Visit of Bologna - 2.sept

Alarm went off at 8:45 like every day. Managed to finally get out of bed at 9, like every morning :) This is tough, like a training camp :) But we have things to do and we did not come to Italy to sleep, right? Breakfast and off to the train station we went. The plan was to either go to Bologna or to Verona for a day - today is the day for Bologna as decided. Got the tickets for a regional train leaving in 1.5 hours.

To pass the time our search for internet started - it has to be hiding somewhere :) From information desk they gladly guided us to McDonalds as internet is supposedly there. Well, for McDonalds internet one needs to have Italian SIM card - we don't have it. Luckily the guy behind the counter could direct us to the internet cafe down the road. It was this awful dark little room with about 20 computers all locked and boxed off. Seemed like going back in time. Oh well, there was internet connection at least. 30 minutes went by in a flash - just few updates to the blog and paying a bill. Off to the train we went.

So Bologna. Town of the oldest university in Europe. First impression of the town was not very good - the area by train station has very busy traffic and no trees and lots of lots of people running around, there was no information desk to see which direction the town is at and so on. Bought a map from a coffee shop and started to make our way towards the sights.

So the oldest university in Europe was built on the 12th century already. Buildings in this city are all huge, huge and old. Buildings are nicely labeled with information, but all the text is in Italian of course :) Basically the only thing we can make out are the dates. And the dates go anywhere from 12th century. The arches we saw in Padova are double as high here.

Bologna is also the town of towers. There are 2 very tall stone towers (kinda like very tall pillars) still standing close to the center square. At some point there was about 200 of them but today only about 20 of them are still standing. Read a bit about the history of those towers as well - something to do with defending the city.

Criss-crossed our way through town and found all sorts of neat buildings and places on our way. Stepped into Dominic Basilica - yet another huge and magnificent holy building. This one was not as colorful inside as the others, had mostly white walls and white statues. And yet again many outside courts and little hallways here and there.

As we walked through the city my impression of the town got better and better. It is hard to grasp all the history and how old all the buildings and the whole city really is. Can't even imagine that their university was already up and running on the 13th century (founded supposedly 1088) and quite a bit of the city was already built by that time.

Took a train back to Padova at 8, quick stop at the hotel and search for a place to have dinner started. Found this peaceful restaurant by the river. Seemed to be a family restaurant where the owner would run around and talk with customers. Later came out that the lady of the house was from Bulgaria so she was more than happy to speak Russian for us. It was wonderful 3 course dinner and a long walk was needed before getting back to the hotel as it is not possible to sleep with full stomach.