Day 9
Written from Florence, Italy at 10:45pm
The past two days have been getting us out of our 'routine', with yesterday involving a day-trip to Bologna (pop. 385,000), only 30-60min from Ferrara by train.
From Central Station, we walked through the city center (Piazza del Nettuno and Piazza Maggiore) to the Palazza dell' Archiginnosio. I believe this is a part of the University of Bologna, the oldest Uni in Europe (1088AD, even older than UNC!). We arrived early enough to view the Teatro Anatomico, where human cadavers were once dissected under the scrutiny of an Inqiusition priest, and walked through parts of their massive library (Biblioteca Comunale).
Piazza del Nettuno (view from the Palazzo Comunale)
Teatro Anatomico
Biblioteca Comunale (the walls are decorated with the professors' coasts of arms)
During the mid-afternoon break--the two hours or so mid-day when absolutely everything closes--we had some leftovers for lunch then walked through a couple art galleries in the Palazzo Comunale (Collezioni Comunali d'Arte, and Museo Morandi, with an exhibit featuring Italian modern artist Filippo de Pisis).
Collezioni Comunali d'Arte (art gallery)
To test our eyes even more, we headed for the gigantic, incomplete, and (in my opinion) somewhat unappealing Basilica di San Petroni, the fourth largest Cathedral in Europe, then compared that with the Basilica di San Domenico, dedicated to St. Domenic, the founder of the Dominican Order. Seth and I both preferred this more simple cathedral, and even saw several Domenican priests in the courtyard, pacing with their bible, just like Father Laurie from Johns used to do.
Basilica di San Petroni (view from Palazzo Comunale)From here we walked through the Quadrilatero, Bologna's big gourmet food district, and admired all the huge meaty pig legs hanging in the windows, then found ourselves wanting to grab an early dinner. We asked a lady on the street for a good place to have dinner, but she told us that restaurants don't open until 7pm. It being only 5:45, we teated ourselves to an appetiser of gelato. However, we didn't have just any gelato--we went to La Sorbetteria Castiglione, which many people say has the best gelato in Italy (it even had the awards to prove it). Our tre gusti (flavours/scoops) came wedged inside a big, fluffy focaccia bun, so you know it was good.
One of the many delis in the Quadrilatero. What impressive hams!
Our focaccia gelato from La Sorbetteria Castiglione
La Rossa
We headed up north, past the Torre degli Asinelli and Torre Garisenda (two VERY leaning towers--the shorter of the two 3.2m off center), before it began to rain and thunder very heavily. Forgetting our umbrellas, we ran into one of the first restaurants we came across. As Bologna is the food capital of Italy, and since Italy has some of the best food in the world, we were both pretty interested in sampling some of the city's cheesy, meaty, specialties, like lasagna and tortellini in meatsauce (ragu). However, this restaurant--actually, it was more of a pizzeria--only had a couple meaty pasta dishes and a whole bunch of other things. I got their one pasta that came with meatsauce and Seth had a seafood pasta, and we split a marinara pizza (these just have sauce, oregano, and garlic--no cheese). Mine was pretty good, though Seth's was a bit too creamy and he felt sick afterwards. They even drenched the pizza in olive oil, which didn't make Seth's stomach feel any better. Needless to say, it wasn't exactly the dinner we were dreaming about. (I later read that we were in the wrong part of town for restaurants--we should have been in the university district, but it would have been hard to get there through the pouring rain). After dinner we slogged back to the train station and off to sleepy, quiet Ferrara.
Bologna's leaning towers: Torre degli Asinelli (right) and Torre Garisenda (left)
Seth noticing the cream and foreseeing a stomachache
Mine was alright (though a bit small)
Today, after our run, we checked out of our room in Ferrara, and Seth zipped down to the library to finish his work. I stayed behind and enjoyed my last few hours in our neighborhood and hung out in the hostel with its long-term resident, a Japanese woman who was waiting for her fiance in the Naval Reserves. By 2pm Seth had returned and we had to rush over to the train station. It was sad to leave--everyone there was really nice and the hostel itself was very clean, comfortable, and at a wonderful low capacity. In fact, Seth and I had that 5-bed dorm to ourselves the entire time, and were only charged €15 each per night.
Ferrara's traditional twisty bread, top shelf and bottom right (ciupéta)
We took the train back down through Bologna and into Florence (pop. 381,000) and checked into our new hostel, the Ostella Santa Monaca. This place, once again, is completely different from the last--a typical busy, cramped, somewhat grimy, backpackers. It even has 22-bed dorms, which I had never seen before (luckily we had a 'coupon' for a discounted 8-bed dorm). To make it worse, its 'full kitchen' to serve up to 110 people is composed of two hot plates, a microwave, mini fridge, and washer and dryer (that's right, they are located under the sink).
After checking in, we whipped up a pasta dinner (taking up both burners), tossed it into our tupperwares, then walked to the massive and extremely beautiful pink and white Duomo to eat as we watched tourists walk by. We spent the rest of the evening exploring the city center and getting excited over what to do tomorrow.
Dinner on the steps of Florence's Duomo, the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore
Basilica di Santa Croce
The Arno (river)
Family dinner by the Arno
Corner fountain
**As a note, the weather since our visit to Bologna and for the rest of the trip would be much more pleasant and seasonable. However, as much as we enjoyed Ferrara (and Venice) I think a part of me will always unfairly associate it with heat and blaring sun.
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