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Published: June 29th 2008
Rimini, which was our stop prior to this one, was nice, but a tad bit too hot for our blood since it was situated right on the coast. With this proximity to the ocean the city was extremely humid. We arrived off the beautifully air conditioned train to enter the swealtering heat, a scortching 38 degrees which even Danielle was not excited for, and ever since then we have been dripping in sweat at all times! Rimini is nice but quite a change from Florence, it was much hotter, near the ocean, and catored to a far different breed of tourists. Instead of loaded tourists, honeymooners, and art enthusasists from North America, we found Italians and other Europeans looking for some sun on the very crowded but really long beaches of Rimini. This meant that though the city was busy and touristy it was not aimed at us (aka dumb tourists), so there were no really annoying hawkers pretending to be our friends for a sale. Off the train we did hit the beach but found that most of it was private. Despite how nice they looked we were not going to pay for the sun chairs. We wandered to the public beach and found it over crowded with people, but we managed to find a spot. Me and Danielle sat down to sun tan. I went for a swim, which did not compare to the water in Corfu. (We were to spoiled by the beach in Corfu, every beach will appear crowded compared to there) Getting back I found that our spot had been invaded by teenagers kicked off the private beach. I laid down to dry off and while doing so got beamed in the head by a full pop can that was tossed by one of the juevniles. That cut our sun tan and any prospect of Danielle swimming short, I was also rewarded with a pounding headache. That night after alot of searching we found cheap, fantastic mounds of pasta which was a perfect end to that day.
The next day, not being impressed by the beach nor able to withstand the heat, and lastly motivated by my desire to visit as many countries as possible we headed out for
San Marino. If you have not heard of San Marino just wikipedia it and get as much knowledge was we do of it. For those who wont, its the 3rd largest nation in the world, the oldest republic (dates back to 301 AD), and a place for the filthy rich because they have no taxes. With a dirt cheap bus tickets we got to this mountain nation. Oddly enough we had to bus it because there are no trains to San Marino. The bus however was only a 30 minute ride and we took the time to start teaching each other Danish and Spanish. Our destination was the city of San Marino, which is, can you guess? the capital as well. Any ways the reason why San Marino has been able to stay independant for so long because it was literaly built on top of a mountain. This was quite a suprise since neither of us knew this. But luckily the bus took us all the way to the top. The views from the sumit were spectacular, but were limited because of the smog. The city was a series of winding streets that held shops selling CHEAP designer items such as perfume, bags, and knives. We explored the city, had beer on one of the cafés perched on a cliff side, which was very nice. Then we explored the three impressive towers on top of the mountain protecting the city. The best part of it all was that the air was blessedly cool compared to the oppresive heat in Rimini. That afternoon went fine, however, the night was a different story. We went to bed earlish, 11:30, and our two new room mates had not appeared. We went to sleep to be woken up by them around 2 am. Now there is a certain protocal in hostels that is just one of those unwritten things, but everyone knows about it. One of them is that you don't come into a dorm room at 2am talk normally, turn on all the lights, spray each other with axe body spray, and carry on like no one else is in the room. But that is exactly what happened - twice, because they came back in at 5am. It was pretty horrible, the worst roomate experience so far. So, in the morning as we packed up to go we were not our normally respectful selves. We took every opportunity we could and made noise. It may have been benieth us, but we felt better for it that day.
After a free breakfast and a free coffee!!! Jan and I were off. We caught a train to Ferrara and were there just 2 hours later. It was really hot out and the hike to the hostel seemed to take forever. But once we got there we decided to make use of the day and see the city we were in. The afternoon turned out to be quite interesting. We followed our map into the centre of town to check out some of the major sites in Ferrara. We originally thought that one of them would have been the Ferrari factory, but alas no. Sorry Chad...we tried! 😊 But we did find a cathedral, only the front of the building was decorated in marble, the rest was left unadorned. It was impressive, but not spectacular. We wandered through a fully functional castle (although today it functions as a museum), it still had it's moat and drawbridge!!! How cool is that? Pretty cool is the correct answer. The museum was closed, as was most of the town, because it was the weekend. Ferrara isn't a big enough city to be open ALL of the time. That was a bit disappointing, but we ended up stumbling on to something REALLY cool. Well it wasn't that cool, but it was neat. In one of the old medieval courtyards across from the cathedral there was a flag throwing tournament going on. Yep, that's right, a FLAG THROWING CONTEST was being held. Just like out of 'Under the Tuscan Sun'. We stayed around to watch the first hour of the competition which was just the younger kids. They were pretty darn cute. Lets remember that all of the competators had to wear tights - brightly colored tights and tunics! It was pretty funny. It was just neat to run into something like that, when in the morning we didn't even know that it existed. It was our culture for the day.
Today was our trip to Bologna. There wasn't much else to see in Ferrara, especially on a Sunday with everything closed, and Bologna was too expensive to stay in, but we wanted to see it. So off we went this morning. After only half an hour on a nicely air conditioned train we were in Bologna. It is a university town, so the atmosphere is pretty laid back. Most major things were open today, but not until later in the day, as it was Sunday. The major site we saw today was the world's 5th largest basillica. The thing was massive, but not as ornate as St. Pete's. It did boast some unique elements though. It had a 'sundial', this was laid out in a straight line in the church floor - made out of marble. It had different numbers all down it and in different sections there were the months, listed in latin. It was diffferent from what we had expected from a sundial. But it was cool. There was also a chapel that had a Jean Bernard Léon Foucault pendulum...which both Jan and I found very interesting... On a much more bizzar note, there was a giant...GIANT...fresco of a blue daemon eating a baby, it was really intense. We have both learned that religion is just about pain and suffering, as depicted by our blue friend, he is one colorful example amoung many. Another example we found in the medieval town hall, now a museum (I see a trend...) and it was of Jesus. He was carved out of wood, as was his cross. The entire piece was therefore, three-D. But the most gruesome part was that the 'artist' had also carved out blood which dripped down from the very large and real metal nails. Pain and Suffering I tell you. It's my theory any ways.
Between the town hall and the church we stopped to eat lunch. After some wandering we stumbled upon a pasteria where we ended up eating. The best part: we had bolognese sauce in bologna. It was very good, and the cheap red wine washed it down nicely. Jan was disappointed because there was no baloney in it, even after I had explained the ingredients to him prior to our ordering. 😊 We caught our train back and cleaned up for dinner. We had spent our free internet time writing this. We had to make use because we have heard that internet is VERY costly in Venice - which is where we are off to next. We may not be able to write for a couple of days at least, but we will let you know how the sinking city experience turns out to be.
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Marianne
non-member comment
that's alot of Bologna!
What fun, I really enjoy your updates. It sounds hot!! Yikes. We had 22 degree weather here. Just came back from Mitchell Bay and Art's Birthday party on the beach...saw Stu and Fraz and they say HI. It was alot of fun...lots of people and we had our first sleep over in the house! Jeff went swimming...but the water was very cold...not like the water you were swimming in. Have fun in Venice. Love you two, Mør