| ITALY |
| ITALY June 3-7, 2003 |
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| Bologna, Italy June 3-7, 2003 Apart from our one day whirlwind tour of Dreieich, Germany, Bologna was the first stop on our trip. Situated between Florence and Venice, Bologna is often by-passed entirely by visitors to Italy, and probably would have been by us too if our friend Nate did not live there. But we are definitely happy that he does, because we were able to ease our way into our traveling routine in a beautifully historic city that, while it does have its fair share of visitors, is mostly off the beaten path. After arriving into Bologna-Forli Airport in the early afternoon of June 3rd, we made the 1 hour bus ride into Bologna, and met up with Nate, Andy`s friend from Lexington who works in the burgeoning European basketball market. Soon thereafter, we set out to explore the city, with its sidewalk cafes and large student population, as the university there is the oldest in all of Europe. We were naturally drawn to the city`s Two Towers, the Torre Degli Asseneli and the Torre Garasenda. The Torre Degli Asseneli dwafts its tilting cousin, if only because engineers determined a long time ago that the Torre Garasenda would fall over if it was not cut in half. So, the "top" of the smaller tower that you see in our pictures is actually only half the height it used to be. Later that night, as a guest of Nate, we watched Skipper Bologna, one of the city`s two professional basketball teams, play in the Italian League`s semifinals against Rome. Luckily for Skipper and us, Bologna won the game, and went on to play in the finals of the League. The atmosphere was more like a soccer game than anything else, but what more can you say than they really do love their team. The following day, we decided to walk up to the Basilica di San Luca, situated upon a hill just outside of town, overlooking the city of Bologna and the surrounding mountains. The walk was more like a climb, as the 2 kilometers of steady incline lay before us, but we braved the conditions and made the rather pleasant walk without incident. At the top, we were rewarded with spectacular views in every direction, many of which can be seen on our photos page. In our opinion, it was the highlight of our sightseeing expeditions. That night, we, along with Nate, and his friends Barbara and Paolo drove to the beach town of Pinerella, on the eastern Adriatic coast. With temperatures soaring across Italy, we, like many others, sought refuge on the beach. Unfortunately, Andy`s camera ran out of batteries, so there are no pictures to actually prove that we did go, but trust us, we did, and it was exactly what everybody needed. With only 1 day left in Bologna, there were two things we needed to do before heading off to Germany. One was to climb to the top of the Torre Degli Asseneli, and the other was to truely experience why Bologna`s nickname is "La Grassa," meaning "the fat." So, in the early afternoon, in an effort to work up a big appetite, we climbed all 495 (yes, we counted) steps to the top of the Torre, which gave us very picturesque views of Bologna. And afterwards, as a thank you to our great host Nate, we took him out to a traditional Bolognese dinner, complete with tortellini, bolognese meat sauce, Italian wine, and great conversation. And then, the following day, we retraced our steps back to Frankfurt, to begin part 2 of our Germany adventure. Ciao! |
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