Day 30 - Getting To Bari

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 1

In spite of the late night, I still woke up early this morning.  My landlord is on holiday in Sicily, so isn't around to collect the keys from me. However, he asked his cleaning lady to come around at 8:30am to do this in his stead.  She will pick up the keys and return my damage deposit.  I wanted to be sure I was up, washed and fed before she came.  Which, of course, meant I was ready with a good 20-30 minutes to spare.  Oh well, I can sleep on the train.

I had planned to buy myself a panino and pastry from a shop on my way to the station.  I had picked out a likely place a while back.  However, when I got there this morning I found that they don't open until 11am on a Sunday.  I ended up getting my panino from a horrible tourist trap selling mortadella opposite the station.  I got a panino with mortadella, parmigiano reggiano, rocket and a balsamic dressing.  A very fitting final Bolognese meal. It was delicious, if somewhat over-priced.

I got to the railway station in plenty of time as the Frecciarossa trains leave from a set of platforms four floors down.  Bologna Centrale is a horrible maze of a railway station and I wanted to allow time for
getting lost.  I got lost getting out when I arrived on the Frecciarossa from Milan.  However, the departure board swore my train was leaving from one of the regular platforms at ground level.  I was very nervous as I was worried it would switch to one of the underground platforms at the last minute and I would have to speedily navigate the maze while lugging my suitcase.  However, it wasn't lying and I had no trouble getting on my train.

That the was the last of the good news about the train.  I had planned to sleep on the train but there were a group of senior citizens behind me who were on a group tour.  There was at least 8 of them as the seats were groups of 4 around a table on each side of the aisle.  The Did Not Stop Talking the whole time.  They didn't even provide me with good Italian practice as there were are least 2 or 3 conversations going on at once.  One conversation that was repeated at every stop was easy to follow at least.  It went something like: 

• Dove siamo?  (where are we?)
• Poggia
• Eh?
• Poggia
• Eh?
• POGGIA!
• Ah

I made it to Bari on time and used Google to direct me to my B&B - the B&B Murex.  I must remember not to rely on Google again.  It sent me down a street which is famous for having women sitting in the doorways of their houses making pasta.  This street is lined with stalls selling their pasta and hoards of tourist taking photos and blocking the way.  I found a sharp "Permesso" and even sharper elbows were needed to get through.  My B&B is at the end of this street and up a lethally steep flight of slippery marble stairs.  The host offered to take my bag for me.  I let him.  And I don't care if that means giving up my feminist credentials as those stairs are not safe.

After checking in I went to see the Castello Svevo di Bari.  It won't be open tomorrow.  In addition to being a Norman castle, which is interesting in its own right, it also houses a museum about the history of Puglia from the Bronze Age through to the conquest by Rome.  They don't have a lot of items but what they do have is beautifully presented.   The absolute best part, which was just mind blowing, was a display they had in what was the main hall of the castle.  They had projectors set up so that it looked as if there were large windows/arches along each wall and at each end.  In addition, there were 3 areas in the floor.  The scene in each one ran for about 1 or 2 minutes and the whole sequence took about 15 minutes.  Each scene showed life before the Romans came.

One video might be people having a meal, or a woman with a baby, or just chickens and horses wandering around.  Here one of the floor scenes is showing a meal, while the wall one is of a man pretending to be an archer.

 

There were speakers too so you got matching sound (waves, wind, sounds of fighting).  Sometimes the images in the floor were just their own thing, but sometimes they showed shadows from the videos on the end walls, as if they were windows.  

In this short video, the two men painted on the vase came around from the back of the vase and wrestled.

This one was a man trying to push over a tree.  I have no idea why.

The sequence ended with the Romans coming and fighting with the locals, before it looped around to the start again.  Some of it was just plain odd, but all of it was just fabulous.  

