Touring Carpi

... because even when I was sitting calmly, listening to the howls of laughter as Greg tells a story in Italian, watching the hands slap the table or their neighbours back in merriment, I had a sense of how many times I have watched my parents, sit calmly with no idea of the conversation at hand and that they can only base it off of facial expressions and the odd time lips are in their line of view. And I was ashamed. Because I can attempt to pick out ...

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.

... snack lunch and sat down in a piazza to eat. There were pigeons everywhere and we once again asked eachother why the hell there were so many school kids all over the place. School ends around one o clock but they go on Saturdays too. We finished lunch and wandered a bit before we made it to the office. We started looking for information on checking out the regions specialties - proscuitto and ...

... building holds the retired F1 single seaters. Dawn counted 50 in all. These are as new as 2007, as the 2008's have not been released to the public yet. some privately owned and some for sale. Minimum price for one of these retired F1 machines, 1 Million Euro. Ok...

This was truly a dream come true for me and I want to thank Dawn for letting me experience something like this in the middle of our honeymoon.

... is actually the same bus we just got off of, the guy just had to turn around and I guess he didn't think we were going to get back on. So anyway, it took us about an hour to get to our hotel after we got off the train (which was delayed by two hours) but we made it. As we check in i notice that there are six slots with room keys behind the front desk that are not numbered but have names of famous artists. We give the ...

... farmers. Other activities are the info shop "infoshock", a cinema; an Internet cafe; a ciclo officina (bike workshop); an Italian language course school for migrant; a gym; and now and then they organize diners, parties and concerts.. (every Thursday for sure). By chance we met two other cyclists that also stay here for the night, from USA. They are also traveling around in Italy now, same low budget style but with really ...

... It turned out the hotel wasn’t too far away, and on the way there we learnt that the man was Sicilian, and he couldn’t understand why we were in Bologna. It was a bit too hard to sign language 'we got a cheap flight here, it’s only for 1 night and then we are off to the Cinque Terre’. We did manage to get the Cinque Terre bit across – he said it’s ‘OK’ but we should really be going to Sicily because that is much ...

... 20,000 was very impressive and Hoges and I explored it for quite some time. Though it now functions as Verona’s opera house, both of us independently came to the same conclusion that it could also be put to a slightly different, less Italian, use: Its mini-Melbourne Cricket Ground proportions were absolutely perfect for a game of backyard/park cricket with a large group of friends or extended family.

As it got dark we were walking against the ...

... around the city, especially around where I am staying. But for a Uni town, things are quite expensive. I wanted to sit down to a hearty plate of Spag Bol in the home of the Bol, but I couldn't find a cheap Trattoria to save my life, so I was stuck eating Meatball Pizza at the bar with other locals. Ferrara is another town just down the road, so I headed back to the train station for a little sidetrip. It is a very cool little place, so relaxed ...

... for dinner. It’s a beautiful spa town and smells good! I took a long walk through the park and had a Gran Marnier on the patio. Peggy had Amaretto which pleased the bartender/host. He didn’t like my ordering a French liqueur! The hotel was one of the nicest on our tour.

We left our window open and it was actually cold when we got up!