http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Italy , Emilia Romagna en-us Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:23:23 UTC Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:23:23 UTC 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 liesTorre 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 a http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Piacenza/blog-348791.html 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 t http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Bologna/blog-347247.html Halloween We spent the weekend in Torino and met a lot of people's friends who were in town for the weekend. Brad from Santa Barbara's friend Derek is studying in Barcelona so he is going to take me around when I am in Madrid for thanksgiving Free tour guide And he speaks spanish and the specific Madrid dialect as well as I speak Italian. Everything was closed on Saturday since it was Al http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Bologna/blog-345859.html LAMBO TORNA IN STRADA...... e va alla scoperta dell'America Rimango altre quattro ore in sella e guido finch il sole gi quasi al tramonto secondo una sana abitudine che da tempo ero costretto a perdere prima di fermarmi in un villaggio qualsiasi per passare la notte. Ersquo una delle sensazioni che ho sempre amato di pi e che cos spesso mi ha dato l'illusione di essere libero e padro http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Bologna/blog-341609.html Last Sunday Jason and I took an afternoon trip to Dozza to visit the castle and do a little wine tasting Jason Right outside Bologna is a little town called Dozza with a 12th century castle that has a cellar full of wine and wine tasting. We took a tour of the castle and saw the town that also is full of full bright wall paintings. There is a big festival every other year where the paintings http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Bologna/blog-340956.html Hi everyone It's been ages since we last updated you so here is a quick recap of where we've beenWe arrived in Rimini Italy after a hellish day and night of travel from Corfu. After sleeping a LOT we headed the next day to San Marino an independent republic within Italy that I had never heard of before researching this trip. Apparently it has been around since before Charlemagne. Yes Peter w http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/blog-339216.html I stayed for a week maybe more in a small village outside of Bologna Italy. My cousin Danny had hosted Marco the son of the family I was to stay with. Extended travel takes a lot out of me so I was pretty much rendered useless for the first day a pretty typical outcome when I travel. Marco and I had been talking via email for a few weeks and I discovered that he was in a band and had a guit http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Reggio-Emilia/blog-339046.html So Kristi and I made our second trip to Dr. Stefania Tabanelli. Our appointment was at 930 am after 2 hours of waiting we had our 12 week baby ultrasound. All is great The heartbeat is strong and the growth is progressing nicely. Each month Kristi will be required to have an ultrasound and blood work. Talking to some of my coworkers it seems like Italian healthcare is crazy about bloodwor http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Bologna/blog-339033.html 22nd OctoberTrieste VeniceGot up bright and early this morning and headed for Venice. We decided to stay off the motorway so we could see more of Italy. That was our first mistake. These roads it would seem take you through every industrial zone at 70km an hour. Then you also get the luxury of driving with people who only need 50m visibility to pass. Our second mistake was after taking 1ho http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Bologna/blog-337889.html On Wednesday night we travelled across to Parma a city famous for its cheese and ham and composer Giuseppe Verdi. Parma celebrates its most famous citizen Verdi with a monthlong festival of operas and concerts held at the Teatro Regio every year and so when Viviana suggested coming to Parma which is about 90 minutes on the train I thought why not At this point I must apologise for the qual http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Parma/blog-337567.html The last few days at university have been slightly crazy. On more than one occasion I have almost had to fight my way down via Zamboni to actually get to class. Both university students and highschool pupils have been engaged in some earnest protesting. I find myself walking to the heavy beats of drums through flailing banners and marching students many clutching beer bottles and in my imagina http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Bologna/blog-334747.html Once again I'm writing this in the future but i really want to try and remember the highlights for posterity as Pliny would say. Not that I am like Pliny god forbid no.The best thing that has happened to me in Bologna so far was meeting two of the most wonderful girls I have ever known on my second day in our CILTA oral exam. This exam was actually just a chat with the other students in t http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Bologna/blog-334287.html I came up with this hypothesis in my seminario di greco yesterday afternoon when i was staring mesmerised as one of the boys in the front row perched keenly on the edge of his seat hanging on every word the professor said continually ran the metal ball from his tongue piercing in a gliding motion across his lips. I just about managed to tear my eyes away for long enough to notice he also ha http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Bologna/blog-334253.html I have had a really lovely weekend a mixture of delicious dinners out with my parents who are visiting and a fantastic if a little drunken friday night out with two of my flatmates and my lovely friends. The club we went to on Friday was called Covo and although we went a very round about way of getting there it was most definitely worth it. I had aperitivo and dinner with my parents with http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Bologna/blog-333718.html Hello everyoneWe are finally here. I arrived on Friday and so far things have been great Friday and Saturday night we stayed in a hotel in Ferrara because there was no availability in Bologna due to a big Trade Show going on here. We went to a great little restaurant on Friday night in the centre of Ferrara that we just stumbled across because it was hidden called Osteria della Campana. It http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Bologna/blog-331180.html Pictures from 918 105So here's another batch of photos for you guys I separated them from the others so you guys separate the different places and excursions. The first few are from my birthday... out