So comfortable that when I stepped off the curb onto the cobblestone street, I about ate it! I stepped on the side of one of the stones & all but fell completely to the ground. I recovered . . . none too gracefully & not before the man in front of me heard it & an elderly woman to the right of me saw the whole thing. The man stopped to see if I was okay & the woman was saying something in Italian with a big smile on her face. All I could do was laugh & throw my hands up in the air. Great way to start the morning!
I did my daily 2 mile walk to the Piazza Maggiore took in the sites & breathed in the air. Not that it’s probably all that clean, it is the city after all. But I think I was just taking in the character of the city itself. Remembering the tour I took yesterday & all that I learned about Bologna. It was like meeting a new friend for lunch or something like that. I bought some souvenirs, browsed through some of the shops then headed back to the hotel a couple of hours later. There’s really not a whole lot to do except shopping. And those of you who know me, know how much I LOVE to shop! :p NOT! Most of the stuff here you can get in the United States. There are dozens of women’s shoe shops & all kinds of little deli type places. There ARE quite a few places to eat, just not any of the nice sit down places. So I never got the opportunity to try any of Bologna’s finer cuisines. Not even tortellini, which it is famous for. And wouldn’t you know, the place Nastro Azzurro where we’ve been eating the last few nights, doesn’t serve it. The owners are from Napoli – a different province of Italy. They specialize more in their pizzas. Apparently, it’s an old world recipe. They do have quite a variety of other pasta dishes & even seafood. Napoli must be near the shore. So even though breakfast & lunch may be routine, we at least get a really good dinner.
When George got back from class, he informed me . . . no Venice! Oh well. It WAS a remote possibility. He said the instructor was going to take the 4 guys out for lunch Friday. I guess as a farewell sort of thing or maybe even a way of making up for the lunches they’ve BEEN serving them all week. Didn’t want to leave them with a bad taste in their mouths. (pun intended ). As to whether or not they’ll still have a full day, who knows, but either way, Venice ain’t happenin’. C’est la vie! Oh wait, wrong country. Non importa!
After dinner, George, Mike & I headed for the Fontana del Nettuno to get some gelato, show them some of the places I toured & get some pictures of George & me to prove that we were actually here together. I’ve spent the majority of our stay here by myself & only get to see George for dinner & afterwards. He nor Mike have seen any of the city because they’re in class all day & there’s not much time to do anything when they get back around 5:15 or so. The only time they were able to see anything was when we went on a restaurant safari looking for a nice sit down place. Obviously, we never found one cuz they’re all closed in August! I’ve never walked so much in a day or a week in my life, but at least I’m getting a little exercise & it’s the best way to go exploring.
I did my usual morning routine & ate breakfast downstairs before making my way through the city. The temperature was in the low 70s & I was feeling pretty comfortable walking around & exploring the different shops by myself. So comfortable that when I stepped off the curb onto the cobblestone street, I about ate it! I stepped on the side of one of the stones & all but fell completely to the ground. I recovered . . . none too gracefully & not before the man in front of me heard it & an elderly woman to the right of me saw the whole thing. The man stopped to see if I was okay & the woman was saying something in Italian with a big smile on her face. All I could do was laugh & throw my hands up in the air. Great way to start the morning!
I did my daily 2 mile walk to the Piazza Maggiore took in the sites & breathed in the air. Not that it’s probably all that clean, it is the city after all. But I think I was just taking in the character of the city itself. Remembering the tour I took yesterday & all that I learned about Bologna. It was like meeting a new friend for lunch or something like that. I bought some souvenirs, browsed through some of the shops then headed back to the hotel a couple of hours later. There’s really not a whole lot to do except shopping. And those of you who know me, know how much I LOVE to shop! :p NOT! Most of the stuff here you can get in the United States. There are dozens of women’s shoe shops & all kinds of little deli type places. There ARE quite a few places to eat, just not any of the nice sit down places. So I never got the opportunity to try any of Bologna’s finer cuisines. Not even tortellini, which it is famous for. And wouldn’t you know, the place Nastro Azzurro where we’ve been eating the last few nights, doesn’t serve it. The owners are from Napoli – a different province of Italy. They specialize more in their pizzas. Apparently, it’s an old world recipe. They do have quite a variety of other pasta dishes & even seafood. Napoli must be near the shore. So even though breakfast & lunch may be routine, we at least get a really good dinner.
