Bologna

   Just got back from Bologna, Italy after getting there on Friday and staying overnight.  It was a really good trip, even though the events leading up to it were stressful.  Here's what happened.  We were planning on going to Bologna and then Parma throughout last week, but then one of my friends fractured her foot and so she couldn't come.  We were going to call the whole trip off and just go to Pisa for a day trip, but then the hotel we booked wouldn't let us cancel.  So, we convinced one of our friends to come along so that there were four of us.  Boy am I glad that we decided to come in the end!  We had such a good time!  It was definitely the most fun trip that I've gone on so far, and second only to Rome in sights.  Bologna is a hidden gem that does not get very many tourists.

   We got there late Friday evening with just enough time to scout out our hotel and rest for a little bit before dinner.  Our hotel was small and hidden down a back alley, but it was nice.  Upon leaving for dinner, we asked the nice little old man at reception for a restaurant recommendation.  He steered us to a little place called Caffe Rosso on the promise of excellent homemade pasta (Bologna is famous for its homemade tortelloni and for Bolognese sauce).  I would go as far as saying that it was the best meal I've had so far in Italy.  For an appetizer, we ordered Crescentine (on the insistence of the man at the hotel's front desk), which is a sort of puff-pastry/pasta that's fried, but not at all heavy.  It's served with an assortment of meats and a creamy, sweet cheese which is similar in consistency to cottage cheese.  It was so delicious and expertly cooked.  For my meal, I ordered homemade tortelloni with sage butter sauce and it was absolutely heavenly.  Also, this restaurant was really cheap, so we felt especially in debt to the man who recommended it to us.

  
   Today, we woke up really early and went down for our included breakfast.  It was the best continental breakfast that I've ever seen in my life!  There were pastries, cookies, wafers, toast, crackers, cheese, nutella, meats, croissants, cereal, juices, a coffee machine, and more.  We took away a few packaged items as a snack for the bus ride, too.  We checked out of the hotel and started walking towards one of the towers in Bologna.  The funny thing about all of the medieval-era towers in Bologna is that all of the noble families built them really fast and really tall, so all of them lean at a very extreme angle.  They don't even let people climb them anymore because the foundations aren't very solid.  We spent the rest of the morning meandering around Bologna, stumbling upon tower after tower and lots of other impressive buildings.  We left Bologna around lunchtime and got back to Siena about 2 1/2 hours later.

Above: Three of us leaning like the tower!  You can't really tell in my pictures, but it was leaning to the right at a pretty extreme angle.

Above: Leaning tower #2.

      

Above: This basilica is a St. Peter's Basilica wannabe.  They tried to build a church bigger than St. Peter's in Bologna, but the Vatican was not pleased, so the project was abandoned.

Above: Bologna's main Duomo.  As you can tell, the facade is unfinished, but it is truly gorgeous inside.

Above: These neighboring towers were leaning so much that it was almost comical!

Detail of the Duomo.

Famous bronze statue of Neptune in the main piazza.  Everything in this statue represents something; the four cherubs represent four different winds, for example.