Thursday June 19, 2008 and Friday June, 20, 2008
The Trip to Italy
We began our trip at Regan International Airport with a flight from D.C to New York at 2 PM. Well, at least we thought we did. It turned out our flight was delayed, and then delayed, and then once we boarded the plane, it was delayed a little more. We finally arrived at JFK at around 5 PM for a flight to Madrid that began boarding at 5:30 PM. Ok, no problem, we run over to the next terminal and we will make it in no time. NOPE. It turns out that terminal 7 is a train ride and another turn through security away from terminal 8. So, after literally sprinting through the airport, racing through security (cutting in line and getting yelled at) and sprinting some more to the gate, we made it with a few minutes to spare. After all of that, the flight was delayed on the tarmac by over an hour. The flight to Madrid was uneventful. The food was pretty good and the wine was free. However, I couldn’t sleep a wink. So, after finally falling asleep at 6 AM Madrid time…they flipped on all the lights and began serving breakfast at 7 AM. Mind you, it felt like 1 AM to my body and I had just had dinner 4 hours prior. It was crazy! So, we hop off the plane in Madrid, get our boarding passes from customer service, and find out we have to leave the terminal again, go through security again and make our flight in about an hour. Well, compared to JFK, this was nothing. We made it without a problem. The flight was only about ¾ full, so I was able to spread out and I slept like a baby for at least an hour. We arrived to the tiny Bologna airport right on time and had to take a bus from the tarmac to the airport itself. Wonder of wonders, our baggage made it even with all of the delays. Now, we had to exchange some of our money at the airport and just like that…I lost half my money. Literally, 2k turned into 1k and some change right before my eyes. I have to admit, I was pretty freaked out.
We lugged out 100 lbs. a piece worth of luggage out the sidewalk and followed the crowd to the Aerobus. We bought two tickets for two euros and went along for the ride. After reading the sign, I figured out that we needed to get off at the second stop to be in the center of the city. So, the second stop came up and I motioned to mom to get off of the train. She was like…are you kidding? Are you sure? So, I said…of course. Meanwhile, I had no idea where we were or what we were doing. I just knew we had to get off at the second stop. So, we walked a block up the street and voila, we were in the heart of Bologna. Ok, what now? Our apartment is no where near the center of the city. So, we walked around the square and asked in broken Italian where to find a taxi. We waited in line for 20 minutes and caught our taxi. Luckily, the taxi driver spoke English very well, and we were greeted by the lovely family renting us the apartment, Edda, Luigi, Andrea and Annalisa Buonpensiere. We walked into the apartment and were presently surprised. It is adorable with everything you could ever need. They even hooked up a DVD player, but it doesn’t play American DVD’s oops! We decided to brave the supermarket around the corner and picked up some yummy food, especially the fresh pesto. The clerk could not speak English, but he got the basic
idea. I learned how to say mi dispiace (I’m sorry) very quickly. So, we headed back around the corner and I hit the bed like a rock. Aside from waking up for an hour to eat, I was out until the next morning.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
We woke up late today and made some eggs, toast and pancetta. Pancetta looks like very thick bacon, but tastes like a pork chop. Either way, it is yummy. We decided to brave the outdoors in hopes of finding the tourist information office. So, we walked and walked and walked some more until finally after about 40 minutes, we reached the center of the city. We couldn’t seem to find the tourism office anywhere, until we saw someone looking at a map. Mom pointed at his map and asked him where? It turns out he was a tourist and spoke very broken English. He pointed us in the right direction and we headed that way. After reaching the famous “ugly” church in the Piazza Maggiore, we felt a tap on our shoulder. The sweet tourist man had run after us to tell us that he had mixed up left and right and we were to turn right up at the corner. So, we found the office and headed inside. There we found great maps of the city, a bus line pamphlet and directions to the nearest internet café. We thought we had WIFI at the house, but no such luck. So, as we left the office, we both realized we were pretty hungry. So, we walked around to try and find a nice café, but we were in the middle of the day when everything is closed. So, we headed back to the Piazza Maggiore where the café stays open all day. The server spoke excellent English and we ordered due acqua, one plain (still) and one fizzy (sparkling) and a calzone and pizzette. Everything was delicious and we decided to finish off our meal with limone and ciocolatta gelati. The server took our picture so we decided to leave him a tip. You do not usually have to tip in Italy. He was extremely pleased. After that, we decided to brave the bus back to the apartment. We caught bus number 28 on indipenza and it took us straight home. Well, almost home. We had to walk a few blocks, but that is nothing to an Italian. After the day long walk and exploration, we were both sweating like boys. I hopped in the shower and found out that the hot water lasts about five minutes. We made some yummy pasta with pecorino and tomato pasta sauce and headed to bed early.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Well, we had full intentions of getting up at 8 AM today and trying to find my school. I, however, subconsciously had other plans. I turned off my cell phone alarm, and did not wake up until after 10. So, we dressed quickly and headed for the bus. We hopped off at the Piazza San Donato and took a windy path to school. It turns out there ended up being an easier route that I will use tomorrow when I head to school for the first real day of class. After finding the school, we decided to head back home for some lunch and time out of the blistering sun. We made grilled cheese and watched a movie on mom’s laptop. She has had a stomach ache since the day we got here, and it seems to be getting worse. She is going to try and find a “chemist” tomorrow so she can get some medication to help. Around 6 PM we headed back into to town to find the internet café and some dinner. First we headed down Via Rizzoli to find the one and only internet café in town. We found it on our first try and headed up the stairs. Surprisingly, I heard my name as we entered the room. It turns out my friend Gina from class was there to finish her assignment for the first day of class. We talked with her for a while, checked our email and posted a couple of short blogs before heading to dinner. On Sunday, most things are closed, so we headed back to our little café in the Piazza Maggiore and Mr. Han’s friendly service. He was extra sweet this time because he knew we would tip him again. Mom tried a ham and cheese sandwich, and I stuck with the yummy little pizza. We split a huge bottle of water and looked out over the square. Trust me, it does not get any better than the hour we spent in that square. A lovely breeze blew through the café while the church bells chimed 8 times and the people gathered at every corner to see each other. We heard all different languages and saw all different kinds of people. The waiter swatted the pigeons away with a stick that had a red napkin tied to the end. Our water glasses were served with three small ice cubes and placed on a saucer covered in a small red or green napkin. He glowingly served our glasses with ice as this is not the custom in Italy. He quickly offered to take our picture once more and brought the gelati menu without being asked. We chose to split a sundae type creation this time and it was wonderful. It was called a crioscette, and had a type of gelati that is not translated on the menu called zambione. It was wonderful. After dinner, we headed back to the apartment. We decided to iron our clothes before we went to bed and poof the entire apartment went dark. It turns out you can’t run the washer, air conditioning, lights and iron all at once. So, a little after 11 PM, I called Annalisa to ask her to send someone to fix the power. They arrive a while later and it was fixed in a flash. However, if we want to shower in the morning, we have to turn of the AC. Oh well. Now, I am finishing up this blog and heading to bed. Please forgive my long winded entries, but these posts are serving as my dairy of this trip. I want to remember every detail. So, I will post these tomorrow from school and have more exciting things to tell you all. Ciao.