When George got back from class, he informed me . . . no Venice! Oh well. It WAS a remote possibility. He said the instructor was going to take the 4 guys out for lunch Friday. I guess as a farewell sort of thing or maybe even a way of making up for the lunches they’ve BEEN serving them all week. Didn’t want to leave them with a bad taste in their mouths. (pun intended ). As to whether or not they’ll still have a full day, who knows, but either way, Venice ain’t happenin’. C’est la vie! Oh wait, wrong country. Non importa!
After dinner, George, Mike & I headed for the Fontana del Nettuno to get some gelato, show them some of the places I toured & get some pictures of George & me to prove that we were actually here together. I’ve spent the majority of our stay here by myself & only get to see George for dinner & afterwards. He nor Mike have seen any of the city because they’re in class all day & there’s not much time to do anything when they get back around 5:15 or so. The only time they were able to see anything was when we went on a restaurant safari looking for a nice sit down place. Obviously, we never found one cuz they’re all closed in August! I’ve never walked so much in a day or a week in my life, but at least I’m getting a little exercise & it’s the best way to go exploring.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
It looks a bit overcast today & it’s still calling for 60% chance of rain, but I’ll give it a shot. Most of the walk is covered with archways & the worst thing that will happen is that I’ll get a little wet . . . & I did. It was sprinkling all the way to the Tourist Information Center where I was to meet the tour. I was a little damp, but no biggie. Of course, that’s when the sun came out & it was beautiful the rest of the day.
Bologna is rich in history. I won’t bore you with the details, but if you’re really interested you can go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna Our guide, Antonella, was very fluent in Italian & English. She amazed me in her ability to switch back & forth between the languages to tell us the history of her city. As soon as I find a way to post the pictures, I’ll let you know what website to go to.
Just to give you a few highlights of the tour, the first church we went to was the Basilica di San Petronio or Saint Petronius, the city’s patron saint. There are gates & guards at the entrance of the church because believe it or not, they try to keep the Muslims out. Individual family chapels were built within the church depicting each family’s history & beliefs of worshipping God. One of them has a painting on the wall showing heaven & hell. It’s quite detailed & dates back over 600 years. It’s pretty well preserved & clearly shows in hell, the devil not only devouring a condemned human but also the broken body of Muhammad on a rock next to the devil. It’s a pretty disturbing display, but you can imagine why they keep the Muslims away. The church itself, however is magnificent in its structure & décor although never finished in construction. Apparently, Rome halted the construction of the church because the goal was to make it larger than the church IN Rome. Well, you know they weren’t going to have THAT. So it remains unfinished to this day. They still have mass there & the sight of it (especially compared to what it looked like from the outside) took my breathe away. The pictures don’t do it justice. You could literally feel the history in the church.
We also went through different parts of town that I didn’t even notice before. There are so many side streets & small hallway-like passages throughout the city. A few of them reminded me of what you see in the movies with the open market places of produce & meats. It was amazing to seemingly go back in time & experience life in a simpler period.
As for the 2 towers, they were basically built to watch over the city. The smaller tower was never finished because it didn’t have a good foundation & started to lean. The taller tower has over 500 steps in it & would be a challenge to climb, but there are no windows or any kind of ventilation, so the air would be rather stifling. No I didn’t attempt it! I may be a little nuts at times, but I’m not CRAZY!
The 2nd church we visited was the Basilica di Santo Stefano. These are just 2 of the 7 churches that were built in Bologna. If I’m saying this correctly, within the area of the 2nd church to another point in the city where a symbolic replica of the tomb of Jesus is displayed is approximately 42 meters – the distance of the journey of the Passion of Christ. So the religious can take this path instead of going to Jerusalem. Our tour group simultaneously let out a sigh of respect & almost a feeling of honor to be part of such a defining moment in history even if only a reproduction of it.
