May 19
Today was our day to explore Bologna. We slept in later than usual due to sheer exhaustion - sightseeing is hard work. Gabriella had told us we could leave our bags in the apartment and we got our bags all packed up and then headed out. Our first stop was of course cappuccinos!... and we headed back to the Piazza Maggiore. After deciding against the first coffee tourist trap we stopped at, we ended up in a delightful little coffee shop and had our morning fix. We wanted to see as much of Bologna as possible and decided to start with getting on the San Luca Express, a little train that you can ride up to the Madonna di San Luca basilica. This is truly a landmark for Bologna and a church of some sort has existed here for a thousand years. The current church was built in 1723. A pilgrimage takes place yearly to the San Luca and follows a path of porticos that is 666 arches long - the longest stretch of porticos in the world. It is a beautiful old church but we were unable to go inside as it was closed. We walked all around it, took lots of pictures and enjoyed the beautiful views of the city. Since we wanted to explore, we decided to walk back rather than take the San Luca Express. We walked down the portico path and it went on FOREVER. This is obviously a place where many of the locals do their exercise routines as it is steep going uphill to the church with many stairs. We saw a lot of tired runners and I was OK not being one of them. :)
It was great walking back through the city. We walked through the Porta Saragozza, one of the remaining gates into the city and of course, we stopped and had gelato and another caffe. David bought a couple of pounds of cherries at a local fruit stand and polished those off while we walked. We ended up going through the old Jewish Ghetto. The Jews were separated from the rest of the population in 1556 and lived in this area, still traceable by extremely narrow walkways. The Jews were finally expelled from Bologna in the late 1500's and no Jewish community was allowed in Bologna again for two centuries. Pretty weird stuff.
We tried to see the Neptune Fountain but it is closed for restorative repair....we walked on to the two towers - due Torri - the origin of the name of the coffee roaster David does business with at home. There was originally 180 towers in the city built between the 12th and 13th centuries - amazing looking at these towers and realizing how truly old they are - the Asinelli tower is 97 meters tall. We now started to make our way back to our apartment as it was getting late. We kept coming across old churches and buildings that made you just stop and gape. We went through an old, old church inside that just was incredible.
We thought about stopping for some food as all we had eaten all day was coffee and sugar but neither of us were terribly hungry and we thought we better get on our way. Little did we know! We got back to our apartment about 5:30 and I received a text from our host in Venezia saying to be sure and get there before 7:30 as they closed at 7:30. Oh-oh. That was not going to happen. We tried to call a taxi and was told none was available. Our host Gabriella said there were some parked taxis about 1/3 of a mile away so we started walking there but none were to be found. By then, we just decided to start walking toward the train station and try to find a taxi as we walked. I let the host know it would be later than 7:30 and we had the requisite stress while I waited for her to see if she could find someone to let us in late - she called back and said it could be done for a price of 50 Euros. We were not in a position to negotiate so we happily agreed. We finally got a taxi and made our way to the train station. Both of us were starved by now and we managed to share a sandwich in the train station and just keep going. The train we hoped to catch was sold out and we ended up on a train that had changes and more navigating of an Italian train system had to occur. There was a lot of wondering what in the heck we were doing but we finally got to Venezia, found the right water bus and the right stop. We were both pretty beat up - about 22,000 steps on the day. Our host met us at the water bus stop and got us checked in to our apartment. Finally, we made our way to a restaurant and had a decent meal for a lot of money.
Venezia is beautiful but very expensive and has TONS of tourists everywhere. Of course, we are among them. We will explore tomorrow! May I admit I was too tired to even admire the beauty all around me. Pathetic but true.
Today was our day to explore Bologna. We slept in later than usual due to sheer exhaustion - sightseeing is hard work. Gabriella had told us we could leave our bags in the apartment and we got our bags all packed up and then headed out. Our first stop was of course cappuccinos!... and we headed back to the Piazza Maggiore. After deciding against the first coffee tourist trap we stopped at, we ended up in a delightful little coffee shop and had our morning fix. We wanted to see as much of Bologna as possible and decided to start with getting on the San Luca Express, a little train that you can ride up to the Madonna di San Luca basilica. This is truly a landmark for Bologna and a church of some sort has existed here for a thousand years. The current church was built in 1723. A pilgrimage takes place yearly to the San Luca and follows a path of porticos that is 666 arches long - the longest stretch of porticos in the world. It is a beautiful old church but we were unable to go inside as it was closed. We walked all around it, took lots of pictures and enjoyed the beautiful views of the city. Since we wanted to explore, we decided to walk back rather than take the San Luca Express. We walked down the portico path and it went on FOREVER. This is obviously a place where many of the locals do their exercise routines as it is steep going uphill to the church with many stairs. We saw a lot of tired runners and I was OK not being one of them. :)
It was great walking back through the city. We walked through the Porta Saragozza, one of the remaining gates into the city and of course, we stopped and had gelato and another caffe. David bought a couple of pounds of cherries at a local fruit stand and polished those off while we walked. We ended up going through the old Jewish Ghetto. The Jews were separated from the rest of the population in 1556 and lived in this area, still traceable by extremely narrow walkways. The Jews were finally expelled from Bologna in the late 1500's and no Jewish community was allowed in Bologna again for two centuries. Pretty weird stuff.
We tried to see the Neptune Fountain but it is closed for restorative repair....we walked on to the two towers - due Torri - the origin of the name of the coffee roaster David does business with at home. There was originally 180 towers in the city built between the 12th and 13th centuries - amazing looking at these towers and realizing how truly old they are - the Asinelli tower is 97 meters tall. We now started to make our way back to our apartment as it was getting late. We kept coming across old churches and buildings that made you just stop and gape. We went through an old, old church inside that just was incredible.
We thought about stopping for some food as all we had eaten all day was coffee and sugar but neither of us were terribly hungry and we thought we better get on our way. Little did we know! We got back to our apartment about 5:30 and I received a text from our host in Venezia saying to be sure and get there before 7:30 as they closed at 7:30. Oh-oh. That was not going to happen. We tried to call a taxi and was told none was available. Our host Gabriella said there were some parked taxis about 1/3 of a mile away so we started walking there but none were to be found. By then, we just decided to start walking toward the train station and try to find a taxi as we walked. I let the host know it would be later than 7:30 and we had the requisite stress while I waited for her to see if she could find someone to let us in late - she called back and said it could be done for a price of 50 Euros. We were not in a position to negotiate so we happily agreed. We finally got a taxi and made our way to the train station. Both of us were starved by now and we managed to share a sandwich in the train station and just keep going. The train we hoped to catch was sold out and we ended up on a train that had changes and more navigating of an Italian train system had to occur. There was a lot of wondering what in the heck we were doing but we finally got to Venezia, found the right water bus and the right stop. We were both pretty beat up - about 22,000 steps on the day. Our host met us at the water bus stop and got us checked in to our apartment. Finally, we made our way to a restaurant and had a decent meal for a lot of money.
Venezia is beautiful but very expensive and has TONS of tourists everywhere. Of course, we are among them. We will explore tomorrow! May I admit I was too tired to even admire the beauty all around me. Pathetic but true.
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