Friday...Not as Fun as Thursday, But Interesting

I knew this would happen - I got too far behind on my journaling and now am not remembering any of the little details I like to remember.  What will happen though is once I'm home little things will pop into my head every now and then and I'll think "oh, yeah I remember that" and that will be nice.  (In fact, I typed this Sunday night, it's now Monday morning and last night after I went to bed something popped into my head and I thought "oh, yeah - that happened Friday" but I didn't want to get up and now of course, it's gone again.)

And I spent some time each day visiting with Maria which was really pleasant - learned a little bit about her background and her current life and just became quite fond of her in a very short while.  For me, our conversations were a real pleasure.

But I know the two things I actually did and I have lots of pictures to show for it, but other than that - there's just nothing there.  I also think that as I get closer to time to come home, I tend to start unconsciously focusing on that. 

The two places I got to Friday - were the Archiginnasio and Civic Archaeological Museum.  On the way, I took this picture of yet another pretty ceiling in one of the porticoes:

The Archiginnasio Palace is considered the first permanent seat of the University of Bologna, which is said to be the first university in the Western world, being founded in 1088.  (And, a young man in my building was actually studied there for a year - he should be writing this!)  So, this building, constructed in 1563, served as a single location for all the schools of the university which had been scattered about the city.  All of the ceilings and upper walls of all the porticos, staircases, arches and halls are covered with thousands of student emblems, heraldic shields and inscriptions honoring teachers.

Strangely enough, this isn't a very good example, but Friday didn't turn out to be a good photo day, apparently!

A close-up of the area at the top of the landing - see what people can accomplish when they're not watching TV or texting (or blogging!)  The mind boggles at all the painting that got done.

Housed in this building is the Anatomy Theatre where anatomy was taught by dissecting corpses.  I heard a tour guide explaining that the corpses were mostly of people who had been put to death and kind of wondered what her point was.  Was that better than using just plain old corpses or ??  Anyway, it is a beautiful room and I'm not very happy with my pictures here.  It's another all wood room and the wood was a very nice mellow brown, not dark but certainly not the golden color you see in a couple of these pictures. 

This is a statue of Apollo suspended in flight in the center of the ceiling.  Try to picture this as a warm cherrywood brown...this yellow is pretty grotesque.

Just keep saying "warm cherrywood brown".  These statues adorn the front of the lecturer's lectern and no, I don't just take pictures of all the naked men I see - I took this close up because these are "skinless" statues - they show the actual muscles rather than a skin-covered body.  I've never seen that in sculpture before.  These were done in 1734.

This and the next picture show the length of one long wall - 6 statues on each side.  In the corner, the color of the wood is much closer to what I saw.

More of the ceiling - each panel with a carved statue in it.

Now I'm back out in the gallery area - again not a good example of the emblems and I could swear I took some!

This looks the same as the other, but the ceilings are different - this one isn't quite as beautiful as the other but it's not bad either.

And another thought about my reaction to Bologna.  I liked it more each day and would definitely like to spend more time there, but as far as the tourist "attractions", I had a very hard time knowing where they were.  For example, this Archiginnasio is in a long row of porticoed buildings and there's a sign to go in, so that's fine.  But once I was in there, I didn't know where I could go and where I couldn't.  I mean, I think there are areas in these places that are still being used as offices, etc.  My guidebook mentioned a chapel and a library, but I didn't see anything about a chapel inside and I didn't know if I was allowed in the library.  Nothing seems to be clearly marked, and certainly not in any language but Italian.  But one of the pleasures of Bologna is that it is, I think, a very Italian city.  Most anywhere I ate or stores I went into,  or steps I sat on in a piazza, it was Italian I heard.  And there are always "events" going on from a single little booth set up to distribute pamphlets about something to the huge whatever-they-are events that take place in Piazza Maggiore.  As I mentioned there was one of those being torn down when I arrived in Bologna and this afternoon they were starting to set up another one - this one even involved laying temporary flooring over the Piazza!  So that makes it a very alive city even though it is so very old. 