The whole tour was just so amazing & informative & I felt like I was a part of Bologna understanding some of what it’s all about. I can see why people would fall in love with a place such as this. At first glance (as I experienced myself), she’s not much to look at & even a bit disappointing. But seeing beyond the exterior & understanding what’s behind the old looking city truly brings to mind, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
Something else that’s really interesting about Bologna . . . American music is played everywhere! Even now while I’m writing this, I have MTV on (believe it or not) & they’re playing American videos. They also play old shows like “Murder She Wrote” & “Fame”, but dubbed in Italian. Pretty funny.
George’s school is plugging along. I keep telling you about his daily lunches because I find it so funny that they serve these guys this kind of food, while the instructor gets some sort of hot pasta dish. What’s up with that? ToDAY’s cuisine – I believe it was strips of either pancetta or proscuitto from George’s description, some sort of vegetable, a not so ripe nectarine & nope, no mozzarella ball, but a slice of some sort of cheese that none of the guys could identify. It’s a good thing we go out for a nice dinner, cuz that lunch is pretty bad.
Still no word as to whether or not the guys have class Friday. Guess we’ll find out tomorrow.
Bologna is rich in history. I won’t bore you with the details, but if you’re really interested you can go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna Our guide, Antonella, was very fluent in Italian & English. She amazed me in her ability to switch back & forth between the languages to tell us the history of her city. As soon as I find a way to post the pictures, I’ll let you know what website to go to.
Just to give you a few highlights of the tour, the first church we went to was the Basilica di San Petronio or Saint Petronius, the city’s patron saint. There are gates & guards at the entrance of the church because believe it or not, they try to keep the Muslims out. Individual family chapels were built within the church depicting each family’s history & beliefs of worshipping God. One of them has a painting on the wall showing heaven & hell. It’s quite detailed & dates back over 600 years. It’s pretty well preserved & clearly shows in hell, the devil not only devouring a condemned human but also the broken body of Muhammad on a rock next to the devil. It’s a pretty disturbing display, but you can imagine why they keep the Muslims away. The church itself, however is magnificent in its structure & décor although never finished in construction. Apparently, Rome halted the construction of the church because the goal was to make it larger than the church IN Rome. Well, you know they weren’t going to have THAT. So it remains unfinished to this day. They still have mass there & the sight of it (especially compared to what it looked like from the outside) took my breathe away. The pictures don’t do it justice. You could literally feel the history in the church.
We also went through different parts of town that I didn’t even notice before. There are so many side streets & small hallway-like passages throughout the city. A few of them reminded me of what you see in the movies with the open market places of produce & meats. It was amazing to seemingly go back in time & experience life in a simpler period.
As for the 2 towers, they were basically built to watch over the city. The smaller tower was never finished because it didn’t have a good foundation & started to lean. The taller tower has over 500 steps in it & would be a challenge to climb, but there are no windows or any kind of ventilation, so the air would be rather stifling. No I didn’t attempt it! I may be a little nuts at times, but I’m not CRAZY!
The 2nd church we visited was the Basilica di Santo Stefano. These are just 2 of the 7 churches that were built in Bologna. If I’m saying this correctly, within the area of the 2nd church to another point in the city where a symbolic replica of the tomb of Jesus is displayed is approximately 42 meters – the distance of the journey of the Passion of Christ. So the religious can take this path instead of going to Jerusalem. Our tour group simultaneously let out a sigh of respect & almost a feeling of honor to be part of such a defining moment in history even if only a reproduction of it.
The whole tour was just so amazing & informative & I felt like I was a part of Bologna understanding some of what it’s all about. I can see why people would fall in love with a place such as this. At first glance (as I experienced myself), she’s not much to look at & even a bit disappointing. But seeing beyond the exterior & understanding what’s behind the old looking city truly brings to mind, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
Something else that’s really interesting about Bologna . . . American music is played everywhere! Even now while I’m writing this, I have MTV on (believe it or not) & they’re playing American videos. They also play old shows like “Murder She Wrote” & “Fame”, but dubbed in Italian. Pretty funny.
George’s school is plugging along. I keep telling you about his daily lunches because I find it so funny that they serve these guys this kind of food, while the instructor gets some sort of hot pasta dish. What’s up with that? ToDAY’s cuisine – I believe it was strips of either pancetta or proscuitto from George’s description, some sort of vegetable, a not so ripe nectarine & nope, no mozzarella ball, but a slice of some sort of cheese that none of the guys could identify. It’s a good thing we go out for a nice dinner, cuz that lunch is pretty bad.
