Mi piace Bologna

Soooo I'm extremely behind on all of my posts. Two weekends ago Steph, Melissa and I decided that we wanted to get out of Florence for the weekend. We originally planned to go to Milan but discovered that it was an extremely expensive trip just for an over night and there aren't many attractions there. A couple of our friends said they did a day trip to Bologna and said it was beautiful so we decided to make a weekend out of it. Left Florence around 4:00 in the afternoon by train. I was hoping to see a pretty scenery on the train but unfortunately we were in tunnels most of the time. The trains are really nice here. It's like being on a spaceship everything is so modern.

When we got to Bologna we found our hotel easily. It was such a nice hotel we weren't even expecting it for the price we paid. The city is really pretty and it's more of a family place than Florence. There were a lot more people our age too because of the University of Bologna so it is a college town. The sidewalks were covered with arched overhangs and there were cars everywhere. It was nice to see the sun and tree too because we're always in the shade in Florence. We found a cute little place to eat dinner. I had Lasagna verde (green pasta) which was soo good and of course tiramasu set in pudding. Everywhere we go we get tiramasu, I can't say which place I like best because they're all Delicious just different. We joke about how we're making our way through Italy on Tiramasu and Pizza. But it is so true, the pizza is always different as well and we're always eating pasta in the apartment so I almost always get pizza when we go out.

We asked the waiter where to go at right and he pointed us in the direction of pub row. It was pretty cool they were all students at the university from all over Italy. Basically no one spoke English in Bologna so we got good practice with Italian. But at the pubs all the students who were studying English made there way over to us to practice. It was pretty funny we'd try to talk in Italian and they would try to respond in English. They also told us what attractions to see the next day. That was really helpful because the trip was planned last minute and we really had no idea what was in Bologna.

The next day we went to the towers. They are absolutely huge and one is tipping like the leaning tower of Pisa. We walked all 500 steps up. They were so steep it was like climbing a latter forever. Every one hundred steps there was a ledge to take a break on. Thank goodness because we definitely needed it but it was also a joke because every time we saw one we thought we made it to the top and then we'd look up and had so many more to go. But all in all we made it and it was beautiful we could see for miles. Then we made our way down the 500 steps again. Sometimes we had to turn around and walk backwards that's how steep they were. And it was always difficult when you were passing someone going the opposite way. We found a piazza and sat there for a while and just people watched. Everyone has dogs and they're always dressed up. They're adorable and they are much more obedient than any dog in America it's amazing I don't know how they train them differently but it works a lot better. After lunch we went to the Duono and the government buildings which were pretty cool, everything is so historic and they look like castles. We got back to Florence around 1030. It was a good mini trip before our big spring break trip when we go to Barcelona, London, and Paris in a row!

The next day we went to the Florence Calcio game (Soccer) It wasn't intense as most calcio games are fan wise because it was only a Tuscany game. But I hear at country to country game there are a lot of riots and it really gets out of hand. I thought it was pretty funny that you're allowed to bring any drink inside the stadium you want as long as it is in a open plastic cup. You're not allowed bottles because they can be used as weapons. And everyone is allowed to smoke in the stadium, it so different from America. The game was a lot of fun, we won! Florenita Forza Viola (The Florence forceful purple)