Blogs from Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, Europe - page 11

LAMBO TORNA IN STRADA... ... e va alla scoperta dell'America!! Rimango altre quattro ore in sella, e guido finché il sole è già 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. E’ una delle sensazioni che ho sempre amato di più, e che così spesso mi ha dato l'illusione di essere libero e padrone della mia vita: quel grappolo di minuti dalla consistenza indefinibile, quando non è ancora buio e non è più giorno, e tu entri in un posto che non hai mai sentito nominare, con la consapevolezza che domani sarai già lontano, e che per altri mesi, per altri anni, per altri grappoli di minuti della stessa intensità continuerai ad allontanarti, assecondando il dipanarsi di una matassa ... read more

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 are changed on the outside walls of the buildings. Also we've included some pictures of our attempt to make Italian pizza at home. The toppings tasted great but we have some work to do on getting the crust so it's not dough on the bottom and burned on the edges! We'll try again! Next weekend we're off to visit ... read more

22nd October Trieste - Venice Got 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 1hour to travel 40kms we decided to try our luck on the motorway. We have never seen so many trucks in our lives. It was share madness - rows and rows of huge trucks going 60km in one lane and cars doing about 140kms in the other lane. The scenery was n’t any better either. It is unfortunate that Venice is now ... read more

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 high-school 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 imagination, rocks. And all that at ten o’ clock in the morning! The protests haven’t exactly prevented lectures from happening, but they have given rise to some detailed digressions. On Wednesday I arrived at my Greek lecture well prepared for tackling some Aeschylus. The other students arrived slightly late and a little flustered. The professor arrived as usual, and started talking about the protest. I wasn’t listening very carefully ... read more

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 a strong mojito followed by desert wine. I then went back home and bumped into Francesco who said "Ciao! Hatty, io e alcuni amici e anche sergio usciamo a covo club, vieni con noi!" and i replied that we had planned to go to Villa Serena for the Erasmus party, but I didnt mind and i would ask my friends because ... read more