Day 8: Bologna

Wow.  Sorry for never finishing my entries on Europe!  I'm about to embark upon another foreign adventure, but I figured I'd go back and continue writing about the last one before I begin the new one.

Day 8 - Bologna
I was really excited about this branch of our trip.  Cuisine from Bologna is world-renowned, and after watching "Around the World in 80 Plates," I was really hoping to try some really good pasta.

So we left Verona early in the morning for another train ride.  This one was rather brief, and we arrived in Bologna in enough time to go to a market and eat lunch before resting.

We arrived at our hotel, dropped off our belongings, and hit up a local market.  Jamie and I LOVE markets, and I was really hoping for some good eating.  Alas, this very large market was more like a flea market, and it was quite disappointing - full of garage sale clothes, cheap bags, and perfume.  We searched carefully, hoping to find that something special.  It wasn't meant to be.

Leaving the market, we walked to the center of town - and what a pleasant sight!  We found a large square, surrounded by restaurants.  The neatest thing is that in the middle of the square was a large movie screen and hundreds of fold-out seats.  We stumbled upon a film festival, and the night before was a Hitchcock film.  We stumbled upon a small cafe near there, where I ate a yummy cheese ravioli with leeks.  Superb.

After an enjoyable meal (complete with white wine, of course), we decided to take a long-needed rest.  We had been doing a great deal of walking, traveling, stair-climbing, etc. and we needed a nap.  We got lost on our way back to our hotel, but found a grocery store.  Intrigued, we entered this wonderland of Italian food.  This grocery was nothing like your typical American monstrosity.  This one, typical of Italian groceries, was tucked in a street and was about 1/4 the size of a Kroger.  That said, we were amazed by the little, unexpected delights: mozzarella balls for 1 euro, 6 huge figs for 2 euro.  Wine in little boxes (think Hi-C or Caprisun).  An amazing array of local wines decently priced.

Loaded down with goodies, we stumbled back, exhausted, to our hotel.  Finally allowed in our room, we fell upon our beds - and then I went "ouch" - not a soft place to land.  :-)  But the bathroom worked fine, and the room was rather large for European standards.  We flipped on the television and attempted to watch an Italian soap opera - and had great fun making up the lines because we couldn't figure out what they were saying!

4 hours of sleep and rest, and it was time to go back to the square - we had a food market to find.  Remember, my expectations were pretty high - this was Bologna, after all.  We found the market after passing high-end designer stores, but were disappointed in the smallness of this market.

Overall, Bologna is pretty to look at.  It does have a large tower, Europe's oldest university.  But I must say that it was my least favorite city.  Perhaps that's one city in which we need a tour guide.

Days 9-11, Florence, proved to be MUCH better than expected.

Cheers!

The Wandering Texan