Bolognese, per favore!

Another Saturday, another adventure… This time a group of us decided to take a day trip to Bologna, a charming Italian city known for its university and, of course, Bolognese sauce! Early Saturday morning we biked to the train station and jumped on the first train bound for Bologna. We were all busy admiring the cleanliness of the train when the controllare came over to collect our tickets. I handed him my ticket and was immediately told to fork over an extra 8 euro for getting on the wrong train. Apparently in all the excitement of the morning we had gotten on the wrong train (we can blame it partly on Joe… he has a bad track record with trains, just reread my Arezzo/Assisi post! 😉 haha just kidding, Joe)–still going in the right direction, but much more expensive. We’re getting better at making mistakes! Luckily the controllare’s payment machine broke so we were able to jump off the train at the next stop and get onto the train we were supposed to be on without paying the extra 8 euro!

Bologna was a beautiful city of arcade-lined streets and rich colors. Although Bologna is a big city by Italian standards, it still had the small town charm where you could see Italians and fewer tourists filling the streets. As we walked away from the train station we walked through a pretty park full of fall colors. I absolutely love autumn here. It’s just like autumn in New England except without the drastic temperature drop. Italian fall actually feels like fall! How crazy is that?!

the stereotypical Italian woman leaning on the windowsill to watch the people below

the turtle fountain in the park

the Saturday morning marketplace

This was the sight I saw most in Bologna…Cailin and the Joes were always stopping to consult the map!

so many arcades and they all looked different in color and style!

Neptune’s Fountain in Piazza Maggiore

part of Piazza Maggiore

As we neared Piazza Maggiore we started to notice large crowds of people and big charter buses with dozens of bikes piled up around them. Needless to say we were very confused… until we reached the piazza. At the “entrance” to the piazza stood a bright yellow arch and two fences running back into the piazza to form a pathway that cut underneath the arch. We had just stumbled upon an annual bike race that begins in Bologna! I don’t watch cycling regularly, but I’ve been told by my friend Charlotte (she’s at BC now but she saw pictures) that we saw some really big cycling teams… I didn’t even know and they were standing less than 10 feet from me!

watching the introduction of the racing teams!

Walking into festivals, races and other events accidentally is one of my favorite parts of traveling. It’s an unexpected chance to see the towns in all their glory, prepared for visitors and still authentic. Although this wasn’t as exciting as St. Andrew’s festival in Amalfi last summer, it was still fun to stop and watch for 15 minutes.

After watching the bikers get introduced and finally begin the race we walked through Bologna, making sure we saw the university and the two leaning towers…

one of the leaning towers (the other was covered by scaffolding–you can see part of it there on the right)… We didn’t climb either tower; according to local legend, if you climb the tower you won’t graduate!

I absolutely loved the colors of the buildings.

Piazza del Porta Ravegnana– the piazza that the two towers stand in

every day Italian life ❤

The University of Bologna is the oldest university in Europe so it was really cool to be there, even though we didn’t see any buildings that looked that old. Obviously they restore/update/rebuild the buildings of the school on a regular basis to give the students a nice school. Everything was beautiful, even the graffiti that covered the walls. Students definitely weren’t afraid to deface their campus with their political views or random thoughts. Yet the graffiti didn’t detract from the scholarly feel of the area… it almost seemed to add to it because the graffiti usually meant something (rather than just tagging the artist’s name). The University of Bologna and surrounding area reminded me so much of Yale and New Haven (the pretty parts, of course). I loved it. I got a taste of home without having to travel across the Atlantic. 🙂

BC kids take over Uni. Bologna!

(this picture could’ve been taken anywhere in New Haven)

Besides its homey feel, my favorite part of Bologna was the colors of the buildings!

When we were done walking through the university buildings (there’s no actual campus for most European universities), we headed to a restaurant called Cesari that Joe C. had found online. It definitely lived up to the reviews that he saw… it was so delicious!!!

the main attraction in Bologna… pasta with Bolognese sauce!!

the group from L to R: Phoebe, Cailin, Joe R., Patrice (my friend from BC who’s studying in Milan… I randomly bumped into her in the train station in Bologna and she tagged along with us for the day!), Joe C…. missing from the picture are Tommy and myself

Tommy’s so happy because he got the Grom gelato that he’d been bugging us for all day 🙂

my extra-dark chocolate and salty caramel gelato… yummmmmyyyy 😀

After our late lunch/dinner we took an earlier train back home to Parma because we had run out of (free) things to do. Most of our time in Bologna was spent just walking around and exploring, but we (or at least I) had so much fun doing it. Plus, it’s always nice to go somewhere with a different group of people and get to know them better!

one of the 12 ancient gates to the city (from the inside)

waving good bye to Bologna from outside the gate

Assisi… oh wait, let’s go to Arezzo first!

