Ciao tutti!
So, update on Bologna so far –
I got here around 11 p.m. on Wednesday. I was supposed to
get in at 11 a.m., but of course air travel can never go exactly as planned. My
flight from London to Bologna was cancelled due to weather, so I spent an extra
12 hours in Heathrow. Once I arrived, I took a taxi to the apartment I’m
sharing with my friend Rachel.
Our place is perfect! It’s a mansarda, an attic apartment, with two bedrooms, a little kitchen
& living area, and a bathroom. We have an elevator that goes almost the
whole way up – there’s one more flight – and several complicated doors to get
through with only one set of keys (a second to come soon), so coming and going
is always a production, but always worth it.
 |
| Piazza Ravegnana, an intersection near our apartment |
Rachel’s mom is from this part of Italy – Emilia Romagna –
and her sisters and their families still live nearby. This weekend Rachel and I
went to visit her two aunts and their families in Forlì and Savignano. We took
TrenItalia (my first Italian train ride!) to get to Forlì, where we spent the
day with her aunt, uncle and cousins – Francesco, Andrea and Gianluca. I saw a
lot of pictures of Rachel’s previous visits to Italy and we went for a walk (siamo stati in giro) around Forlì’s
piazza and neighborhoods. After spending the night with a good friend of
Rachel’s mother, we took another train to Savignano, a much smaller town than
both Bologna (about 400,000) and Forlì (about 120,000). Her uncle, Andrea,
picked us up at the train station. First we drove a few minutes to
Santarcangelo, a fantastically picturesque town near Savignano. We walked
around the city center, il centro,
for about half an hour, then headed back to Savignano to visit with her aunt
and cousins.
 |
| Rachel sul treno on the way to Forlì |
Aunt Lisa, Uncle Andrea and their daughter Aurora then drove
us to San Marino – the drive was so beautiful, I could hardly believe that the
destination would be even better. The name San Marino sounded familiar, but I
had no concept of what it actually was. After we drove partway up the mountain,
we parked and walked the rest of the way. Let me tell you, it was steep going.
Probably a 30 degree incline the whole way. But man, once we reached the
towers! I unfortunately left my camera at the house, but Aurora took a lot of
pictures… hopefully I’ll get my hands on them soon! It was fantastic. The
Italian countryside is beyond what I could ever have imagined – I figured it
must be overhyped, but not at all. Fog, mountains, adorable towns in the
distance, ancient towers – man, Italy has it all.
Sunday night Rachel and I took the train back to Bologna
Centrale (after a brief mix-up with the first class cabin) and splurged for a
taxi back to our apartment. Most of my time here in Bologna has been meetings
and errands preparing for classes starting as soon as Monday, Feb. 4, as well
as exploring the city a bit. Generally we’ll set out on a mission, lose our way
once or twice, and stop for some pasta along the way. We always make it where we
intended, though, and usually learn a thing or two along the way! So far we’ve
visited the building we’ll mostly likely have classes in, seen the entire city
from the construction scaffolding on the Basilica San Petronio, and walked the
main shopping district multiple times (although we refrained from buying – we
mostly people-watched).
So, that’s what I’ve been up to so far! Hopefully I’ll have
more adventures to share soon.
Vi vedi ancora presto!
