Well, our caffeine fueled tour through Italy has come to a close (the cappuccinos really are the best I've had) and it's ended on a pretty mellow note. Bologna has been a very laid back place to spend the last four days of our time here and besides the handful of sights there are to see here, we've mostly just settled into a fairly ordinary routine - which has been really refreshing! We found a favorite restaurant here - Osteria dell' Orsa - that serves amazing home made pastas at really great prices. We've been there three times and their bolognese sauce is truly the best we've ever had. The restaurant is really just a hole in the wall and not a place you would even think about looking at twice until you tried their food.
Bologna does have two leaning towers here that do not get quite the publicity that Pisa's does (probably because they're not quite as dramatic) but still very interesting. In addition - no big surprise here - this is where the luncheon meat bologna comes from. However, here it's called mortadella and looks kind of like our bologna but is dotted with chunks of lard, which the FDA in the US doesn't allow (good thing, right?!). Bologna is also home to the oldest university in the world, the University of Bologna, which was founded in 1088.
On our last day, we visited the Modern Art Museum of Bologna (MAMBA) which was really interesting and a nice change from all the REALLY old stuff we've been looking at lately! Other than that, we've just been chilling out and have actually been enjoying watching some movies in our room that we downloaded from the Seattle Public Library. Well, enjoying might be a stretch for a couple of the movies we saw, but oh well - it's not Netflix and at least it's free!!
So what have we learned about Italy during our three weeks here? Let's see........
1) Here, like in every other part of Europe that we've been to, there are WAY more smokers than in the U.S. You just get used to holding your breath off and on as you walk down the street. We definitely won't miss that!!
2) The walking hand in hand thing - you already know how we feel about that - really drives us crazy. I did get one good sideswipe in today against an oblivious smoker in a fur coat, so I feel pretty good about that.
3) You can't have an iron in any hotel room in Italy because apparently they think you'll burn down the whole place.
4) Restaurants allow street vendors to come in and sell their wares while you're dining, so during your meal you might have anyone from a flower salesperson to someone selling ticky tacky junk walking by your table trying to get you to buy.
Has it been all bad??? Of course not. We've seen some absolutely AMAZING sights that in my humble opinion, anyone who has the chance out to see. Visiting a place like Italy you really gain quite an appreciation for the Roman civilization and what they accomplished for their time.
Tomorrow morning we fly out of here for Porto, Portugal where we'll spend three days and then we'll be taking the train down to Lisbon for another three days before flying back to Madrid for our last two weeks in Spain before flying back home.
Thanks to all of you who are keeping up with blog.....it's nice to know you're enjoying the trip with us!
Sending hugs across the Atlantic,
David & Jim
p.s.: pictures are taking way too long to load tonight so I'll add them to this posting when we get to Porto........I think we'll have a better internet connection there :-)
Bologna does have two leaning towers here that do not get quite the publicity that Pisa's does (probably because they're not quite as dramatic) but still very interesting. In addition - no big surprise here - this is where the luncheon meat bologna comes from. However, here it's called mortadella and looks kind of like our bologna but is dotted with chunks of lard, which the FDA in the US doesn't allow (good thing, right?!). Bologna is also home to the oldest university in the world, the University of Bologna, which was founded in 1088.
On our last day, we visited the Modern Art Museum of Bologna (MAMBA) which was really interesting and a nice change from all the REALLY old stuff we've been looking at lately! Other than that, we've just been chilling out and have actually been enjoying watching some movies in our room that we downloaded from the Seattle Public Library. Well, enjoying might be a stretch for a couple of the movies we saw, but oh well - it's not Netflix and at least it's free!!
So what have we learned about Italy during our three weeks here? Let's see........
1) Here, like in every other part of Europe that we've been to, there are WAY more smokers than in the U.S. You just get used to holding your breath off and on as you walk down the street. We definitely won't miss that!!
2) The walking hand in hand thing - you already know how we feel about that - really drives us crazy. I did get one good sideswipe in today against an oblivious smoker in a fur coat, so I feel pretty good about that.
3) You can't have an iron in any hotel room in Italy because apparently they think you'll burn down the whole place.
4) Restaurants allow street vendors to come in and sell their wares while you're dining, so during your meal you might have anyone from a flower salesperson to someone selling ticky tacky junk walking by your table trying to get you to buy.
Has it been all bad??? Of course not. We've seen some absolutely AMAZING sights that in my humble opinion, anyone who has the chance out to see. Visiting a place like Italy you really gain quite an appreciation for the Roman civilization and what they accomplished for their time.
Tomorrow morning we fly out of here for Porto, Portugal where we'll spend three days and then we'll be taking the train down to Lisbon for another three days before flying back to Madrid for our last two weeks in Spain before flying back home.
Thanks to all of you who are keeping up with blog.....it's nice to know you're enjoying the trip with us!
Sending hugs across the Atlantic,
David & Jim
p.s.: pictures are taking way too long to load tonight so I'll add them to this posting when we get to Porto........I think we'll have a better internet connection there :-)
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