After our long and stressful travel morning, I found myself on the 3:10pm train to Bologna, sitting in regular old Standard class. I got on and was surprised to find I had a single seat at the end of Car 9. Nobody next to me. No table. No one sitting across from me. As I took off my jacket and sat down to finally relax, a young woman with a baby and a stroller came over and asked if I would switch seats with her. I told her I would, of course.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t just a simple switch. In her original seat was a man, next to his wife. His wife, as well as another woman, had been booked in the same seat! This led to me taking an empty seat nearby. I put my stuff down and went to use the restroom, only to find someone standing at the seat claiming it was theirs. Eventually I was able to get an open seat, put in my headphones, and drink as much water as possible to try to get rid of my headache. I never seem to drink enough when we travel, but this day’s dehydration and stress led to a gnarly headache.
Long story short, I got to Bologna fine. My friend Annie’s family is half Italian and she still has a ton of family that live in Italy — many in Bologna. She also has been lucky enough to be given the keys to her late aunt’s apartment, free for her use whenever [including the entire next summer if she desires.]
I got to Annie’s apartment to find her and our friend Lara napping; they had returned from Budapest earlier in the day and were also exhausted. After sleeping for a bit, we walked around the city center.
Bologna is a big college town. There are 375,000 residents, with about 75,000 students — so roughly 20% of the city are students. What’s also really cool about Bologna is the way the buildings are designed. They all have covered walkways, called “porticoes.” So if it’s pouring rain, you can get around almost the entire city center without going fully out in the rain! It’s brilliant. It’s not the prettiest, but damn it works. We were lucky enough for it not to be raining though.
That night we met up with Annie’s aunt and cousin for dinner. Since we were in Bologna, I had to get tagliatelle bolognese. It was delicious and it was the perfect dish to have. We ended up eating super early — the restaurant let us sit down early, before the kitchen was even open. I caught Annie’s aunt telling the waitress “Americans…” as she led us to our table.
After dinner, Annie and Lara went back to the apartment and went to sleep. I had a show to get to. With a very convenient touring schedule [for me], I was able to catch one of my favorite artists in town that night: Father John Misty. I’d seen him a few times before: once in 2013 and again this past April. His April show at The Fillmore in San Francisco was one of my favorites of 2015.
The venue was a small club called Locomotiv (there’s a small old train engine outside) about a 10 minute walk from the apartment. I was excited because the show was so cheap. My ticket was only about 15-Euros — totally fair for a performer of this caliber. But after waiting in line to get in, I was told I needed to become a member of the club, another 8-Euro fee. Then, once inside, where it was hot and sweaty, I needed to check my jacket and scarf. 3 more Euros down the drain. Now I was out of money for a cab home.
The show was great, as expected. Father John Misty’s stage persona and banter make the show, as do his excellent showmanship skills. He even greeted the crowd with a “buona sera,” which really impressed me. Obviously his fans know/speak some English since they know his music, but I thought it was really nice that he made the extra effort to learn the Italian, even if it was just one short phrase.
The next morning we went to Annie’s favorite bar (cafe) across the street for a quick morning coffee and pastry. This place was unusual in that they gave you a small glass of water for free with your coffee! They also brought everything out to us at the tables outside.
After that, we walked around the city exploring a bit, since I had never seen it before. The main cathedral is really unique; the facade only goes halfway up. They simply ran out of money in the middle of the project and left it that way. The San Petronio Basilica also happened to be surrounded by a bunch of armed military and police. I asked what was going on, and could only make out something about a holiday for dead people.
One of the main tourist attractions in Bologna is the old University. The University of Bologna was founded in 1088 and was the first in the world. Pretty much every big name famous Italian from then until the Renaissance studied there. It was a neat building and there were some cool frescoes and family crests all over.
The main highlight of Bologna was a famous gelato place of course. La Sorbetteria Castiglione. Annie claims this is her favorite gelato in all of Italy. I was impressed — and probably sampled about 5 flavors total — but it wasn’t my favorite ever. You can see my scoops of espresso and stracciatella below. My notes on the official gelato log were “incredibly creamy, great consistency, light.”
We spent our remaining few hours wandering through the city, seeing the few tourist highlights. I liked Bologna. It felt very real and very livable. While Florence is real of course, Bologna was nice because there weren’t tourists everywhere.
I had booked myself on the 1pm train back to Florence in premium class — an always worthwhile upgrade considering the free snacks and drinks. The conductors definitely gave a judging facial expression when I ordered champagne that early in the afternoon, but if I paid for my free drink, I was gonna get my free drink!
Florence Culture Shock 