After the museum I went to the Gelateria Gentile.   I had tried to go before the museum but the line was ridiculously long.  When I came out, I was lucky enough to get there during a brief lull, so the line was just long.  There were only 15 people in front of me.   Their gelati was good but I bet I can find other places in Bari where it is just as good and I don't have to wait for so long.

I then went to check out a pizzeria my host here recommended.  It is in a piazza nearby.  However, there was a woman having a complete meltdown in the piazza.  She was shrieking abuse at someone in a flat above the pizzeria.  She was literally hopping mad.  I have never seen anyone actually do that.  I beat a hasty retreat, although she was drawing quite a crowd.  I don't know what her problem was.  Whoever she was shouting at never bothered to reply.

I ambled around the old city of Bari, checking out other options for dinner.  The host here had recommended two restaurants as well, but one didn't open until 7:45pm and the other not until 8pm.  I was too tired and hungry to wait that long.  I finally ended up at Mediterranea Pizzeria.  The location was poor, as it is on the very edge of the old city and has views over a car park.  I had an Emilian pizza - one with prosciutto and parmesan.  I say parmesan deliberately as I'm sure both ingredients came from the supermarket and were not the "true" ingredients.  However, by this time I was so tired I was struggling to speak coherently in English, never mind Italian.  The pizza was just decent, but I've had worse.  The main thing it was cheap, came quickly and was filling.  

I'll make sure I eat better tomorrow.

 

Day 29 - Last Day in Bologna

# Campari & Soda: 1, # Gelati: 2

I woke up late and had a leisurely breakfast. No classes to go to and no excursions planned.  I've enjoyed my time at Academya Lingua but 4 weeks was enough.  An intensive course is hard work and it would start to get to be a chore if I'd stayed longer.

Late morning I finally managed to get myself out of doors.  On my way out I saw a woman leaving ahead of me.  There is a button to open the gates between the rear and front parts of my apartment complex!  You don't need to use a key after all.  I can leave tomorrow without notes or stress. The button is high up on the wall, at the bottom of the stairs to the left of the gate, which is why I didn't spot it earlier.

My outing for the morning was a visit to the Chiesa di Santo Stefano which is in the piazza at the end of the street with the school.  It isn't actually one church, it is seven.  The original one was built in the 4th century.  Over time the Bolognese decided the original church was too small/plain and added additonal churches, rather than rebuilding the existing one (except in one case).  They are all joined together in to a single complex.  I do not get the Bolognese fascination with churches.  I don't believe I've seen so many large churches in so relatively small a city before.

After my last dose of culture, I went to the bar opposite the school for a farewell coffee and pistachio croissant (my standard pastry).  Sadly, they had sold out of the croissants (called cornetti here - which makes me think of ice cream).  I had to settle for a different pastry that was made with flaky pastry and filled with a paste of ground nuts (walnuts?) and apple. It was actually nicer than the croissant.

I was meeting Kim for a farewell dinner in the evening so I decided that would (have to) do for lunch.  I went back to the apartment to tidy up and convince all my belongings that they really could fit into my suitcase.  I succeeded but it took more persuasion that I had anticipated.  I will either have to by small, light souvenirs from here or else a new suitcase.  The wheels on this one squeak so perhaps the latter.

Late afternoon I headed out for an amble (aka passieggiata) around the city for one last time and had a farewell gelati.  I got to the Piazza Maggiore just in time to see the busker-gymnasts packing up.  I was annoyed as I'd planned to make a video.  They were so skillful.

I then headed to a bar and had a farewell Campari & soda before meeting up with Kim.  We had dinner at the Trattoria Buca di San Francesco.  We had the full four courses and shared a bottle of wine.  It was an excellent meal - good food, good wine and good company.  The most entertaining part of the night was that the waiter took a shine to Kim.  He flirted outrageously with her.  At one point, just flat out asking her for her phone number.  Kim was oblivous.  She just thought he was being generically friendly!

