Europe Trip: Day 5

It was time to leave Florence and head off to Bologna. We got up pretty early (6ish) and headed off to that same little cafe where we had breakfast the day before. We both got the same thing, and the guy there seemed to remember my order from the day before, because as I was trying to remember "hot chocolate" in Italian, he just filled in for me. Then we headed over to the supermarket, where we had to get some odds and ends. One of those included a wine opener, which we had been needing for days.

Then we headed back to our hotel, finished packing up, and checked out. It was a relatively short walk back to the train station (10 or 15 minutes), and there we waited for our train. It was one of the really fast, nice, eurostar express trains (unlike the much crappier train we took to Florence) that take half the time to get there as other trains. When we boarded, we spent most of the (very short) ride worried that we had accidentally sat in first class because everything was so nice. Fold out tables, power outlets, power adjusting seats, power window shades, etc... And as usual, no one ever checks your ticket. You just get on and off where you need to - yay for the honor system (and the very stiff penalties if you do get caught cheating).

The train was very fast and smooth, but I kid you not, we spent more than half of the ride underground. It felt more like a subway to Bologna that occasionally surfaced. When it did surface, the mountain (that we were going through) we covered in a beautiful thin layer of snow. We only got to see a few quick flashes of it during the 37 minute ride, and soon we were at Bologna Centrale Station. I had bus directions to our hotel, but thanks to the massive amount of buses and some confusion about our stops, it took us a little while to find out correct bus going in the correct direction. But eventually we did get to our hotel, and as usual, we were able to check in before official check in time (always nice when you are tired, cold, and cranky).

After an hour or two of relaxing at the hotel, we headed out for the Piazza Maggiore, which had a massive and very impressive church, and the Fountain Neptune. We went inside the church (where I was told to take my hat off) and like other churches we had seen, it was massive (no pictures inside). Other than that it was kind of plain, though there was a very neat little exhibit with a pendulum. Apparently this was one of the first experiments showing that the earth was spinning - the pendulum was independent of earth's inertia, and in 24 hours it would make a full circle around the center point it was swinging over as the earth spins under it. Kind of an over simplified explanation, but you get the idea. And as we left the church, there was a little gift shop/table as usual. Apparently god doesn't like it when you have a hat on in church, but he isn't above merchandising.

Then we went back out into the square and saw the Fountain of Neptune. Interesting fountain, as there is alot of water spouting out of breasts (see pictures below). I don't know about the history of it (like usual, google will tell you) but it was a very neat fountain. After that we wandered around the area for an hour or two searching for food. Unfortunately we were somehow unable to find anything that served some good pasta and was open for dinner (it was 4:30 and we were hungry and tired). So we ended up going back and eating at the hotel restaurant by 5:30.

My uncle Marc has some first cousins in Bologna that we were planning on visiting. The catch? They know very little English, and I can't even pronounce most of the Italian that I can get out of google translator. So I spent 30 or 40 minutes looking up and writing down Italian phrases that I couldn't pronounce, then I gave him (Elio) a call. He immediately knew who I was, but we spent about 10 minutes on the phone just trying to communicate where I was. Finally we decided it was best that I enlist the help of a translator. I went down to the reception desk, and the receptionist was nice enough to help me have a quick conversation (she thought it was pretty funny).

Just as a random observation, I thought it was funny that as she transitioned between Italian and English, she would talk at twice the speed and volume in Italian, then half the speed and volume in English. Anyway, we decided that he would pick us up at the hotel the next day between 10 and 10:30. I think we are going to his house for lunch or something, but I'm still not entirely sure (I'm writing this about 30 minutes before he is supposed to show up). It should be a fun and interesting visit. Marc said he really likes old western stuff (especially music), so I got him the soundtrack to "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and burned him a CD of music from "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly", "Fist Full of Dollars," and "For a Few Dollars More" (which I couldn't find in the store, so I had to buy the music online).

Around 10, we had the metal shutters on our room closed (we are on the 8th floor and have a balcony) and I just happened to check Bologna's current weather. It said it was snowing, and I opened the shutters, and sure enough, it was already piled an inch high on the railing of our balcony. I immediately woke Lauren up to see it, because she had never seen falling snow before. It was quite exciting, and really pretty, especially from our balcony.

After that I stayed up until close to 11 watching drinking wine and writing my last travel blog post (yes, I was a tad buzzed) while watching Italian Wheel of Fortune, then some Robert Redford prison movie that was dubbed in Italian. Once I posted, I fell asleep immediately.