Garisenda Bologna

... Harry Potter, and Italy, and Teaching, Travelling, music, movies. Home and Away.
Refresing girls and wonderful souls!
I have been so luck on this trip to have met so many wonderful people. People I hope to call friends for years to come!

Today I am in Ancona and arrived at my hostel to find that even though I e-mailed ahead of time to ask if I could arrive during their closed office hours, it seems ...

... power of the ruthless Este dynasty who built the fortress to protect themselves from their own citizens.

Ferrara's Cathedral, built in 1135, is a gem of Romanic and Gothic architecture featuring a 3 tier facade with boney arches.

The Church of Sant'Antonio in Polesine contains beautiful frescoes from the 13th and 14th centuries.

The Palazzo del Diamanty (palace of Diamonds) was close to the castle and we leaned on it and check it off our list.

Short train ride from Florence after a hair raising trip trying to return the rental car in confusing, congested and traffic restrictied Florence (don't rent a car downtown go to the airport). Bologna is an university town (even Johns Hopkin has a campus). Very historical town with a great plaza area like most towns and a great antique market.

... on his Napolitan deck of cards (Iīm not entirely sure he actually showed me the same card in the end, or merely relied on my confusion in discerning the 4 of gold cups from the cupid of blue swords), followed by insisting that "I call over my dog Jessica to meet you." I wasnīt sure whether heīs incorrectly interpreted the nuances rapīs use of ...

... snap. I wanted to kill someone, mostly myself. I missed Mario on a wide open 50 yard touchdown pass, then fumbled away the football. I watched the warriors hit a touchdown on 2 and 20 from mid field. We trotted back out and promptly drove the field, converting a comeback to Marco on 4th and 10 and then scoring on a 20 yard touchdown pass to Marco on a post corner. We got the ball back and I hit Mario on a deep post for 50 yards. He capped off the drive with a ...

... Adriatic Sea is! Incredible! It's like a warm bath - the complete opposite of the Antarctically cold sea in Melbourne. Since I've now been in Italy for two weeks I thought I'd share with you some of my observations to finish off. In Italy (in general) they start work at about 9am, work 'til 1pm then come home for lunch. They return to work at 3pm and finish at about 7pm. They don't eat dinner until about 8.30 - 9pm and it is always a light meal (because lunch is ...

... can you imagine?? (See pics). Luckily, I have met Rebecca, an American yoga instructor who is willing to take us on. She lives nearby and we are very hopeful that her style of practice will work for us. I know this will make Margo and Darlene (our yoga instructors in the US) very happy! True yoga studios and gyms are non-existent in this small city, purtroppo. (unfortunately) Going shopping for food every day is a great time! Atta and Tamburini (see pics) are the ...

... also some very tall towers here, one is leaning, really leaning. I am not sure why italy has so many towers...they built them on corsica for communication, was it the same here? Anyway, I had a nice time just strolling around this place, popping into shops and churches whenever I felt like it, even took a nap one afternoon! (maybe I still haven't caught up from that night in the train station..)

... Bologna. It was only 40km away via the back roads, but we wasted an enormous amount of time stuck in traffic en route, and barely halfway there decided to cut our losses, find an autostrade heading north and look around in Verona instead.

Once in the middle of Verona and crossing under the enormous Porta Nuova, a huge piazza opened up to form the forecourt to the third largest surviving Roman arena in the world. The first century open amphitheatre ...

June 10, 2002

Back on the bus! This time to Italy!! We went to Pisa (and had pizza for lunch!) We saw the tower, of course, and the church. Got to shop in the souvenir shops and sit for awhile in the sun. Very peaceful day. I can tell I'm getting tired, because the travel journal entries are shorter and shorter!




We were in ...