After having spent Christmas in Sicily [see blog post] Marco and I took our Ryanair flight from Palermo to Bologna on Wednesday evening 28/12. I think it was far after midnight that we had finally arrived in Marco's flat and were finally in bed. We had to leave Sicily as Marco had to work the last two days of the year.
So while he was at work on Thursday 29th I slept in, did some groceries shopping and worked a bit from "home" since our clients didn't close at all between Christmas and New Year and thus came along with quotation requests and bookings. I fear that as a consequence our office will also remain open between next Christmas and New Year. So either I will have to take officially days off and use up holidays then or I won't be able to leave :-(
Anyways, the day passed and in the afternoon I met Giulia, a girl that I still know from my times of the internship at Bologna Congressi in 2004. She lives in London for quite a few years now, but she had been home in Bologna over Christmas and so we used the occasion to meet for a coffee. In the early evening, Marco came back from work and joined us.
Also the next day, 30th of December, Marco had to work which meant for him another morning getting up early and a for me another day alone. Not that I'd mind to be alone in Bologna. I just loooooooooooove Bologna. It's my town and I always find things to do.
And actually this day I wasn't all alone. In the early afternoon my friend Sarah from Germany landed. You might know Sarah, a friend of mine from university times, from previous posts as she sometimes flies over to Scandinavia to join us on some tours :-)
Well, always open to travel and explore new destinations, she didn't hesitate too long when I proposed her to celebrate New Year with Marco and me in Bologna :-) In all those past - by now nearly 10 - years that I lived and regularly travelled to Bologna, she had never been with me to this beautiful city and I was looking forward to sharing this experience with her.
Well, Sarah arrived on Friday afternoon. Unfortunately I couldn't pick her up at the airport - how unpolite! - as I was kept busy with a booking I was working on for work. However, I just made it on time to welcome her at the central station.
Of course we first went to Marco's flat to get rid of the luggage before we went for a first evening stroll through the streets of Bologna.
Last time I had been in Bologna I realised that 90% of all the pictures I had ever taken in and from Bologna - that is especially those touristic ones of the famous and/or beautiful sights - were taken during my first year in Bologna as au-pair and thus in a time kind of before the digital cameras. As a consequence I have many many many pictures of Bologna... well developed as photographs in my drawer at home in Germany.
This needed and needs to be changed!!! And I started this project of getting Bologna digital now by giving my camera into the hands of Sarah. She is also one of those people taking always a looooot of pictures when travelling and even more she was going to see Bologna from a touristic point of view, like I was in my first year... and not any more like me now where nothing's new anymore.
So for the rest of this blog I will mainly let the pictures speak and show you around my lovely Bologna :-)
"Le Due Torri - Asinelli & Garisenda" - the Two Towers, Bologna's landmark
Palazzo della Mercanzia
The little shops and merchant booths in and around Via Pescherie Vecchie filling the streets with beautiful colours and mouth-watering smells coming from flowers, fish and all sorts of typical Italian delicacies like salamis, hams, cheeses and much more.
Piazza Maggiore - the main square with Palazzo d'Accursio which is home of the City Hall (with the tower)...
In summer this square is full of people, sometimes artists, bars are serving drinks and snacks all round the piazza, for a month in July it becomes an open air cinema, and in 2008 I spent one entire week with 5-6 hours a day bothering people to fill out my questionnaire about low cost carries in Italy which I needed for the empirical research part of my diploma thesis at uni - what memories with this piazza!
...the Palazzo del Podestà...
...and Palazzo dei Banchi.
The Nettuno - the Neptune Fountain, right next to the Piazza Maggiore - very common meeting place for people. So this is where I sometimes sat after language school making my homework or where I usually met in the evenings with my friends to go out.
For thefestivities of 31/12 evening, the fountain has been secured and locked off by this fence.
Coffee break at one of my favourite bars: Barlume in Via Caduti di Cefalonia, in a side street of Piazza Maggiore.
Palazzo Re Enzo
At around seven we went back home as Marco had come back from work. We just sat together for a while chatting and having a drink before leaving for dinner to our favourite restaurant Trattoria Pizzeria Belle Arti, in the university quarter of Bologna.
Sarah was pretty amazed by the size of the pizzas - and even more that she was able to finish a whole one!
