Planes, trains , automobiles and Bolognese.....

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After a long 28 hours of car to train to plane to train to car we made it to Bologna. For the record Air France is a decent airline. In a sea of airline cutbacks and so-so service we found them to be efficient. The plane was one of the new jumbo liners with 2 decks. We were on the top in a 2 person row which is nice for a 10 hour flight. The food was decent and the wine down right delicious! All the train connections thru Milan went off without a hitch and here we are!!!

Bologna for anyone who is an Italy lover like me should be on your next list of stopovers! It's a beautiful, walkable city. And some damn good food and wine! Lasagna here is not like at home, and bolognese does not resemble that which we have come to call it in the states. I am on a mission to learn the real way when I return home. Next time I am here there will be a cooking school involved somehow! The city is a maze of porticos dating back to mostly the 13-15th century. You can walk for hours without being in the sun or rain. We are now giant portico fans and I am fantasizing about how my next house will have one....This is primarily a university town but not just any university the oldest in western civilization!!! It was founded in 1088 and is still going strong. By 1300 it had 10,000 students. I cant even wrap my head around that. Needless to say many important things happened here too many to mention or for my feeble brain to remember. I do know there are streets named after Marconi. The statues all over town are famous professor and inventors not your usual war or government hero. I kind of like that concept. The university now is the seat of medical research in the country. While Bologna saw some damage in WW2 not as much as other Italian cities so the city center is amazingly intact. As this is the home of Mortadella the deli cheese board with a glass of wine is the thing. Yesterday we had one that had this pot of creepy cheese that was sort of like the center of burrada with fig jam on top. I could literally have taken a bath in it!! Yummy..

The town has a festival going on that is Franciscan in nature. Lots of priests and nuns in their brown robes and sandals. Turns out Papa Francesco is coming to town next week. Damn you missed it....

So today we head by tran to Venice where we will meet up with Jen and Shane and board our boat for Croatia. But tonight we pub crawl in Venice. That should be something to write about!!

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