This post is just a bunch of bologna, and has nothing to do with my research. ;)
May 27-28, 2022
I left Ferrara after the conference ended and took the train back to Bologna and checked into my hotel for the weekend. Bologna has over 40 km of colonnades, is famous for tortellini, and has over 100 gelaterias. The University of Bologna is the oldest continuously operating university in the world. Saturday I walked around in the morning and then met up with friends after lunch to go see the Basilica di San Petronio, the Archiginnasio of Bologna, and visited an art museum near the University.
Bologna's streets are lined with colonnades, so almost every single sidewalk is covered. Very beautiful, but also convenient in rain and sun!
The Amazing Race!
You might recognize some of these next sights if you are watching Season 34 of
The Amazing Race. We actually ran into the producers at the Teatro Anatomico in the Archiginnasio doing their final tour/prep for the racers to come through a few days later. We had only paid two euros for entry to the room and hadn't expected a live reenactment. So we didn't know why there were people in costumes milling around, but then a group of people walked in and started telling people what to do. We didn't get told to leave so we sat there, confused, and listened to the 'professor' give his practice lecture while the producers took photos. After the producers left the room to continue their cryptic "private tour of the city," we asked one of the younger Italian actors what had just happened. He said it was "some American reality show." We eventually put it together after some internet searches matched the people in the room to the faces of TAR's producers.
I had also gone inside the Mercato delle Erbe earlier in the morning, which was the starting point for the other (cheese delivery) challenge on the Amazing Race. It was a really cool indoor market with all sorts of produce, cheese, and other foods. I still regret not buying a pint of the strawberries.
The huge Basilica di San Petronio is absolutely gorgeous inside, but you weren't supposed to take pictures. The outside is interesting because the marble facade was never finished.
Medieval Bologna had numerous "sky scrapers" that the wealthy families built to protect themselves against attack. Today only about 25 remain, and the tallest two are famous in Bologna's skyline. One of the two is leaning quite dramatically towards the other. You can pay a couple euros to climb to the top. But we were exhausted from walking around, and apparently it is bad luck to climb to the top before you graduate, so as Ph.D. students hoping to defend soon, we kept our blistered feet on solid ground.
Apparently the towers have been leaning for a while because this gold leaf icon shows the towers leaning already in the 1400s.
Food Adventures
I had the most melt-in-your-mouth plate of prosciutto and cantaloupe in Bologna at Ristorante Oberdan da Mario and an amazing mortadella sandwich at Mo Mortadella Lab in Bologna with friends after exploring the cathedrals and old parts of the University of Bologna. The walk-up window line was almost 40 minutes long but it was so worth it.
That's all for now, I leave for NZ on Monday!
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