Moving on, I then went on to the Civic Archaeological Museum (again in that same row of palazzos under porticoes, but also again, with a visible sign - very helpful and very infrequently seen).  It has artifacts starting from pre-historic times up through Etruscan to Roman Bologna with the basement area being devoted to an Egyptian collection, and that's where I started. I was there a lot longer than I thought I would be.  It's a really impressive collection - the guidebooks say it's one of the most important in Europe and I can believe it. Sure made me wish my grandson Johnny could see it because he went to Egypt last year and came back all excited about it.  We visited an Egyptian exhibit in Charleston, WV while he was with me during spring break and it was nice, but, WOW! this was really impressive. I'm real disappointed in most of the pictures (again) which, of course, were taken mostly through glass display cases.  Bue I don't remember there being any yellow walls or yellow anything so I don't know why so many of the pictures came out with real yellow backgrounds.  But I will post them anyway. :)  By the way, they had a little handout in English at this museum which identifies at least some of the major things, bless them.

This is from the tomb the last Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty (he was General Horemheb before he was Pharoah).  They give a date of 1332-1323 B.C., so assuming it didn't take him 9 years to die and get buried, I'm not real sure what the date refers to but it's old!!

And this is some hieroglyphics for Johnny to decipher, if he can. :)

A beautiful painted wooden coffin in unbelievably excellent condition.

And, if I'm understanding my guide correctly, this is Amenhotep and his wife Merit - 1319-1279 B.C.

An excellent head of the pharoah Tutmosis III (oh, dear - when I type that all I can think is "titmouse").

In addition to the hideous yellow background, this is a blue faience ushbati (a funerary statuette) of Seti I.

I believe these are funerary jars (not bright yellow of course) but they're also more hieroglyphics for Johnny.

I have no idea what this was, but found it fairly amazing - both the artwork and the fact that so many of its colors are still there.

Scarabs - the real thing going down to wee beensy.  And in fact, this was the start of shelf after shelf of wee little carvings - I suppose maybe these would be amulets?

Frogs...

This row had a sign with the word "cuore" on it and since the name of the place I'm staying is Bologna nel Cuore and Maria's logo is a heart, I realized that cuore is Italian for heart.  More than one way to build a vocabulary.  Maria told me she wanted her logo to represent being in the heart of Bologna and having Bologna in your heart.

This is fantastic - there's the mummy, the sarcophagi, the coffin, little dog statues, the funerary jars, even little foot slippers - all in beautiful condition.

And these, which were actually a nice old linen color, are cat mummies - now don't get any bright ideas all you cat lovers out there!

Just a papyrus, but think how long it's survived...

I went back up to the ground floor where they had sort of random seeming things - I think they called this the plaster cast gallery and it was mostly old tombstones, a couple of column pediments (is that the right word?) and a wonderful torso of Nero in a very elaborate breastplate. I went out into their beautiful courtyard but was so hungry by then, I had to call it quits.

A nice family tombstone for the Cornelii family.  Maybe I should commission one like this with my children beside me. :)

Nero's handsome breastplate.  I thought Nero was a fat man who fiddled while Rome burned.  Was there more than one Nero?

One corner of the museum's courtyard.

And what a beautiful courtyard it is.

So, if I come back to Bologna, I will visit this museum again to see the rest of it.  What I saw was very nice. 

Oh, and another little note - I've been taking pictures most everywhere - one place I went had a sign "no photos" (and I guess I can't remember where it was because I have no photos!) but just that one time.  AND...for the most part there is no entrance fee, or a very negligible entrance fee and one time I even got the senior discount (meaning free) even though normally that is only given to Europeans.  So that is a nice change from Florence, where you can go broke just visiting all the sites (let alone eating!)

So, yes, Bologna continues to grow on me.  Maybe they should just hire me to be an advisor on how best to present this very complex city.  Of course, first they'd have to show me where every single thing of importance is so I could then figure out how to make it all clear to confused people like myself. :)  

The Grand Tour Ends and On a "High" Note

When Part II ended, we were headed toward our "light" lunch at a winery which, after our cheese, wine, and gelato, I figured would probably be some more cheese and a platter of their various cured meats. We drove to a vineyard in a beautiful setting.  It is an agriturismo, which means that in addition to their vineyard (and whatever else they grow and produce), they've converted some of their space into small apartments for people like me. Here's the view that greeted us when we arrived.

