Ode to Bologna

Well, not really an ode, or even a poem. Maybe it should be a paean (I don’t know that I’ve ever actually used that word before) that is a praise of Bologna. Now that I have a fixed schedule to go back to Bologna for two months I am becoming more and more nostalgic. I happened across two YouTube videos for Bologna. One done by the Comune di Bologna:

and the other done by the the school that I attended there A.L.C.E.:

I know so many of the sights shown in the videos that they bring tears to my eyes. Of course as much as I love Bologna I wouldn’t want to have it become like Venice or Florence, full of hordes of tourists. Part of it’s charm is that it is not heavily touristed, a fact that continually amazes me considering it’s attractions.

In any case I will be there during the months of April and May so if you perchance are going to Italy during that time look me up (by leaving a comment on a blog post) and I’ll “fare il cicerone” (be the tour guide) for you. “Cicerone” is an interesting word. It comes from Cicero, which you may recognize as a significant name in Roman history – a politician, philosopher, writer and above all a great orator. Apparently he was also an enthusiast of Rome and liked to show visitors around the city and so his name evolved into an idiomatic synonym of “guida turistica” – tour guide.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 24th, 2014 at 11:50 am and is filed under Culture, Food, Language, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.