After dinner we were still enjoying the nice atmosphere of the restaurant while finishing the wine before heading back home.
The next day Sarah and I started with a cappuccino at a close by bar before continuing our walk through town.
Church and square of Santa Maria dei Servi
In Strada Maggiore...
...towards the Two Towers in the heart of the city centre.
Entrance to the passage of Corte Isolani connecting Strada Maggiore...
...with Piazza Santo Stefano.
At the end of the square lies the Basilica di Santo Stefano, a complex of seven religious edifices giving it also the name "Sette Chiese" (seven churches).
In warmer months this piazza is filled by many young people, often sitting together and playing some music which causes a really nice atmosphere.
Palazzo della Mercanzia
Taking the nearly 500 steps up the Torre Asinelli, the taller one of the two towers.
Students that haven't passed their graduation yet avoid getting up to the top as it is believed to bring misfortune that won't let them graduate. Well, my first time up there was 2002... and I still graduated :-)
The 360° view from the top - we had perfect weather!
South-west view: In the back the Basilica di San Luca. While a road now leads up to the sanctuary, it is also possible and popular to reach it by traversing a 3.5 km long monumental roofed arcades consisting of 666 arches (which can be seen in the picture leading up to the church).
West-view: the main road Via Rizzoli & Via Hugo Bassi leading through the heart of Bologna and passing the Piazza Maggiore on its right.
North-east view: the quarter between Via Zamboni with the church Chiesa San Giacomo Maggiore and Via San Vitale in which Marco lives.
South-east view: Piazza and Basilica Santo Stefano
East view
The City Hall in Palazzo d'Accursio at the Piazza Maggiore
Right in the heart of the centre: beginning of Via Castiglione with Palazzo della Mercanzia
Back down at the bottom of the tower Asinelli.
After our "sightseeing from the top" Sarah and I went home for lunch which Marco had prepared for us in the meantime. Yummy pasta :-)
Later on we left together for some further sightseeing.
Piazza Verdi in Via Zamboni, in the university area of Bologna.
The Aposa creek running mainly hidden in the underground canals of the city and only becoming visible in a few parts of the town.
The main street Via dell'Indipendenza facing southwards to the city centre.
The Cathedral San Pietro in Via dell'Indipendenza.
Once more in Piazza Maggiore, now during daytime :-)
To the right lies the huge Basilica San Petronio whose facade is currently covered for renovations and from the inside it wasn't allowed to take any pictures when we entered.
This straw puppet has been set up in front of the City Hall for the New Year's Eve festivities in the piazza.
Only two minutes after taking the above picture I was turning around and looking into a known face: Alessio. He is a guy living currently in Oslo as well. He is from Bologna and spent some days around Christmas and New Year at home. I knew he was at the same time in Bologna as I was, but we hadn't agreed on meeting. So it was really a surprise when meeting him by accident right in the middle of the main square of the town! What a coincidence!
Palazzo dei Notai - here I spent several hours per week studying Italian in 2002/2003 when living as au-pair in Italy as this palazzo was among others housing my language school.
In the late afternoon we went back home. We wanted to relax a bit before getting ready for the New Year's Eve celebrations. Later in the evening we left the house again searching for some restaurant with à la carte menu which still had some free place without in advance reservation. We eventually found something at the Ristorante Pizzeria Il Portico in Via Righi, in a restaurant Marco and I had eaten already a couple of times before.
The food was pretty ok, but of course due to New Year's Eve a little bit high in price. Nevertheless we had a nice evening there before heading in direction Piazza Maggiore.
We knew from previous experiences that the main square would be super crowded for New Year's Eve and that some stupid idiots throwing explosives in the middle of the crowd won't really turn this into a pleasant event. Nevertheless we decided to go and have a look at the situation as we didn't really have that many alternatives. None of Marco's friends or his brother were back in town and to sit just in three alone at home wouldn't have been the nicest idea of spending New Year's Eve.
And actually it turned out to be alright, crowded yes, but pretty disciplined and so we could enjoy the fireworks at midnight.
* H * A * P * P * Y * * N * E * W * * Y * E * A * R * *!*!*!*
After the festivities in Piazza Maggiore we went for a drink in some bar in Via Zamboni.