Their agriturismo also has a trattoria on the property and we had lunch there outside on the covered patio.  Already on the table were two platters of cheese - one had about 6 different cheeses on it and the other just had two and I'm thinking they were probably parmesan and something else.  I never did get to them.  There was also a platter with lardo (which I have been meaning to try since I heard about it) and pancetta, a mostly fat with a little lean, round "bacon".  But since it's cured it doesn't have to be cooked and this wasn't.

On another platter were more of the Italian cured meats - salamis and mortadella which tastes very much like our boloney but has little discs of fat in it.  And on a platter all by itself was a heaping mound of prosciutto.  Ah, bella, bella Italia!  We started with a sparkling white, moved on to a chardonnay, and then came a choice of three reds - or try them all!  A Barbera, a Cabernet, and a merlot.  And in the midst of eating everything we had put on our plates, here came dishes of penne with a sausage-y, creamy sauce!  I had just a bit of that cause I had assumed that what was on the table was what there was to eat, so I hadn't skimped.  Oh, and there was good bread too, of course.  I had to stop and think real hard about dessert and yes, there was one ... plates of various bite-sized pieces of little fruit tarts which were delicious but, by then, paled in comparison to all we had eaten.  And dessert was served with a walnut liqueur which as usual, was very strong.

I forgot to mention that this winery produces wine from organic grapes which is becoming more and more popular both with growers and drinkers.  I admit that to my inexperienced palate, there was no difference but one of my neighbors swears by it.

So, here are the pictures from the winery and incredibly enough, I didn't take any of the groaning board (or the nice folks around it)!  Ah, well...

The main harvest is pretty much over, but there were still folks out cleaning out what was left.

This picture reminds me of one of those late 1800's paintings - very bucolic.

Not the best picture cause I was basically shooting into the sun, but I wanted to show this one section of very craggy hills surrounded by all the typical, rolling hills all around it.  Would be interesting to know what caused this.

Just more pretty countryside...

Now, be happy - we next went to the prosciutto place, but as Alessandro had warned us, we were all pretty much in a zoned out state - stuffed and a little tiddley so I'm afraid I was beyond absorbing much more information except for the fact that each ham goes through several aging areas, gets slathered with a special type of fat by a man who does it with "passionate love" and, if it's lucky, gets the D.O.P. designation. Oh, and the D.O.P. inspection for the hams includes sticking a special "stick" made of bone into it and smelling it. Lucky or not, it is certainly a wonderful mouthful - and I say that with passionate love!  And do you know, I feel sure we had some samples there but I can't even remember that! :)

And here are just four pictures and then we're done.

The ham with the hams.  And Alessandro - if you ever read this, that means you're a really great entertainer, so don't be offended. :)

LOTS of hams...these are still fairly early on in the aging process because they're not black like...

these.  The actual meat that's exposed with no skin over it gets hard and turns very dark.  Then it's time to slather it with a protective coating of fat.

And, as I said, that is done with passionate love.  In fact if I remember correctly, I think Alessandro said it must be done with passionate love.

And that only increases my passionate love of Italy! :)

Oh, I'll post this here but also go back to Part I and post it at the beginning.  For all of you who have decided you have to come over here and take this tour before Alessandro becomes world famous, here is his website:
www.italiandays.it . Enjoy!!

Tuesday - And It's a Brief One...

Tuesday was, of course, my travel day from Perugia to Bologna. I caught an 11:45 train, switched in Arezzo, and arrived in Bologna around 3:45 I think it was. Had my huge, heavy suitcase with me and I'm sure glad people are so nice - every time I started struggling to lift it on or off the trains, someone helped me - one man even carried it all the way up a flight of stairs for me and I swear it weighs at least one ton!  My goal in life is now to learn how to travel light.

