Blogs from Emilia-Romagna, Italy, Europe - page 26

Due to extreme economic conditions Caterpillar has decided to move us (and many other international families) home early. Kristi and I have started to schedule our move back to Minneapolis. Our last week in Italy will be the week of January 26th. Most likely we will be flying home on January 30th. At this time we haven't finalized all of the details, we just received the notification on January 5th. Hopefully by the end of this week we will have more concrete plans. Even though we are moving home early we have met new friends, learned about a culture vastly different from our own, explored many new cities along our travels and enjoyed the food immensely. While we only have 17 days left in Bologna we have a couple more adventures remaining. This weekend Kristi's Mom ... read more

We have spent the last five days in Italy, starting off with two days in Venice. Being the only pedestrian city in the world, we had to park our car outside Venice and catch a ferry boat to our hotel. It is such an amazing experience to ride through the tiny streets and under quant bridges through the city. For all its beauty and unique atmosphere, the downside to Venice is the high expense (not unlike the rest of Italy). For example a McDonald's meal (small size) costs 7.95 euros, which is approximately $AU16! Also on our first night in Venice we had dinner at a really nice traditional Italian restaurant and thought nothing of having a small dinner roll from the basket on the table. On receiving the bill, we found that we had been ... read more

Hello everyone, We've finally taken some pictures of our apartment in Bologna so you can all see our new home! Love..Kristi and Jason... read more

I was browsing through Trip Advisor looking for a hotel to go to in Emilia Romagna and only one really appealed. I had to translate the efusive comments from the easily excitable Italians who had stayed there but as it turns out, they weren't lies! Torre di San Martino near piacenza is as big a deal as you can possibly imagine. Four poster beds always please "the blonde" as does a great breakfast and a decent bathroom. this has so much more. the only gripe i have is that many sites all said they had a pool. they don't. hell, they didn't even have the planning permission for one. try expedia, venere or http://www.iliostravel.com if you want to go there as local comments are always better than guide books. And the folks in here that have ... read more

This time I really have so much to say, as due to computer problems (again, *sigh*) I havent had the chance to write for a long time. Lots has happened, many more strikes, both transport and university. I've decided that i need them though, especially the odd university strike, in order to be able to make it to the rest of my 24 hours of lectures each week. Recently I have been spending a lot of time with Italians. The very glamorous Italians everyone thinks Italy is full of: artists, photographers and the models (although sadly no fashion designers as yet). I've been delighted to discover, however, that they are suprisingly unpretentious and extremely nice. Last week I accompanied Edie to Silvia's studio (Silvia is a friend of francesco and professional photographer) because she had requested ... read more