Still no word as to whether or not the guys have class Friday. Guess we’ll find out tomorrow.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
George slept pretty well; I’m still having a hard time staying asleep. I’ll sleep a couple of hours & lay awake the rest of the night. I ended up choreographing a dance routine in my head. This morning, I’m paying the price. I made myself get up at 9:30am (3:30 US time) so I could get some breakfast & make a couple of sandwiches for lunch. I don’t plan on going anywhere today. After all that walking yesterday & all the walking I’ll be doing tomorrow, I figured I would just do my workout today, get some e-mails out & rest up some. For tonight will be yet another adventure in finding a place for dinner!
Since I had planned on staying in my room for the day, I still wanted housekeeping to do her usual thing. Of course, she didn’t speak a word of English & I was trying to convey to her that it was okay for her to do her work while I was in the room. It probably took us a good 10 minutes to try to figure out what the other was saying. We were both looking in my little book trying to find the right words to communicate with each other. It was pretty funny & we were both laughing by the time we finished. Very nice woman & I found out her name is Anna. I even got an extra pillow out of the deal!
School for George was still pretty much the same . . . not quite understanding the instructor’s broken English & not following any kind of curriculum or even the manual. George said the guy knows his stuff, but just can’t explain it in English. Go figure! Today’s lunch cuisine was a little different – some fatty salami, white rice w/peas & some sort of unidentifiable round things, a banana & don’t forget that mozzarella ball! Ooh, & a NEW item . . . a box of red wine! It looks like a juice box, but it has red wine in it instead! How VERY Italian! :p
Mike joined us for dinner again at the invite of both of us. I know he feels like a third wheel, but we can’t have the guy eating by himself in a foreign country. Being the adventurer of the group, I had the 3 of us venture out on a quest to find a nice place to eat. The 2 of them probably would’ve eaten at McDonald’s. Yes, they have a McD’s here, but I didn’t come all the way to Italy to eat there or at one of the Chinese restaurants or one of the many Indian places they have here. We finally came across a place called Nastro Azzuro that had a menu subtitled in English & . . . get this, an oriental, Italian speaking waitress that spoke very good English! The menu had quite a variety on it too. So guess where we’re going the rest of the week? And talk about timing, they close for the month of August after Friday, which happens to be our last day in Italy. We leave, Saturday morning. Boy did we luck out!
Oh, I almost forgot! Now this is a big MIGHT. They guys may not have school Friday because they've been covering a lot of material this week. So . . . George and I MAY have the day free & go to Venice!!!! We'll see, we'll see, but keep your fingers crossed!!!
Now to hope for clear skies tomorrow & then I should really have something to report.
Since I had planned on staying in my room for the day, I still wanted housekeeping to do her usual thing. Of course, she didn’t speak a word of English & I was trying to convey to her that it was okay for her to do her work while I was in the room. It probably took us a good 10 minutes to try to figure out what the other was saying. We were both looking in my little book trying to find the right words to communicate with each other. It was pretty funny & we were both laughing by the time we finished. Very nice woman & I found out her name is Anna. I even got an extra pillow out of the deal!
School for George was still pretty much the same . . . not quite understanding the instructor’s broken English & not following any kind of curriculum or even the manual. George said the guy knows his stuff, but just can’t explain it in English. Go figure! Today’s lunch cuisine was a little different – some fatty salami, white rice w/peas & some sort of unidentifiable round things, a banana & don’t forget that mozzarella ball! Ooh, & a NEW item . . . a box of red wine! It looks like a juice box, but it has red wine in it instead! How VERY Italian! :p
Mike joined us for dinner again at the invite of both of us. I know he feels like a third wheel, but we can’t have the guy eating by himself in a foreign country. Being the adventurer of the group, I had the 3 of us venture out on a quest to find a nice place to eat. The 2 of them probably would’ve eaten at McDonald’s. Yes, they have a McD’s here, but I didn’t come all the way to Italy to eat there or at one of the Chinese restaurants or one of the many Indian places they have here. We finally came across a place called Nastro Azzuro that had a menu subtitled in English & . . . get this, an oriental, Italian speaking waitress that spoke very good English! The menu had quite a variety on it too. So guess where we’re going the rest of the week? And talk about timing, they close for the month of August after Friday, which happens to be our last day in Italy. We leave, Saturday morning. Boy did we luck out!
