Weather

Since we arrived in Italy, the weather has cooperated beautifully; high 60s to high 70s during the day, low 50s at night. We sleep with the window open. Bellissimo!

Fashion - Some Observations

What a difference dieci anni can make. (Our last Italian visit was in 2001.) In an effort to look more Italian, we decided to forego jeans and sneakers for dressier slacks and shoes. Everyone, except the old nonne, wears jeans. Men and women both choose designer types. No Levis and no boot-cut legs, just straight-leg or skinny. The nonne still wear sensible suits and shoes. Many people wear leather jackets, skirts, and pants. Shades of purple are very popular in men's shirts. Other than that, fashion seems universal.

Ravenna, exquisite Ravenna!

This city is far prettier than I could imagine. To study the Byzantine mosaics of Ravenna is a requisite for art history students and I had completed a paper on one in particular a few years ago. I was so eager to arrive at the Basilica of San Vitale. And then I was inside, speechless at the beauty surrounding me. Photographs in textbooks could not prepare me for the richness of the colors and brilliance of the gold mosaics, which date from the 5th century CE. Awestruck, my eyes momentarily swam in tears.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blu_blue/375751913/

Mausoleo di Galla Placidia

San Vitale - Empress Theodora

Busted on the Bus

Marge follows the rules

Local buses in Bologna are clean, plentiful, and run frequently. We love using them! An individual ticket is 1.5 euros for an hour's travel on any number of buses in any direction. So if you're just making a quick round trip or touring the entire ciry using several buses, you just need one ticket per hour. Bus drivers only drive. They don't sell or check the tickets. There are machines in each bus to sell tickets and to time stamp/validate the tickets. You must validate your ticket or you can be fined.
Marge and I each bought a "ten ride pass" and obeyed the rules for the first several days. But we observed many, at times even most, passengers not purchasing or validating tickets. "What gives?" So this morning, near the end of our 10 trip pass, we purposely failed to validate our tickets. Half way through the ride, the "Ticket Checkers" boarded the buys to audit everyone's tickets. I watched as several passengers were given violation tickets and fined. When asked, we handed our passes to be examined. They clearly had been validated with time stamps from other rides but not this ride and not within the past hour. We were busted!! Thankfully the "Ticket Checker" just smilled and handed back the tickets without a word.
I'm sorry to have let my country down and won't do it again.

Attenzione gli Zingari - Beware the Gypsies!

Travel Tip: Beware the Gypsies!

My first experience with Gypsy pickpockets was a close call. Today on the crowded sidewalk of Via Independenza several pathetic-looking gypsies were asking for money. Among them was a mother with a nursing baby at her breast. She stepped in front of me, pushing the baby at me and I moved aside. She grabbed my left sleeve continuing to plead a little more agressively. I tried to move away and she moved closer. In an instan,t she was slipping her hand into my left pocket.

Gary - "Hey!" I yelled and pushed her arm away. "Polizia!" She backed up muttering and kissing her fingertips while still holding the baby at her breast. Passersby looked and didn't say or do anything. I double checked my passport and money. No police appeared and the gypsy continued as before, unfazed. I decided to move on down the sidewalk. Who would be cruel enough to prosecute a nursing mother?

Marge - "We were walking, talking, and window-shopping when suddenly I was aware of being pushed aside. Just as quickly, Gary yelled, 'Hey!' and 'Polizia'. What struck me is that the beggars are so smooth, and continue to smile when they are rejected. (We had a minor incident the day before.)

Passeggiata

St Luca

"It can't be far." Three hours and 20 miles later, we were at the base of the hill to San Luca. (Slight exaggeration!) Once again, "It can't be far." Climbing slowly, we followed hordes of the faithful who were chanting, praying, and sweating their way to the cathedral. After an hour climb under a portico, the small Baroque cathedral was revealed. Inside there were beautiful marble columns with gilded capitals, large paintings of biblical scenes, small side chapels, and a heavily ornate altar which was crowned with a painting of the Madonna and Child which local lore says was painted by Mark, the apostle and transported to Bologna from the Middle East during the 13th Century.

Bologna

Bologna - three planes, three buses, a subway ride and only one SNAFU!

Travel Tip:
Leaving midweek has the advantage of fewer travelers resulting in faster security check points!

Piazza Nettuno in City Center

We left DC behind as the green line metro started and stopped to Greenbelt Station where the B30 bus shuttled us to BWI. Our planning had allowed an extra hour for the security check points at the airport but we breezed through in just 10 minutes. This gave us time for lunch at a fast food stop before boarding the plane to NYC.
The plane arrived at BWI on time, but weather conditions at NYC dictated a 1.5 hour departure delay from BWI. Just that quick, our well-planned time schedule was in jeopardy. We'd have 40 minutes in Kennedy Airport to get to the International Terminal and find our boarding gate for Madrid. No problem. Our plane's arrival gate was only two gates down from the Madrid flight gate, a pleasant change from years ago when the International Flights left from a seperate terminal on the far side of the airport. The overnight flight to Madrid included an entire symphony of area high school students with their instruments. Very excited, very lively, and very much awake all night! "No sleep for you!"

Madrid has a modern, spacious, and clean airport with lots of easy to follow directional signs. (This is very important when you have loss of sleep and jet lag.) We rode a subway about 3/4 of a mile from one end of the airport to the other, up and down elevators, through passport control, and then through a "Homeland Security" style check point to get to our next departure terminal. We spent our first Euros getting coffee and made the flight to Bologna without a problem.

We were suprised at Bologna to find we could just walk off the plane and out of the airport, no passport check. We followed a crowd of passengers to the Aeroporto Bus stop, paid our 6 euros each, and rode to Stazione Centrale in downtown Bologna! We made it! Well almost. We had to take one more bus, a local bus to the Bitone neighborhood where our home stay is located. It was at this point in the journey when we had done about 20 hours of traveling and had been awake for 30 hours, that we encountered our first SNAFU. The bus we wanted to catch, 27B, was approaching the bus stop at the same time as we were walking to the bus stop. A crowd of people was rushing to get seats on the bus and Marge and I got seperated.

Gary -"I couldn't see Marge anywhere and thought she had boarded via one of the 4 doors to the bus. My frantic calls to her outside the bus went ununswered. So I stepped onto the bus and again called her name. The door closed and the bus started off with me on it.  A fist closed around my heart as I realized that Marge was not on the bus!"

Marge -"I knew Gary was on that very long bus, but the doors were shut tight and I did not feel confident to pound on the doors and shout, APERTO! Minutes later, another 27 bus stopped. I boarded and asked 'Bitone?' the name of our home stay stop. A kind, young woman, who is a university student, got off with me at Bitone and walked me to the appropriate address. I pushed the buzzer, announced myself to our host, and inguired after Gary. My poor, anxious morito/husband  had just arrived and was very relieved and penitent. But it was circumstance and a lack of communication that caused the problem, not him."

Happy to be reunited with no recriminations, we set off to find our first drink in Bologna at the American Bar!

Our neighborhood bar - the American Bar