Maxim Bologna

... thankfully this ended well! I arrived, unloaded, got signed in and found a supermarket! Bought some veggies and fruit to ward off scurvey and, what I thought was milk but later turned out to be some creamy gross stuff that I had to throw in the garbage with Flair!

The next morning is my tree day, I woke up feeling rather gross with a foggy head and a nose that was running away from me. I decided to take ...

... 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.

... 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 ...

... I think that it has made a positive impact and will change them deeply as much as my first trip , at age 15, to Mallorca did. It opened my eyes very wide and made me always have a greater appreciation of other peoples and cultures and gave me the travel bug too :)...

I have not seen the kids belly laugh this much in about 1.5 years. Me too, real belly laughing. Let me tell you, it is good for your soul, so you should all try to belly ...

... was much more physical for me than the first game. I played well, but not as consistently as I would have liked, missing two or three throws. I feel bad because most players on our team play both ways and sometimes special teams. So I am always trying to get in on extra plays to give other guys a rest. It is fun because I get to play a total football game. At halftime Joeseppi told me that "I play hard" and that "I like you [as a football player ...

... with us for "Sci Fondo" (cross country skiing). Her aerobic training since starting college paid off handsomely and she was able to cross country ski for kilometers and kilometers. We then went to Bologna, took a day trip to Fragno, Parma where we spent the day with the relatives of the Leporati family and mapped out a more complete family tree for Steve and Chiara. Although we arrived late, we were still able to visit the graveyard in Fragno (in the dark with flashlights!) and ...

The Bologna ceramic tile fair is the holy shrine of the industry. Thousands of people flock to Cersaie to see the latest in technologies, styles, sizes, colors, shapes, and uses. The experience is overwhelming--just when you think you've seen it all, you turn another corner and find a handful of football field sized pavilions filled with booths representing even ...

... room. So, he was lame and had the walls painted white, covering all of the beautiful artwork. Fairly recently, people have picked away at some of the paint and managed to recover pieces of the frescos, but there are still huge chunks missing. Then, on to more of the Cardinal's rooms. There was one room with really high ceilings because it was in the middle of the building and that was the only way to build it so windows could be put in and light ...

... heavy rain cutting our visibility. I was definitely fortunate enough that Hoges had asked for directions at a service station near Brescia (not something my pride normally allows), as that made spotting the turns we needed to make so much easier. Once in Iseo we met Hoges’ mate Gerry who was renting an apartment here for a couple of months, using it as a base for his family on an extended holiday, and who was toiling away to cook up a great feed for all of us.