Oh, I almost forgot! Now this is a big MIGHT. They guys may not have school Friday because they've been covering a lot of material this week. So . . . George and I MAY have the day free & go to Venice!!!! We'll see, we'll see, but keep your fingers crossed!!!
Now to hope for clear skies tomorrow & then I should really have something to report.
Monday, August 6, 2007
The car came for George to take him to the training center at around 8:30am, so I’m now on my own. We did find out that the restaurant downstairs was at least open for breakfast, so that was a plus. My plan for today is to buy some bottled water & get to the tourist center to find out about tours & whatnot. I’m starting to feel the effects of jet lag though & that’s probably all I’ll do & then come back to the hotel to get some sleep & wait for George. Hopefully, he was able to find out the places to go & such from the instructor of the school. Two guys from Ireland (as told by the receptionist of the hotel) & one guy from Texas are in his class, but none of them brought their wives. Lame-os!
*************
I set off on my first solo adventure checking out all the shops & places to go for later. It takes about 15-20 minutes of walking to get to the Piazza Maggiore & the Piazza del Nettuno. A lot more people around than yesterday. A couple of people approached me with either some sort of newspaper or pamphlet. I just responded, “No, grazie.” So, I felt pretty safe being by myself. The shops along the way are like little hallways – they’re longer than they are wide & run by East Indians that speak Italian & very little English. I’m glad I at least learned my numbers, but the European coins are more confusing. They all look similar, so you really have to look at them to see the number value on each & me with my eyesight . . . not a good combination. I think one shopkeeper got a little annoyed with me when all I did was show her a handful of change & let her pick out what she needed. Probably thinking, “Stupid, American!”
I found the tourist center & was able to find a 2 hour walking tour to the different churches & palaces. I’m looking forward to that. I have to be at the Tourist Information Office at 10:15am, Wednesday & it costs Euros 13,00 per person which converts to about $19.50. Should be interesting then afterwards, I can do my shopping. I did finally get to try a gelato . . . pistachio. It was good, tasted like very creamy ice cream. Not a big deal to me. There were a LOT of dessert (dulce – dull-cheh) & wine (vino – vee-noh) places. People would just sit at the outside tables (tavolos – tah-vo-lohs) drinking wine &/or eating their dessert taking a break from their shopping. Sounds like something I’ll be doing tomorrow! :)
I made my way back to the hotel stopping to buy some bottled water about 10 minutes from the hotel not realizing that I’d be carrying 6-1.5 liter bottles . . . a little heavy to carry all that way! I took a nap & waited for George to get back.
George described the place where the classes were to be a sort of run down warehouse. There was no AC except for 2 small units that didn’t do much & he was already tired, so it didn’t help. The instructor spoke very broken English & couldn’t explain a lot of things to the guys because when they asked questions, he didn’t know the English words to respond appropriately. Luckily for George, he understands a lot about mammography equipment, so he was somewhat able to fill in the blanks. The other guys were not so experienced so George wasn’t sure how much they actually got out of it. Come to find out too, there was one guy from Texas, but the other 2 were from Iran! Mike, the guy from Texas, said that when he told them he was from Texas, they didn’t understand where that was. But when he said, United States, he said their faces kind of dropped. He said it was a bit comical to him. George joked that if they had to, he & Mike “could take them”. (haha!) And as if the “school” itself wasn’t bad enough, for lunch, they fed them cold green beans, a small can of tuna in oil, a packet with a mozzarella ball in water & an apple. The guys joked that it was prison food, but I don’t think it was too far from the truth.
We found that Mike didn’t bring his wife because they had younger children at home with no one to watch them had she come along. The two Iranians, well, I don’t think they bring their wives ANYwhere. George invited Mike to have dinner with us, which was fine. He seemed like a nice enough guy. We made “my trek” back to the Piazza del Nettuno to try to find a place to eat. Only dessert places. Apparently, the major restaurants all shut down in August. There were only bars that served small sandwiches, desserts & drinks. We walked to the Piazza & beyond before realizing this. We finally found a place that did a buffet style dinner. It was okay & I’m sad to say that my first glass of wine was from a small twist-off cap bottle of Chianti, BUT it was really good! I guess it doesn’t all have to be from cork bottles to be good.
