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05/24/2004: "Bologna"
We took a Eurostar train from Venice, in second class (since first class was full) but still very nice. We got to Bologna train station around noon on Saturday. Compared to Venice, Bologna is noisy, with zillions of mopeds and very tiny cars including many that seem to be electric 2-seaters.
We are staying at the Cosy House B&B (which is actually in an apartment) with our lovely hostess Gabriella.
The church in Piazza Maggiore is huge, almost the size of a hockey rink and only a block and half away is another one just as big. We toured Santo Stefano churches, a series of 5 inter connected churches that evolved over 100's of years.
We climbed one of the two leaning towers, 500 steps, the climbing was easier than the vertigo. There are numerous other towers - all leaning.
On Saturday, we got the best meal-deal of the trip so far. The city was just ending its 2nd annual food festival and for 10 euros each, we got to go eat supper at the Palazzo di Re Enzo. It was a big Italian buffet with open bar for aperitives, parmesan and mortadella. Then about 10-15 different stations serving many dishes. Also open bar for many different kinds of wines. Plus gelatos and other dolci. Also, 2 bands played - dixieland jazz before and italian fusion after. There were about 500 people. The Germans, British and Canadians (us) all lined up for things but the Italians just jammed their way directly to the food. Italians are usually very polite but, when it comes to food, they are very aggresive. So, we went with the flow and jammed our way to the food also. We were completely stuffed by the end of the evening. Total time to drink and eat: 4 hours.
On Sunday, we trained to Parma and Modena hoping to see some cheese or vinegar production, but saw an old church instead. They were celebrating a first communion there, so we got to go inside and take pictures when usually no photos are allowed. These towns are not set up to showcase the famous foods. In fact, the whole area does not promote food tours very well. It happened that this weekend was ending a week of "Open Farms" all over the Emiglia-Romagna area. We though we could maybe get to one or 2 farms near these towns, but we needed a car or bikes to get to them, but there were no rentals.
We found some free internet at the city offices, but no USB access here, so no photos. We will post photos when we get to Florence (we leave Tuesday).
Thanks for the comments. Ciao.