Cristallo Bologna

... miles from a little town north of Bologna to Ferrara. Luckily they have bike friendly trains here, because that's how we got home.

That night, we met Gherardo, a friend of my former professor's, who used to live in DC, so spoke very good English, for dinner. He took us to a "typical" Bologna restaurant, I ate amazing bolognese, and we peppered Gherardo with questions about Italy, Italians ...

Left the waterways of Venice early, as we had a very important date with the Ferrari family.
Such as BMW has a Welt ("world" in German).. Ferrari has itself a Universe all to its own... tucked behind the old gates is a world of Rosso. The factory is quiet, clean and the sight of all those beautiful engine parts that will become a Ferrari motor is breathtaking.

The road car production is amazing. The working ...

... never tried it..) and a jaccuzi tub in the bathroom AND there were two sinks - one was really low to the ground so we didnt use it :). We put our stuff away and went down to the desk to find out where was good to eat. I sheepishly asked what the deal was with our room and the lady just smiled and said there is no suppliment, they were overbooked. This place was probably 200 Euro a night and we were paying less than 40 ...

... are packed with tourists... We visited funny art exhibitions that where part of the biennale and had lots of fun trying to understand it. In the evening we joined Nico and Cristina for a yoga class! What a day!

The next day we left Venice direction Padua. We decided to cycle more south, direction Livorno or Rome (where we can take a ferry to Barcelona). On the way we will visit our friend Andrea, that we met in the ...

... been told the wrong bus number!! The lady gave us a bus map and new directions and off we went. Found what we thought was the right bus, but after a while I realized it was going the WRONG WAY.. AAGGHHH!! So off we jumped, crossed the road and tried again – surely this one would take us there. We basically crossed from one side of the city to the other, and got off where the tourist info lady had told us to. We were in the middle of NO WHERE. Like the outer ...

According to google (I wonder if starting a blog posting with those 3 words will become the 21st century equivalent of starting an essay or a speech with a dictionary definition - a stylistic cliche that will become anathema to English teachers everywhere), the separation between Siena and Rome is 243km, which by the most direct route takes under 3 ...

... to get normal water but accidentally ended up getting the bubbly stuff. I was looking at the label when I noticed it had a couple lines printed in English. The first said mineral water, the second said caution, may have diuretic effects. I was two thirds of the way through the 1.5 liter bottle, great. When we first arrived in Bologna the weather was fair, but as we warmed up the temperature was rapidly dropping. We arrived earlier so I was able to get out and ...

... so that I could hardly tell that we were moving. When we arrived I met Manuela's friend Mariagrazia with a traditional kiss on each cheek and then we went to Gianluca and Manuela's friend's (Nicola) restaurant (he shares ownership of it with about 5 other people). In Italy for a traditional lunch they have antipasti, followed by Prima (the 1st dish), Secondo (the 2nd), fruit, and then dolce (dessert) with an espresso coffee of course! Throughout the meal they ...

... the Italian school I have enrolled in is a no nonsense program. My teacher, Stephania is very energetic, and we spend 4 hours per day speaking Italian only- in fact, you must even ask questions in Italian and the answer is always in Italian! On my first day, I met people from Michigan, Thailand, Japan, Wales, England and Australia during our daily coffee clutch, where everyone has to speak Italian- it is hysterical because with everyone at different levels, our ...

... art, but we didn't have time to see it. Our focus that day was mainly on the University and professors. The University of Bologna is the oldest in Europe. It was founded in 1088 and began as a type of law school. The first piece of art we saw actually had nothing to do with the University. It was a collection of terracotta statues that used to be on a building. The figure on the far right is St. Francis. The one in the ...