Hotel Gloria 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 ...

Ferrara is a Medieval town that dates back around 1300 years when Ferrara was a Byzantine military fortified city. In 1115 Ferrara became a free commune and in 1135 the Cathederal was built.

The driving was flat and the highways were fast with lots of speeding passers. The parking was limited at Ferrara and the complexity for the parking signs left us concerned while we were touring. The parking spaces were tiny and many of the vehicles were dented and ...

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.

... journey. We promptly got lost, so we caught a train for a couple of stops to a one horse town with only one road north so we knew we wouldn't get lost. Okay, no problem. But little did we know that there are no back roads in Bologna. No bikepaths. No sidewalks. No shoulders.

The way they get around in Italy is long two lane highways punctuated by roundabouts, with speed limits of 70 ...

... 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 ...

... good bye later to the grocery clan, and Alex has a bet that "melon man" as we call him, will be in the front of the store...

We come home and I will clean and continue to pack our last things prior to push off. The kids are getting their last dose of SKY TV, which they beg for when we get home. They watch the INTL news (BBC world news) and love it and the movies.

As I said in my Venice blog, this has been a great journey for ...

... they know how very overmatched they are. I about died on Reggie's last touchdown he scored from about 20 yards out. But he had to lower his head at about the four and bang off a couple guys, and just got across the goaline. He bounced up and shouted, "that's Green power baby!" As I walked away from the Doves, I heard one Italian muttering something about Green power. Reggie and I chuckled about the whole thing in the locker room after the ...

Over the centuries, Bologna has acquired many nicknames: "the learned one" (la dotta) is a reference to its famous university; "the fat one" (la grassa) refers to its cuisine. The red one" (la rossa) originally refers to the colour of the roofs in the historic centre, but this nickname is also connected to the political situation in the city, started after World War II: until ...

Do you recall what you were doing last night at 3am? Sleeping? Me too. Unfortunately, at 3:01am I was talking to a friend of mine on the phone. He called--just to catch up--but didn't realize that I was in Italy, nine hours ahead of him. He was just getting off work and wondering what I was up to. Sleeping, I said. I'm in Italy--would you mind sending me an email? Needless to say, he got a ...

... are better preserved than others. In the Piazza is Neptune's Fountain, a fountain with Neptune standing in the middle and naked women with a lot of water shooting out from their breasts. It's pretty funny to look at. It was commissioned by the Pope at a time when the Church was very accepting of pagan religions. On one side of the piazza is the City Hall, where the mayor and other local government officials still have offices. There are also ...