So once I got here, and got myself settled in a little, I went out in search of food (having had a quite small breakfast and one small bag of M&M peanuts to eat for the day). The hungrier I get the harder time I have finding something to eat, and by the time I decided on something and took my time enjoying it, the day was over.  And I don't even really remember what it was I ate but a little later in the evening, I was walking and saw a little restaurant that looked so attractive inside that I thought "I'll just get a little glass of wine and then maybe a cup of tea".  So I did and it turns out it's a restaurant that is part of a hotel.  It was pretty much empty (I think 3 other tables had a person at them) but I asked if I could see their menu for future reference and the menu looked promising so I will probably have a meal there while I'm here.  I DID get my glass of wine and they brought me a basket of bread with it and, oh my goodness, finally I have had good bread in Italy! A nice crusty roll that tasted like bread - it's amazing what a little salt in the dough does.  And I also decided what the heck and ordered a dessert called, I think, cicolatta temptazione to go with my pot of tea.  When he brought it out, I thought "oh, shoot - that's just one of those lava cakes" but no, it wasn't.  It was sort of the same concept but taken to new and wonderful Italian heights.

And now...the place where I'm staying.  I love it and Maria, the proprietress, is so nice and friendly and, basically, just delightful. I was hopeful it would turn out this way because her website and our e-mails back and forth made me think it would be good and it is. Since I'm providing links to all these places I've been enjoying so much, here is hers: http://www.bolognanelcuore.it/eng.html.

She lives in this apartment herself and lets out two bedroom suites to travelers. And she told me that she has just purchased two small apartments in this same building and hopes to have them ready for occupancy by sometime next spring. I told her I might just decide to make Bologna a base for a future trip, staying here (because it truly is delightful) and taking day trips to various towns, cities, etc.  To illustrate just how much I like it, I'll confess that I discovered I had made a mistake in my reservations.  I reserved both this room and my room in Florence for the night of October 9.  And after discovering that and finding myself so enamored of this room, I decided to stay here on the 9th rather than in Florence!  And all of those people who know how much I love Florence know that makes this room pretty special. :)  So now, Florence is still the city I love, but this room is the room I love.

So for today's post, I'm just going to post these pictures of my room and of the breakfast I came out to my first morning here...

I love the tapestry on the wall over the bed and I love the tile floor.  Maria chose everything herself for the renovations of these rooms and she told me that when she did them, she wanted to "get the best".  She has!  For an example, the bedside light that's attached to the wall is the first time in any of my rooms, that I've had one that actually sheds light over the person in bed for reading.  Two other rooms of mine had attached wall lights down about as low as the top of the headboard, with about a 6 or 8 inch arm that just swiveled, one only swiveled to point straight out, the other swiveled toward the bed but, of course, pretty much lit the edge of the pillow!  And my place in Riomaggiore had no light anywhere near the bed.  If you wanted to read, you had to get up, walk across the room and turn off the overhead light.  So, you can see why this lighting makes me so happy.

As you can see, there's a full wardrobe in this wall unit, both doors with full-length mirrors.

And, oh my goodness, the bathroom!  It may be strange to have several pictures of my bathroom, but it is deserving of a full view.  So, this is the vanity area - note the magnifying mirror (horrible to see one's old face enlarged, but very helpful for old eyes).  And note the dispenser of liquid hand soap, the tray with little perfume sample bottles in it, the box of tissues that are actually full size tissues...but there's more...

This is the beautiful, beautiful shower!  The rainfall showerhead is adjustable up and down, the shampoo and shower gel on the shelves is provided by Maria, and I think I could live in here!

And this cabinet filled with every conceivable need - toothpaste, more lotions, gels and shampoos, first aid items, over-the-counter pain killers, and on the very top shelf  three Ace bandages!!  Fortunately, no sprained ankles like last year, but I was tickled when I saw those and thought "now, this is where I should have sprained my ankle."

And, last, but certainly not least, the breakfast.  I think it pretty much speaks for itself but I will point out that the jams are all homemade, the apple torte on the cake stand is homemade, the cart behind the table holds a mountain of fresh fruit and three kinds of cereal, and it's just so pretty, it makes me happy. :)

I realize that a lot of people probably stay in quite nice hotels when they travel, but I am a budget traveler and to come across a place this fantastic that was just a very small amount over my normal room rates has been a wonderful surprise and treat.

So, ciao, Maria e molto, molto grazie for bella camere!