Day 14

Italy 2011

Day 14

It’s amazing how quickly you can move about Italy.  We took the fast train from Florence to Bologna this morning, and we spent less than 40 minutes on the train.  We spent a lot more time getting to our hotel, walking nearly an hour across the city.  We started without a decent map, so that made for a shaky start.  Along the way we got a taste of the architecture.  It’s very different here.  Porticos on buildings are extremely common such as this one. People can walk for many blocks under these porticos.

We did find our new temporary home, and it is very nice.  It doesn’t look like much from the street, but once inside, it is quite beautiful.  It has a beautiful courtyard filled with fragrant blooms of a wide variety.  Our building was built in the 15^th century but is quite comfortable.

We were shown our room, and it was very small.  Since we are here five nights, we decided to ask about an upgrade.  The people here are so great, and they gave us a new room that is double the size of the first room – at no additional cost! To get to it, we have to walk through the beautiful courtyard and up three flights of stairs. No problem for us!

The city center is Piazza Maggiore where many very old buildings and the Statue of Neptune resides.  This was once considered a risqué monument due to both Neptune and the four sirens beneath him.  Neptune is the Roman god of water and the sea, and while the picture poorly conveys the paths of the water in the fountain, we’re sure you can imagine. Actually, Shari just said it’s hard to tell from the picture. So in case you can’t imagine, the fountain water flows through the sirens’ breasts.

A very short distance from the Piazza is a special theatre.  The University of Bologna is the oldest in all of Europe.  It has been around since 1088 and supposedly has the best medical school in Italy.  We stumbled into the Teatro Anatomico, where in the late 1600’s they taught human anatomy with cadavers.  Back in the seventeenth century, this was a big deal.  Medicine was very primitive for a very long time. The table you see is where the dead body would go. You will also see a place where the professor would stand with the two skinless statues on either side of him. Robert’s replacement knee and hip replacement parts are based a little on the discovery of anatomy.

Our dining experiences for the day were less rewarding.  Lunch was good, as Shari had a risotto dish with primavera (spring) vegetables.

Our dinner was another story.  We used a Frommers’ recommendation for a pizzaria that turned out to be a bust.  The food was mediocre and worse yet, the service was very poor.  We’ve never had such an experience, but we normally don’t use the guide books to find places to eat.  If you have a good hotel with good staff, they are often the best source of information for eating.  Most of them eat out and know the current status of what’s good and what’s affordable.  Because we like what the locals like and don’t want any food modified to make it somewhat American, this formula works for us.

The city after hours is very alive, as the university students seem to be everywhere including a lot of bars that appear to be doing quite well.  We strolled the streets and eventually came across something that reminded us of Young Frankenstein -- very impressive knockers (only one shown).