Ville Panazza Bologna

I climbed a tree today, I sat in this tree on a branch. Protected, Buffered. Cradled. I read my book, sitting in a tree.
Feeling guilty of all I am not doing. I watch people riding by ringing their bicycle bells. I am strangly humbled. I sit in this tree and watch, the water fall from the fountain, making its delicate shapes and slapping to the base as it loses its fight with gravity.
I notice with a small ...

... 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.

So we spent a bit of time the night before we got here trying to secure some accomodation. We found the hotel online and it seemed like a good value even if it was a bit out of the way. Whats a 20 minute bus ride anyway. So we get on the bus, which is the right bus going in the wrong direction; we found this out when we got kicked off at the last stop. So we get off and then get on the next bus headed in the other direction ...

... and backpacks! WOW! We are even luxurious travelers next to them. We cooked together (also with the mice and rats) in the huge kitchen of the squat. Every day the people from here recycle food from a market nearby, so there is always loads of free food!

In the night we tried to find a party, but it seemed to be already finished... anyway again a great day... that even ended with a warm shower!!!!!!

... Alex and Anthony had taken off for Venice, I considered going but we had a workout with Marco and Mario later and I figured they wouldn't be back in time. Squale called he was on his lunch break so we went to a café. After another lunch, he dropped me off at another internet café by his house. I stayed there until 5:30, then tried to make the 15 minute walk back home. Turns out I went right too soon and managed to walk in the words largest circle for and hour ...

... converted and used to channel the waste from the city. Ten years ago, an engineer by the name of Pierro Bottino began a project that separated the sewage from the fresh water and now the fresh water runs out to the Adriatic Sea with the sewage contained in pipes that run to a purification plant. The amazing part of this tour was that these canals date back to Roman times! (see pictures) Steve's exam took place on February 6th and as many of you know- he passed and is now licensed ...

... eaten proper balsamic vinegar. It is an out of this world taste. I bought a bottle of 12 yo vinegar only for special occasions (Michelle) but also some wine vinegar (which is what we usually think is traditional) and some balsamic jelly which should be delicious with parmesan cheese. We had one of the best lunches of the trip in the garden. We had roast pork (very plain but perfectly cooked) and potatoes with 25 yr old ...

Morning we went to pretty much the same places we visited the night before.
Firenze is a small town. We went to the duomo and there was a long line
outside. Sally wanted to go in but the line was just too long for the time
we had. We passed the Spedale degli Innocenti and Santissima Annunziata in
the Northeast part of Firenze because we walked the wrong way ...

... several hours being sick. It was awful, but by 3 am I had nothing left in my stomach and slept the rest of the night. (Sorry mom and dad if you read this before I tell you! We'll talk this weekend) The second day of the trip I woke up feeling fine, but I had no energy. I went downstairs with two friends for breakfast (Anne stayed in bed) and had a piece of toast and some water, but couldn't manage any more than that. We were supposed to have a ...