karaokeing dinner at the other apartment and a trip that weekend to Cesena Italia a city on the Adriactic coast to go see some friends of mine from Florida play a show. The next bunch http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Cesena/blog-331139.html Back HomeI am finally back home in Bologna and comfortably settled into my lovely new room in the student residences. I have had an unforgettable summer three entire months of fantastic adventures from Berlin to Barcelona Scotland to Sicily the stunning coast of Croatia to the insane Greek Islands. It was all fabulous but I love being settled in one place again not having to live out of a bac http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Bologna/blog-330220.html The first stop after check out was one of Lui's most anticipated attractions. The Ducati factory and museum. I finally get to see where my bike was made. yipeee I won't bore you with the details that i thoroughly enjoyed but Dot had a full time job mopping up the pools of drool left over after each section of the tour. After the factory we were shown to the museum and allowed to take photo http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Bologna/blog-327529.html 19 Sept 2008With our last day in the area we decided to have a look a the Castell Estense in Ferrara. After the usual nightmare of finding a park which in this instance would have been easier with Ferrara's directions for carparks if only they hadn't been full we walked in to the castle. Complete with a moat cannon balls dungeons and a tower to climb it was great for the kids apart from the http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Ferrara/blog-326022.html 17 Sept 2008Today the aim was to visit a mosaic studio southwest of Ravenna called Studio Akomena then proceed through Faenza to Bologna ending up with dinner at Bologna. The day started off poorly we couldn't find the studio despite having reasonably good directions for it and the Faenza Museum of Ceramics was actually from our perspective rather dull. I guess we're not really ceramics peop http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Bologna/blog-326019.html 16 Sept 2008Today dawned slightly warmer and we decided to just chill out. Joseph and Liam found a flying fox next to a Mixtreme adventure climbing structure so they had a few goes on that. I'd already promised Joseph that he and I would try the Mixtreme which opened that afternoon at 530 so we only had to preoccupy ourselves for the day. The boys had a quick swim again in the other Acqua http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/blog-326015.html 15 Sept 2008It being a cold start to the day 11 degrees when I returned from my run we didn't think we'd spend much time at the pool but the boys were keen so in they went. Shortly thereafter they shivered their way over to the towels and we decided we wouldn't be spending as much time there as they'd thought.So we decided to visit Ravenna. The rental car had developed a crack in the windscre http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Ravenna/blog-326014.html Activities Lamborghini Factory VisitLunch at Green Village RestaurantMario Righini's Private Collection Highlights Mario Righini's Private Collection with numerous classic cars from Alfa Romeo Maserati and Ferrari as well as some very recent additions Thoroughly enjoying hanging out with the small tour group on Italian Extravaganza Michel's Gelati count 21 Joceline's Italian French http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Modena/blog-323094.html Activities Maserati Factory VisitLunch at Cavallino Ferari Museum Visit Highlights Sneaking a peak through the fence of the Ferraris on the famous Maranello test track Watching Maseratis being assembled by hand on the production line Seeing the new limited edition Alfa Romeo C8 which is being assembled at Maserati Ferrari Maserati Alfa Romeo and Lancia are all now brands under the Fiat http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Modena/blog-321727.html Auf wiedersehen Aachen Buon giorno Modena Activities Flight from Koln Germany to Milan ItalyDinner at Restaurant Fini Highlights Sitting down to lovely dinner with new friends from around the world Being back in the summer sun and warmth Arriving at hotel to find a choice of gelateria's in every direction Discovering a new town Modena and getting more of a feel for Italy Michele's G http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Modena/blog-321722.html Who haven't read something about Italy or seen something from Italy or tasted something from Italy Very few people in the world can say they never have done one of the three things. So do you still wonder why I got a fascination and a urge for visiting this country.The summer of 2007 we headed for Rimini a small city at the east coast of Italy. It lays in the county of Emilia Romagna the land o http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Rimini/blog-318083.html 4 st of August Summer. At first sight this small village was quiet seaside health resort completely on vacations fine place. But it was for I in great nothing it because I do not like to sit I in place. But after hour 20 Gatteo but it begins life Mare people leave on streets of cities all stores are opened music plays aloud fairest discos are opened in city and there is amusing very an http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Rimini/blog-314546.html Well after the longest and worst 2 weeks of our lives hopefully ever we had a few days of excitement while we traveled to Bologna Italy to search for an apartment to rent for our 2 years living there. We flew in on a Thursday and spent Friday looking at 8 apartments. We were pleasantly surprised that we really liked most of them. We went in not knowing what to expect at all. We ended up cho http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Bologna/blog-311066.html It was lovely to be in Rome and we were eager to get out and do some sight seeing. We decided to go on a city walking tour it was great the tour guide was funny and knew so much about the history he put it in a way I could understand. We both learnt a lot and we were so glad to not have to get the map out at every corner. We saw the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum it was kind of hard to imagin http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/blog-307487.html The journey north from Ceccano in southern Italy to Ravenna was long but unbelievably beautiful. The countryside is very distinctly Italian bearing more resemblance to Spain than the rest of Europe. Elaborate Italian villas lie tucked away amid lush green rolling hills and farmland. I gazed out the window at the hypnotic symmetry of crop patterns against a backdrop of hills and mountains. W http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Emilia-Romagna/Ravenna/blog-298899.html