Dreaming In Italian

When I had lunch with Franco last week he told me about the Festival della Zuppa (soup) scheduled for this weekend in a near-by suburb of Bologna, Corticella. Since I have always wanted to go so some kind of festival or sagra related to food ( I think a sagra is always a food thing) I decided to go today. Getting there was a bit more of an adventure than I had bargained for. First of all the bus that runs near my house was the problem. On days when there is a soccer match (partita di calcio) my usual bus, the #20 doesn’t follow this route from 45 minutes before the start of the game until 15 minutes after and from 15 minutes before the end until 45 minutes after. As luck would have it there was a soccer game scheduled for 12:30 today so when I arrived and saw everyone walking toward Porta Saragozza I quickly realized the problem. So I started walking too. When I got close to the porta (what was once one of the entrances through the walls of the city) I saw a #20 going the other way so knew that the buses must have started running again, thank God. So I took this bus to the point where I would change to another one to take me to the final destination. It was CROWDED. Like sardines in a can (Italians use anchovies instead of sardines). I was lucky to get on at all and we were elbow to elbow the whole way and it was a pretty long ride. I was glad to get off because after awhile it was like an oven inside.

It’s a street festival and the whole street was totally packed with people. After I arrived I found a small dish and a spoon and tasted at least 20 soups. Four of five were very good, most of the resto were so-so and one was pretty bad. Still it was quite and experienc. People taste soups and can vote for those that they think are the best. Some stands handed out something to remind you of the number of their booth to help win your  vote. It was quite a street party as you can see from the photos below.

The tourist office gave me a brochure for the festival and another for festivals and sagras in the Emilia-Romagna region during the spring so I plan to go to another one easily accessible by train.

The Library Salaborsa. I mention this library in a previous post and today I returned to take some photos. It’s the most beautiful library I’ve ever seen and is used a great deal. There are two large floors with an indoor covered “courtyard”. I was amazed to see so many people there. The two times I’ve gone so far it has always been packed.

I’m not sure of the time line but there were structures here dating from roman times. The current structure was built in the 1880s as a business center. It has gone through other iterations as well including a basketball center in the 1950s. There are picture in the Italian Wikipedia page showing teams playing basketball – you can see them by clicking here.

In additional to large collections of books, including a room of books just about Bologna, there is vast collection of videos and music CDs. The library (and it seems many libraries here) are also centers for community activity, offering all kinds of educational activities for people of all ages and interests.

One thing you immediately notice walking through the large open area is the glass floor. You can descend some stairs and view the archeological excavations that date from the first century B.C. Along the way you also see the beautiful room for children’s books, an auditorium and a large bank vault from it’s past as a commercial center. I definitely recommend a visit if you go to Bologna.

Here’s where I do one of my volunteer jobs having one-on-one conversations with people that would like to improve their English.

 

 

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.

After almost two weeks of wandering around the regions of Italy which border the Adriatic coast it was time to head home. Most of the trip from Bologna down to Puglia was in relatively small bites save for the 4 hour race from Giulianova, Abruzzo to Fasano,Puglia one Sunday morning. Now I was facing the trek back; over 500 miles on the autostrada which Google Maps estimated at 7 ½ hours of driving time and I have found that their estimates tend to be a bit optimistic. The car had to be back by noon (piu’ o meno – more or less) on Sunday so doing it all in one session seemed total insanity. So I found two BnBs. On the first day I would drive about 275 miles to Arielle , Abruzzo and spend the night. The next day an even more leisurely drive to Cattolica, on the coast just over the border between Emilia-Romagna and Abruzzo with a mere 85 miles remaining to return to the airport, but with a stop at Cesarina’s place to drop of the suitcase and whatever other stuff I’d accumulated. I was ready to go “home” to Bologna.

Of course driving on the autostrada is like taking the interstate highways here, boring but efficient. I stopped on occasion for a coffee and bathroom break at (usually) an Autogrill. Whoever owns Autogrill must be very wealthy. They seem to have almost all of the rest stops locked up on the autostrada. In any case, they really are not outrageously expensive and are full of marginal but tolerable food, decent coffee and enormous number of nick-knacks to tempt kids and people of marginal taste. I guess it’s like I remember Howard-Johnson’s being at some time in the dim past in the U.S. In any case I arrived at Casa Dell’Arciprete, the BnB, before dark and met the really very charming owners Anastasia and Tonino. It was a great choice for a stop. Olive trees in the back, a splendid garden nearing the end of it’s productivity at the end of October and generally pleasant surroundings. I asked about a good place to eat in town and was told by Anastasia’s son that she would cook dinner for me – all Abruzzo specialties. It was a great dinner (friend cheese anyone – it was terrific) including 3 or 4 courses, wine, water and some grappa. The cost 20 euros I could have probably paid 15 but she was so nice and gave me an extra grappa. The wifi was not working for me so they ran an extension internet cable from their house above to the terrace so that I could have internet access. They were terrific hosts in general. I’d definitely recommend the place if you need a place to stay in Abruzzo so you can find more about it by clicking here.

The breakfast was stunning and they gave me a bottle of Tonino’s wine, hand decorated before my eyes by Anastasia. A don’t think that the town has much to offer but it’s not far from the coast where I was able to see a very unique setup for fishing called a trabucco. I had seen pictures of these strange rigs that use a series of ropes and pulleys to lift nets out of the sea. I guess it  may be efficient but seems like a rube goldberg apparatus. They are certainly interesting and you can find out more about them by clicking here.

The next morning I continued on to Cattolica. The BnB was not very memorable but it was close to a pretty good restaurant that was clearly a favorite with locals, always a good sign. Cattolica, like almost every town on the coast is no doubt overrun with beach goers in the summer but also has a substantial fishing fleet but in my limited walks around town I found it largely forgettable.

Finally, the next day I was back in Bologna. I returned the car and added up the costs. I had the car for 15 days for a mere 200 euros, the gas and autostrada tolls added up to about 350 euros for the almost 2000 miles that I drove. My little Fiat Punto averaged about 35 miles per gallon which was a good thing  considering the price of gas and I found it worked quite well for me. A tip: I used Kayak to search for a car and wound up at Firefly. This is clearly a low cost subsidiary of Hertz that rents cars that are, well, aged. Mine had almost 100,000 km on the odometer when I picked it up but was as good as new as far as I could see. We whine and complain about $4 a gallon gasoline. Try $9 a gallon in Italy! I stayed at Cesarina’s place for two nights, had a chance to see Vittorio at the pub and Claudia for dinner before leaving on an 8:30 AM flight. It seemed like a journey to a distant planet.