‘ave ya been pinched on yer bum yet?

September is getting ready to come to an end and classes still haven’t started. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy. (I started to write this post two weeks ago, and since then, the months have changed and classes have started!) Even the dullest day flies by here, and I don’t think there really has been a dull day. Things that happened last week feel like they happened yesterday, and my first week here feels like ages ago. It feels like all I’m doing is eating, drinking, walking, going out at night, and sleeping. Eating and drinking seem to be the most popular activates around here, which most always include walking to get from one place to another. I’m really starting to get my bearings in the city, and I feel like I know just about all the routes to take to a place. I’ve mastered the bus, which picks up right in front of my flat, and can get just about anywhere in town.

Two weekends ago my Mom came to visit, which was absolutely fantastic. She arrived Friday morning, and I went to the airport to meet her. The first day was a bit of an easy day, since she was jetlagged and had spent such a long time traveling. We did a bit of a walking tour of the city, and then met up with some friends. That’s when I heard about a bike auction going on in the afternoon. So while Mom took a nap, I headed back to Piazza Maggiore and stood among the masses in hopes to win a bike. There were probably about 20 of us (all exchange students) standing together, among a crowd of about 200 or so. We all were screaming, waving, and jumping for two solid hours, trying to catch the attention of the bike auctioneer. But did any of us get a bike? Nope. And they were all going for 20 euro or so. Uffa! I skipped my language class to not win a bike. Lovely. Oh well, there will be another one in a few weeks, and I can try again.



The next day Mom and I got up early, grabbed a cappuccino and a croissant each at the café right below my flat (for 3.8 euro total!) and headed to the train station. We took a train to Florence, and spent the day wandering the city. The first thing we did was head straight to the market. There, we bargained our way through the stalls, getting silk and cashmere scarves and leather bags. I was very proud with myself for bargaining a vendor down from 30 euro for a purse to 20 euro. Then we hit the indoor produce market, and got a wonderful sandwich with prosciutto, mozzarella and eggplant. Once satisfied, we trekked across town, to the other side of the Arno, to the Giardino di Boboli. In the gardens we got a fantastic view of the city, and enjoyed being away from the throngs of tourists. One the way back into the city, we passed by a watercolor artist, one whom we briefly stopped at before entering the gardens. She recognized us, and after I said that we didn’t find what we were looking for in a painting (in Italian), she proceeded to give both my Mom and I a free, small painting of poppies.



After wandering back to the heart of the city, we found a piazza with some kind of basketball tourney going on. We sat down for a while, and I tried to listen to see what was going on with all of these kids playing basketball. The announcer kept on saying something about “they will be coming soon”, who they were, I had no idea. Then my Mom looks down a side street, and sees a group of very tall men, obvious basketball players. Just as we came to the conclusion that this team was heading to this tourney, the announcer says “AND THEY ARE HERE!” Next thing we know, about 200 kids go running from the center of the piazza to meet the basketball team. Being the Carolina basketball fanatic that I am, I had to go see where all of these guys were from. So I got chatting with a guy who worked the event, and he told me that the guys were from Siena, which has one of the best basketball teams in Italy and Europe. Cool.

I headed back over to Mom, to tell her what I found out, and she was chatting with a couple from Australia. I joined the conversation, and that was when this older man asked, “Have you had your bum pinched yet?” Slightly taken aback, I said no, which resulted with him jokingly saying, “Well do you want to?” Again, I passed on the offer. For dinner that night we had a great Tuscan meal, with faro soup (smelt is the American name for the grain), a pasta dish, and Osco poco, a veal dish with the meat falling off the bone. It was quite good.



Sunday we explored Florence a little more, and went to mass in the Duomo. After a leisurely lunch in a square, we headed back to the hotel and grabbed our bags to head back into Bologna. Sunday night we met up with a group of my friends for dinner, and planned to go to Faenza on Tuesday with Chris. Monday was a nice day in Bologna, and we explored the seven churches of San Stefano. Tuesday we took a day trip to Faenza, a tiny town known for its pottery. The town was lovely, with ceramics all over the place. In our quest to find a good pottery shop, we stumbled across an artist that sold Raku style pottery. Chatting in Italian with the locals seems to be a good thing, because I managed to get another piece of free art. It was just a tile, but still, it was free.