I’ve determined that when it comes to transportation I can be a very unlucky person.

My friend Joe and I left Firenze on Saturday (September 24– I know I’m really behind with these posts) at 8 am for Assisi, hoping to get there before lunch so we’d have the whole day to sightsee before heading back “home” around 6. Unfortunately, we missed our connecting train in Arezzo by 2 minutes (literally!) and had 2 hours to wait before the next train to Assisi would come. Fun! Instead of just sitting in the train station, we decided to go out and explore Arezzo for a bit before we came back for the train. Why not take the opportunity to see a different town? The main town of Arezzo is situated on a hill with the train station on the bottom so we walked up to the park at the top before heading back down for the train. It was a nice walk and we got a beautiful view of Tuscany from the park. Not a complete waste of time!

Joe walking through the streets of Arezzo

from inside the park

Toscana

Joe taking in the beautiful scenery

an everyday Italian scene… a man leaning on a statue to talk on the cell phone

We finally arrived at Assisi six hours later, including our brief excursion in Arezzo, 3.5 hours more than it should’ve taken. I can’t complain… I’m happy we were there at all!

view of Assisi from the train station

The first thing we did when we arrived was head straight for the Basilica of St. Francis. By this point in our art history class we already knew the story of St. Francis and the different types of churches so we went through this fairly quickly. It was different from what I would’ve expected though. There were two different stories of altars, nothing like I’ve ever seen before. I wish I could’ve taken pictures for you to see what I mean. Then in the very bottom of the basilica (the lower sanctuary) was the body of St. Francis. It was a beautiful sanctuary and I wish I could’ve actually spent a few minutes in there, but because of our delay in Arezzo we had only 3 hours to see the entire city of Assisi before our train home.

walking up to the Basilica of St. Francis

convent attached to the back of the Basilica

“PAX” (peace) and a cross… seen outside the entrance of the Basilica’s second floor

the entrance to the second floor of the Basilica

the view from above (aka the second floor)

After the Basilica of St. Francis, Joe and I walked up the hill to the Assisi gates and then “hiked” down the road to San Damiano, the church that St. Francis repaired with his own two hands when he heard his call from God and where he spent a good portion of his saintly days. The church was extremely small but beautiful, with a convent of similar manner attached where St. Francis lived.

random side street view

walking up Assisi

cute little chapel on the side of the street down to San Damiano

SAN DAMIANO, the major site to see in Assisi…

from the outside– unfortunately, photographs weren’t allowed inside

the San Damiano convent courtyard

along the path down to San Damiano

From San Damiano we walked back up into the town and stopped in the church where Saint Clare of Assisi (a contemporary and follower of St. Francis) is buried. Two saints in one day… holiest day trip ever!! In the same sanctuary, we were able to see what is believed to be some of the possessions of St. Francis including his robe, Bible, and a stocking for his foot from when he had the stygmata, among a few other items. Whether or not these were actually his are up for debate, but it was interesting to see anyway.

a random Assisi street

As we walked through the town one last time on the way to the bus I joked that there were a million churches in this town, practically one around every corner. As soon as I said those words, I caught the glimpse of a sign for “Chiesa Nuova” or New Church and dragged Joe in that direction… what was one more church after a day of churches and saints? Although he initially doubted my instincts, he was happy I forced him to see it… Chiesa Nuova (ironically built in 1615) stands on the ground where St. Francis’ house once was. We walked in and were able to see his front door, the place where his father imprisoned him, and his father’s shop. It was pretty cool and the church was pretty too; unlike the other churches we saw, the ground plan of this was a Greek cross (a cross with arms all of equal length) so you could stand in the middle and see the entire thing at once. It was also small and intimate compared to the grand, over-the-top churches that we’ve been seeing everywhere else.

Chiesa Nuova… small, unassuming church on the outside, packed with St. Francis history on the inside

the entrance to Chiesa Nuova from the historical St. Francis street

Oh, and don’t worry, Joe ate his words like a man and said I was right, he was wrong… I was happy. 😉