Of course the new year started rather late. However, Sarah and I went still out before lunch... a little tired though :-)
It was a rather short tour though as we had to be back for our New Year's feast at lunch: bresaola ham with mozzarella, rucola and parmesan for starter...
... and Marco's home made lasagne as main dish.
For the ice-cream was actually not much space left in our stomachs so we skipped the dessert for the moment.
The lunch break wasn't actually too long before Sarah and I left again to continue our sightseeing.
The destination of this afternoon was the southern part of the city centre, zona Castiglione, the area where I used to live with the family when I was au-pair.
Via Castiglione: I have taken this street several times a day when I was au-pair.
This view is so known to me from the millions of times I have been passing here under the arches.
Via del Cestello Nr. 4: this is the house of the grandmother I used to live with some 9 years ago. Her flat was basically the whole second floor (red part) of this building. I had come back here a couple of times after my times as au-pair, but since the grandmother died not anymore.
Via Arienti 15: Just opposite of Via del Cestello lies Via Arienti, the street where my host family has their flat - on the first floor in the yellow building (the fourth from the right), just a 3 minutes walk from the grandmother's house. I think the family still lives there. I had been visiting them a few times in the years after my au-pair stay, but the relationship hadn't been too well in the end so the contact got basically lost :-(
It was and is always again a really strange feeling coming back here into these streets where I spent an enormously characterising part of my life!
Right in between these two streets, still on Via Castiglione, can be found one of Bologna's best ice-creams at the Sorbetteria Castiglione.
Here we had now our dessert :-) As it has become a tradition by now I chose my favourite flavours "Dolce Mou" and "Dolce Karin"...
After this creamy snack we continued southwards to the end of the street...
(This church has never been that pink during my time living there - this must be a pretty new painting!)
...to get into the Giardini Margherita, the park right outside the city walls of Bologna.
In summer it is a really really nice and lovely, green park full of people. I had spent so much time in this park, either with the little boy of the family, Francesco, or for studying Italian, for reading or with friends for picnics, doing some sports or just for observing people among others the many artists.
Porta Castiglione - all around the city centre there are many "porte" (gates) as remains of the former city wall and all the streets from these gates lead in a stellar way towards the heart of the city centre with Piazza Maggiore.
Palazzo della Giustizia - the Palace of Justice
Via Garibaldi with the Chiesa San Domenico
Arriving in Piazza Cavour and it's beautifully painted arches - by the way Bologna is the town of the archways: over 38 km alone in the city centre!
Close by we entered also the Galleria Cavour, the luxury shopping mall for those with a bit more money offering all kinds of high-end brands like Armani, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, Louis Vuitton and many more.
Marco had joined us later during this afternoon and soon we were strolling through town together looking out for a nice place to have an "aperitivo".
Pretty tired though from all the walking we went home soon, cooked some simple dinner and relaxed for the rest of the evening. Marco also had to work early again the next morning so it wasn't a long evening.
The next morning was again one of those that I hate: saying goodbye to Marco who leaves for work while I still stay at his flat before leaving to the airport. Luckily this time Sarah was still there as well, so I didn't feel too lonely and sad for leaving Marco once more.
As Marco had to take his keys along, Sarah and I couldn't really go out anymore. So we had a lazy morning with some reading and the challenging task of packing our luggage with all the Christmas presents and our sweet Italian acquisitions called "pandoro" :-)
We eventually managed to get everything packed. Then we warmed up the leftovers of the lasagne before we left Marco's apartment to head to the airport.
Sarah and I took the same flight from Bologna to Cologne-Bonn airport. As my flight back to Oslo was leaving very early the next day from Dusseldorf airport, I had decided to spend the night at Sarah's place in Neuss which was closer than my home. So when we arrived at her place we quickly went to do some groceries to prepare then some simple but delicious dinner.
Pretty tired we went to bed early and read still a bit in our books. Only a few hours later, pretty much in the middle of the night, my alarm rang. It was time for me to get to the airport and fly back to Oslo :-(
Landed in Oslo I went straight back to the office...and you can imagine that I wasn't really the fittest this day after nearly two weeks of holidays and then getting up this early in the morning.
Anyways, I really enjoyed my holidays and was happy having spent so relatively much time with Marco and for having had the opportunity to show Sarah Bologna :-)
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