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by to get some fresh fruit for us & water for Mike & called it a night. I had to have walked 6 or more miles today, but felt pretty good. I know poor George was tired. He didn’t get to take a nap & we’re both still trying to get our bodies adjusted to the time difference without much success.
*************
I set off on my first solo adventure checking out all the shops & places to go for later. It takes about 15-20 minutes of walking to get to the Piazza Maggiore & the Piazza del Nettuno. A lot more people around than yesterday. A couple of people approached me with either some sort of newspaper or pamphlet. I just responded, “No, grazie.” So, I felt pretty safe being by myself. The shops along the way are like little hallways – they’re longer than they are wide & run by East Indians that speak Italian & very little English. I’m glad I at least learned my numbers, but the European coins are more confusing. They all look similar, so you really have to look at them to see the number value on each & me with my eyesight . . . not a good combination. I think one shopkeeper got a little annoyed with me when all I did was show her a handful of change & let her pick out what she needed. Probably thinking, “Stupid, American!”
I found the tourist center & was able to find a 2 hour walking tour to the different churches & palaces. I’m looking forward to that. I have to be at the Tourist Information Office at 10:15am, Wednesday & it costs Euros 13,00 per person which converts to about $19.50. Should be interesting then afterwards, I can do my shopping. I did finally get to try a gelato . . . pistachio. It was good, tasted like very creamy ice cream. Not a big deal to me. There were a LOT of dessert (dulce – dull-cheh) & wine (vino – vee-noh) places. People would just sit at the outside tables (tavolos – tah-vo-lohs) drinking wine &/or eating their dessert taking a break from their shopping. Sounds like something I’ll be doing tomorrow! :)
I made my way back to the hotel stopping to buy some bottled water about 10 minutes from the hotel not realizing that I’d be carrying 6-1.5 liter bottles . . . a little heavy to carry all that way! I took a nap & waited for George to get back.
George described the place where the classes were to be a sort of run down warehouse. There was no AC except for 2 small units that didn’t do much & he was already tired, so it didn’t help. The instructor spoke very broken English & couldn’t explain a lot of things to the guys because when they asked questions, he didn’t know the English words to respond appropriately. Luckily for George, he understands a lot about mammography equipment, so he was somewhat able to fill in the blanks. The other guys were not so experienced so George wasn’t sure how much they actually got out of it. Come to find out too, there was one guy from Texas, but the other 2 were from Iran! Mike, the guy from Texas, said that when he told them he was from Texas, they didn’t understand where that was. But when he said, United States, he said their faces kind of dropped. He said it was a bit comical to him. George joked that if they had to, he & Mike “could take them”. (haha!) And as if the “school” itself wasn’t bad enough, for lunch, they fed them cold green beans, a small can of tuna in oil, a packet with a mozzarella ball in water & an apple. The guys joked that it was prison food, but I don’t think it was too far from the truth.
We found that Mike didn’t bring his wife because they had younger children at home with no one to watch them had she come along. The two Iranians, well, I don’t think they bring their wives ANYwhere. George invited Mike to have dinner with us, which was fine. He seemed like a nice enough guy. We made “my trek” back to the Piazza del Nettuno to try to find a place to eat. Only dessert places. Apparently, the major restaurants all shut down in August. There were only bars that served small sandwiches, desserts & drinks. We walked to the Piazza & beyond before realizing this. We finally found a place that did a buffet style dinner. It was okay & I’m sad to say that my first glass of wine was from a small twist-off cap bottle of Chianti, BUT it was really good! I guess it doesn’t all have to be from cork bottles to be good.