Wednesday morning Mom left, and it was just as hard to say goodbye then as it was in the RDU airport. But she’ll be back in November with my sister. The rest of the week had flown by, it was good to be busy after Mom leaving. Friday, I had a group of friends over for dinner and drinks, which was great. I provided the olives, cheese, and one bruscetta, and others brought pasta, gnocchi, more bruscetta, wine and beer. After, we all headed to the center, and eventually split up and went to our separate clubs. Tammy, Maria, Tammy’s friend Maura, and I ended up at a disco called Kinky’s , and spent the night with some of our Italian friends. The next morning, exhausted as we all were, we managed to wake up to make a 10AM train to Ravenna.


Ravenna was gorgeous. I had been to Ravenna before, but not the city part, just the beach part (first weekend in Italy.) We arrived and managed to wander our way into the city center. The gang this time consisted of Chris, Maarten, Tammy, Maura, Maria, Katrina, and me. Ravenna is known for mosaics, so that was our first goal. Find mosaics. We headed to a church that was supposed to have loads of mosaics, but the entrance fee for it was a bit more than we wanted to pay, so we did the free museum instead. But as soon as we entered the museum, the woman who took the tickets said to come back at 4 for a free tour. That sounded fine for us, so we left in search of Dante’s Tomb. Before making it to Dante’s Tomb, we found another church that had old roman mosaics in its foundation. Since the fee was reasonable, we went in. The mosaics were amazing, absolutely amazing. I think it is fascinating that these works of art go unnoticed for so many years, and get built over and buried, until someone accidentally stumbles upon them again.


Dante’s tomb was pretty neat as well. Well, the two of the three tombs for him that we saw. The first was a dirt mound, covered in ivy, which was his resting place during WWII because the Italians were afraid his real tomb might be subject to attack. Right next to the mound was the real tomb, a beautiful building decorated in stones and words from his masterpieces. But we didn’t see the 3rd tomb, where his body actually is, which is now in a museum. Can things get any more complicated??
We made it back to the museum for the 4 o’clock tour, which was all in very fast spoken Italian. Everyone was too tired to focus on translating what the tour guide was saying, so we slyly escaped the tour and did the museum by ourselves. This was another one of those museums that we thought were going to be very small, with not much stuff, but nope. It was huge. I think there were 4 floors of artifacts, from Roman to Medieval times, through never-ending halls.



Sunday was just as lovely, with a trip to the town of Ferrara for a hot air balloon festival. Tammy, Maura, Chris and I got another 10AM train, and met up with a few other exchange students. When we got there we found the ESN group (exchange student network group that organizes trips and events) and decided to follow them for a while. But after half an hour of walking, waiting, and standing around, we decided to leave the group. In the process, we managed to extend our group of 4 to a group of 15. With Tammy, Maura and I leading the crowd, we made it to the park where the festival was taking place, and while I was trying to get a map and information about the festival, we managed to loose the rest of the group. Tammy, Maura and I were fine with that though, and we found a nice patch of grass next to the lake, spread out a blanket and rested for the day under the hot Italian sun. Around 4:30 we managed to convince ourselves that we came for the festival, not a lazy afternoon sleeping and reading, and wandered the park until we ran into Chris and the others again. By that time, the balloons were getting ready for the evening flight. I watched with the others as about 20 balloons inflate and take off.


I must say I over all was quite impressed with the balloon festival. I just wish I would have gone up in one. But that would have put me 150 euro in the hole. Watching the huge, peaceful balloons take off into the blue Italian afternoon sky was quite an experience, one I will never forget. And one more thing checked off my list of things to see and do in my year abroad.


Up next: the start of classes (finally!), more meals and a possible trip to the Alps.