Italy: Day 1 - Bologna 9/05/05

Jennie and I landed at Bologna BLQ on-time. Thank goodness Wayne was near a computer or else we wouldn't even have the address of our hotel. Successfully, we found the "Aerobus" and got ourselves into town to the local train station. After a short moment of confusion, we found a map and was told that the hotel was not on the map. A-ha. But, it was only a short walk away. Not bad.

Our hotel, Hotel Il Guercino, was terrific. The room was small but very modern. We were located on the top floor with a door to an outdoor shared balcony.


The view over the balcony was quite dull on one side but fairly cute on the other.

First order of business, Jennie and I decided to walk towards Bologna's famous Piazza Miaggore. There stood a giant church and an interesting fountain.


The streets of Bologna were just as pretty as any street in Italy.



I found a terrific gelateria which I hope to go to again (if I can find it...). It was in a back alley somewhere near the Deustche Bank off Via Marconi, on the way back to Piazza Maggiore.

The afternoon was spent wandering the streets of Bologna in no particular fashion but only where our hearts led us. Eventually, this was to the University. Jennie needed to use a bathroom so we walked into a library, a very quiet library. A couple local girls studying were kind enough to share some tips for dinner and night drinking.

Osteria dell'Orso is a local student favorite with good eats and friendly staff. We enjoyed our dinner very much! Fantastic spaghetti with fresh mushrooms! Joining our dinner was a Swiss Medival Theology professor named Christian. Slightly strange man but friendly nonetheless. Fabio, the waiter, was not as outspoken. But his brother, and his brother's girlfriend were gems. His brother apparently wants to move to San Diego, raise his yet-to-be family there and own a Mustang. Nice. His understanding of American slang needs some help as he thought "rolling down the streeet" meant "rolling a joint while strolling down the street".



After dinner, we found our way to Piazza Gianni where the local kids hung out at night. Not a beer too soon, we found Jacob, a gay Englishman who was more than friendly. We all had a fabulous talking about everything from gay rights to politics to Hurricane Katrina.... Jacob is awesome, and damn cute too (darn).



But some stroke of luck, Jacob's hotel was a block away from ours so Jennie and I had a nice chaperone to walk us home. Thus ended our first night in Italy.