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by to get some fresh fruit for us & water for Mike & called it a night. I had to have walked 6 or more miles today, but felt pretty good. I know poor George was tired. He didn’t get to take a nap & we’re both still trying to get our bodies adjusted to the time difference without much success.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
We finally arrived in Bologna around 11:30 am. Compared to the Detroit, Amsterdam & even the Norfolk airports, the Bologna airport was pretty shabby. Half of it was under construction (it needed it!) The hotel was only about 10 minutes from the airport, but the taxi driver drove like a manic! I don’t think they have speed limits here. From the airport to the hotel, the city looked pretty run down. It reminded me a lot of Norfolk on Monticello with all the construction going on. Nothing like I had pictured. Once we got to the hotel, they only had a reservation for George which seemed to put the reception desk in a bit of a panic. Not a good sign to end our already long day. The guy that showed us to our room spoke NO English AND he was new! So again, not a good sign. There was also a trick to turning the lights on in the room, which he didn’t show us & we had to go back down to the desk to get the manager. SHEESH! Apparently, the card used to open the door has to be inserted into a slot in order for the lights to stay on. Nice little tidbit of info don’t ya think? Then we find out their restaurant is closed until August 26th. So much for Plan A – eat at the hotel then try to crash for a couple of hours. We tried to get some sleep before exploring the city, but I guess we were SO tired we COULDN’T sleep (if that makes any sense). By the time we had gotten to this point, George & I had been up close to 24 hours. We were practically zombies AND we hadn’t eaten in over 12 hours. Talk about messed up systems!
Finally around 7pm Bologna time (6 hours ahead American time), we decided to find some place to eat. We asked the desk downstairs, but they spoke very little English. We were able to understand “take a right out of the hotel to the piazza”. We started off on our second adventure! We just kept walking until we got to the center of the town where the Neptune fountain (the Piazza del Nettuno) was. Quite a few people gathered there for no apparent reason other than to just hang out & talk. The temp was low to mid 80s with very low humidity . . . VERY comfortable & a good night for a walk. Overall, the temps are a lot like ours in Virginia Beach, but with low humidity (about 25% - 35%). The city was very old, but historical looking & people smoked everywhere. That was the only unpleasant thing, but if that’s the worst, I’ll take it. At least the area was starting to look a little more like what I had expected. We eventually stopped at a pizzeria, surprisingly, not very good. The pizza was a bit doughy & of course, no one spoke English. Luckily, a customer there spoke enough English to help us with our order. I was led to believe that there were quite a few English speaking people in Bologna – not the case. Luckily, I have my trusty little book, “Just Enough Italian: How to Get by and be Easily Understood”. It’s helped a bit, but BOY do I look like a tourist! Duh! Guess I am!
A few hours later, we got back to the hotel & out of sheer exhaustion, were finally able to get some sleep. George had to go to training the next morning, so we called it a night at 10:30 (Bologna time).
Finally around 7pm Bologna time (6 hours ahead American time), we decided to find some place to eat. We asked the desk downstairs, but they spoke very little English. We were able to understand “take a right out of the hotel to the piazza”. We started off on our second adventure! We just kept walking until we got to the center of the town where the Neptune fountain (the Piazza del Nettuno) was. Quite a few people gathered there for no apparent reason other than to just hang out & talk. The temp was low to mid 80s with very low humidity . . . VERY comfortable & a good night for a walk. Overall, the temps are a lot like ours in Virginia Beach, but with low humidity (about 25% - 35%). The city was very old, but historical looking & people smoked everywhere. That was the only unpleasant thing, but if that’s the worst, I’ll take it. At least the area was starting to look a little more like what I had expected. We eventually stopped at a pizzeria, surprisingly, not very good. The pizza was a bit doughy & of course, no one spoke English. Luckily, a customer there spoke enough English to help us with our order. I was led to believe that there were quite a few English speaking people in Bologna – not the case. Luckily, I have my trusty little book, “Just Enough Italian: How to Get by and be Easily Understood”. It’s helped a bit, but BOY do I look like a tourist! Duh! Guess I am!
A few hours later, we got back to the hotel & out of sheer exhaustion, were finally able to get some sleep. George had to go to training the next morning, so we called it a night at 10:30 (Bologna time).
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Saturday, August 4, 2007
The start of our new adventure was Saturday at 12:34 pm when the 1st of 3 flights would take us to Bologna, Italy. I was taking the journey one step at a time trying not to have too high expectations, especially since I didn’t know WHAT to expect. The flight to Detroit was uneventful (thank goodness), only about 2 hours. We flew a DC-9 plane. The seats were very uncomfortable, crinkled every time you moved & very close together. Luckily, we sat next to a gentleman going home to Detroit & he was friendly.
