Day 17

Italy 2011

Day 17

We were planning to travel by train to the town of Ravenna, known for it’s dazzling mosaics. However, we woke up to a fairly hard rain. Since it was still raining after breakfast, we decided to stay in Bologna. We are both reading books we love, so we read contentedly in our room until the rain stopped.

When the skies cleared, we set out to visit the Basilica de San Domenico. Contrary to what you might be thinking, we don’t think of food ALL the time! We do try to fit in a little culture now and then. The Basilica was big and very beautiful. There were paintings and sculptures by Pisano, Lombardi, Michelangelo, and many others. One of Michelangelo’s sculptures, called San Procolo, is said to be the rehearsal for his later David.

We then had another food adventure. We went to a trattoria recommended by our hotel clerk. We chose a table outside. Immediately our waiter came over and poured us glasses of champagne without asking if we wanted any. We waited for a menu, but we never saw one. After a long time we were given more champagne and bread with meat and cheese.  We were patient, since we had nowhere we had to hurry off to. Eventually our waiter came to take out order, but we had to figure out what he was telling us in Italian because there was still no menu. We each ordered a small plate of some form of delicious homemade tortellini. The problem came when we got our bill. Nothing was itemized, and we were charged 40 euros. All we really ordered was the tortellini, a glass of wine, and two espressos. Evidently we were charged for all the other things that we didn’t order. One interesting thing, though, was that Arnold Schwarzenegger had been there. Here is a photo of the picture in the hall:

After lunch, we visited the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna (National Picture Gallery). Nothing was in English, all the pictures were from the Baroque period, so we had trouble understanding what we were looking at.

Coming home we discovered a street with the most wonderful food shop all in a row. There was a fish shop, one that sold only fruits and vegetables, and another that sold lots of interesting meats, cheeses, and olives.  There’s also a pasta shop, Roberto’s favorite.

After more reading in our hotel room, we ventured out again for dinner at Osteria dell’Orsa. There was lots of action out on the streets. The osteria proved to be excellent and cost about half of what our lunch cost. We both had tagliatelli with Bolognese sauce, and it was excellent.

Every since we got to Bologna, we've noticed that there is a more color here in the architecture which makes the city unique.  There is a phrase in one of language books that seems to fit Bologna which we've said a time or two.  For those that love Italian, the phrase is Que colore!  Here's a glimpse of what we mean by it: