By the time Friday night rolled around, we were very relieved to see the approaching bus that would take us out of the ocld rain in Ravenna to take us to the train that would get us back to Bologna. We finally checked into our hotel, Il Guernico, and to my surprise, it was both the nicest and cheapest hotel I have ever stayed in. "How is this possible?" you ask. We split the bill 50/50, each half being only 17€. The recently re-done hotel has everything to offer: Wifi, a 5€ breakfast buffet, bikes to rent, etc. Our personal room was ridiculous in the best of ways: two comfy twin beds, flat-screen tv, heated towel rack, and the cherry on top--a shower with one of those huge flat showerheads that just dumps water on you and in the middle of that, a light that bea,ed down in changing colors. After the discovery of these features, Il Guernico was deemed The Whimsical Pleasure Palace and priceless works of art all over Bologna were described as having palettes that include Magic Shower Blue or Magic shower intermediary color between red and indigo.
It's amazing how many churches you can explore in a short amount of time. On top of the three churches in Rabenna with mosaics and a mausoleum in Ravenna, Elizabeth and I entered at least three more in Bologna: San Petronius, San Domenico ( seat of the Dominican order; home to some of Michaelangel's works, and where Mozart once gave a concert), and some church nearby our hotel. San Domenico was probably my favorite. When I first stepped in, I was too much in awe to move for about two minutes, and after that, I could only just barely restrain myself from running all around it. As morbid as I am, I spent a lot of time staring down the church's relic, somebody's skull. Beneath it there were three different saints' names written, one of which was St. Cecilia, my confirmation saint. So maybe that was her skull or there was another relic in the skull case that I didn't notice that belonged to her. We would have liked to enter Santo Stefano, whose architecture includes 7 different styles, but it was closed when we got to it and did not open up again until too shortly before we had to be on our way back. We did get a chance to explore the antique market just ouside of Santo Stefano, though, and we were very tempted to buy some beautiful old, Italian and otherly foreign jewelry.
Bologna, in general, left me awestruck. The city is what happens when a medieval metropolis continues to thrive up until contemporary society. Famous for the still-standing two medieval towers, Bologna is believed to have been covered in like structures, aptly named The Forest of Towers. I cannot recommend this place enough. Granted, I have yet to see the more popular traveling destinations of Rome, Venice, Florence, Pisa, etc., our February visit was practically void of other tourists. I think I heard another group of native English speakers only once--but don't let that scare you. Every person we spoke with either recognized our looks of confusion and tried speaking English with Elizabeth and I, or very nicely and slowly told us something that we couldn't aurally understand but, with the aid of Italian hand gestures, was crystal clear.
Keep reading--more in the next post down!
It's amazing how many churches you can explore in a short amount of time. On top of the three churches in Rabenna with mosaics and a mausoleum in Ravenna, Elizabeth and I entered at least three more in Bologna: San Petronius, San Domenico ( seat of the Dominican order; home to some of Michaelangel's works, and where Mozart once gave a concert), and some church nearby our hotel. San Domenico was probably my favorite. When I first stepped in, I was too much in awe to move for about two minutes, and after that, I could only just barely restrain myself from running all around it. As morbid as I am, I spent a lot of time staring down the church's relic, somebody's skull. Beneath it there were three different saints' names written, one of which was St. Cecilia, my confirmation saint. So maybe that was her skull or there was another relic in the skull case that I didn't notice that belonged to her. We would have liked to enter Santo Stefano, whose architecture includes 7 different styles, but it was closed when we got to it and did not open up again until too shortly before we had to be on our way back. We did get a chance to explore the antique market just ouside of Santo Stefano, though, and we were very tempted to buy some beautiful old, Italian and otherly foreign jewelry.
Bologna, in general, left me awestruck. The city is what happens when a medieval metropolis continues to thrive up until contemporary society. Famous for the still-standing two medieval towers, Bologna is believed to have been covered in like structures, aptly named The Forest of Towers. I cannot recommend this place enough. Granted, I have yet to see the more popular traveling destinations of Rome, Venice, Florence, Pisa, etc., our February visit was practically void of other tourists. I think I heard another group of native English speakers only once--but don't let that scare you. Every person we spoke with either recognized our looks of confusion and tried speaking English with Elizabeth and I, or very nicely and slowly told us something that we couldn't aurally understand but, with the aid of Italian hand gestures, was crystal clear.
Keep reading--more in the next post down!
Along the Via dell'Independenzia
The market where we bought canolis, olives, and marzipan. Not sure why there's a French flag there. I think my camera likes to mess with colors. It's probably an Italian flag.
Not a great pic, but it shows a little bit the liveliness of the place.
Neptune!
Typical.
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