The airport in Detroit was like a mall! Shops everywhere! They even had a sort of tram that went from one end of the airport to the other about every 5 minutes. We only had about an hour to get to our flight to Amsterdam. The flight from Norfolk was ½ hour late although it said “On Time”. Fortunately, our gate was not far from where we arrived. Since the plane held so many people, it wasn’t long before we got there that they started seating everyone.
This time we got to ride on what they called an Air Bus, double seats on either side & 4 across the middle. Each seat had its own monitor & you could choose from 20 different movies, music, games and the best part, especially for George, a screen that tracked our progress to our destination. It had a map with an icon of the plane showing how far we had gone. It also had a page that showed how many miles we had gone/left, altitude, air speed/temp, tail wind, etc. Our highest altitude was 39,000+ ft. & the temp got as low as -72 degrees! George being the numbers guy that he is, of course, had this section on most of the time.
It was a very long flight (almost 8 hours!). They did feed us a couple of different snacks & dinner was a very strange choice I thought. They served Indian curried vegetables w/coconut rice & currents, & a salad w/couscous. Right up my ally, but I don’t think anyone else’s. We weren’t given a choice . . . that’s what was served. You know I liked it. George sure didn’t.
It was good to finally land in Amsterdam, just to be able to walk around for a while. And we had plenty of time too – 3 ½ hours. We had to stand in line for security check for about a ½ hour, so that killed a little time. Then sit & wait. I thought the Detroit airport was nice . . . THIS airport was definitely a mall, lots of perfume & cosmetic stores. We got to see most of it too because our gate was on the other side of the airport.
They finally started to admit people for boarding at the time the plane was supposed to take off. We had to take a bus to the plane, board outside & go up the stairs of the plane. Obviously, it wasn’t very big & the flight wasn’t even half booked. It was a lot more comfortable than the first plane though. We still arrived on time in Bologna because the flight was only 1 ½ hours. They tried to feed us sandwiches for lunch, but to us it was only 5 am. So starts the time change & trying to get acclimated.
The airport in Detroit was like a mall! Shops everywhere! They even had a sort of tram that went from one end of the airport to the other about every 5 minutes. We only had about an hour to get to our flight to Amsterdam. The flight from Norfolk was ½ hour late although it said “On Time”. Fortunately, our gate was not far from where we arrived. Since the plane held so many people, it wasn’t long before we got there that they started seating everyone.
This time we got to ride on what they called an Air Bus, double seats on either side & 4 across the middle. Each seat had its own monitor & you could choose from 20 different movies, music, games and the best part, especially for George, a screen that tracked our progress to our destination. It had a map with an icon of the plane showing how far we had gone. It also had a page that showed how many miles we had gone/left, altitude, air speed/temp, tail wind, etc. Our highest altitude was 39,000+ ft. & the temp got as low as -72 degrees! George being the numbers guy that he is, of course, had this section on most of the time.
It was a very long flight (almost 8 hours!). They did feed us a couple of different snacks & dinner was a very strange choice I thought. They served Indian curried vegetables w/coconut rice & currents, & a salad w/couscous. Right up my ally, but I don’t think anyone else’s. We weren’t given a choice . . . that’s what was served. You know I liked it. George sure didn’t.
It was good to finally land in Amsterdam, just to be able to walk around for a while. And we had plenty of time too – 3 ½ hours. We had to stand in line for security check for about a ½ hour, so that killed a little time. Then sit & wait. I thought the Detroit airport was nice . . . THIS airport was definitely a mall, lots of perfume & cosmetic stores. We got to see most of it too because our gate was on the other side of the airport.
They finally started to admit people for boarding at the time the plane was supposed to take off. We had to take a bus to the plane, board outside & go up the stairs of the plane. Obviously, it wasn’t very big & the flight wasn’t even half booked. It was a lot more comfortable than the first plane though. We still arrived on time in Bologna because the flight was only 1 ½ hours. They tried to feed us sandwiches for lunch, but to us it was only 5 am. So starts the time change & trying to get acclimated.
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