After dinner we ambled around a bit more as the night was mild and the  crowds were out in force.  We had another, for me, farewell gelati.  Just another gelati for Kim as she stays in Bologna for another week.  Finally we parted with hugs and (genuine) promises to keep in touch.

Day 28 - Last Day of Class

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 0

Today was the last day of class but our teacher, Arianna, didn't take it easy on us.  I guess that makes sense as not everyone was finishing up today.  In fact, most of the class are continuing on for several more weeks at least.  Today we did combined pronouns.  That is when you combine an indirect and direct object pronoun.  Sometimes these are kept as separate words, sometimes they are smooshed together, sometimes they are put in front of the verb, sometimes they are smooshed onto the end of the verb.  I really struggled with this lesson.  In many cases it didn't even seem to me that two pronouns were needed.  Italian puts in extra ones (by the standards of English) for emphasis.  "Me I ate an entire pizza" is a gramatically correct Italian sentence if you want to emphasis how much you ate.  I started off getting 30% of the exercises correct and ended up getting a whopping 50% correct.  A passing grade I suppose.

In the conversation session we had to role play a different scenario.  I was grouped with Susanna (again) and with Ken (the uptight American).  Susanna and I were disgruntled guests in a hotel and Ken was the hotel owner.  When he isn't trying to learn grammar, it turns out that Ken has a great sense of humour.  We would make a complaint and he would just blow it off, claiming it was the Italian way.  I complained that the thermostat in the airconditioning was broken so my room was too cold but when I opened the window, mosquitos came in.  Ken insisted that in Italy mosquito bites are good for your health.  At the end Susanna said she would take her complaints to the carabinieri.  Ken said the head of the carabinieri was his brother-in-law.  It was all very silly but a lot of fun.  The other groups had all picked the same scenario but had taken it seriously.  I think their Italian was more grammatically correct and elaborate than ours, but we were more entertaining.

Kim and I had a light lunch at the Agricola e Vitale Osteria.  We sat at a table in the piazza as the weather is (still) very pleasant.  We also had a very pleasant waiter.  He was friendly and chatty and keen to provide advice to tourists.  He was also easy on the eye.  Kim and I argued about which of us would get to take him home as a souvenir.  As middle-aged women we feel we have the right to make inappropriate remarks about attractive young men.  The young (English) women at the table next to us seemed to disagree as we got the evil eye from one of them.  Kim is American so she doesn't speak quietly.

After lunch I just went back to my apartment to start organising all my belongings as I leave on Sunday.  I just realised that in my apartment complex there is a locked gate separating the block I'm in (at the back) from the front half of the complex.  My landlord is on holiday in Sicily and won't be meeting me to pick up the keys,  I'm just to leave them in the apartment and pull the door shut behind me.  There is a logical flaw in this arrangement.  My plan is to go down with my suitcase, unlock the gate and prop it open with the suitcase.  I have a note, which I will leave with my case, that says in my best Italian saying "Please don't close the gate.  I'll be back in a moment." and the same in English.  I'll then run back to the apartment, get my backpack and leave the keys.  Hopefully, no-one will close the gate in the 30-60 seconds while I'm gone. I'm leaving at about 8:30am on a Sunday morning so I should be fine.  Worst case I have to start waking up people in the apartments in my building until I find someone to unlock the gate for me.  

Jackie, from my class, had arranged a farewell dinner at the Agritourismo Granoantico which is in the hills outside Bologna.  She wanted to have dinner with a view.  There were 5 of us going in the end.  We met at a taxi stand not far from my apartment at 7pm.  When I arrived, a little before 7pm, there were 4 taxis there.  By the time we had all got there, just after 7pm, all the taxis had left.  We waited a little longer and then Celina (who speaks the best Italian of all of us) called for a taxi.  We needed two as they only take 4 passengers max each.  One arrived promptly and Jackie, Celina and her husband, Rudy, hopped in.  The driver swore another taxi would be along in a moment for Susanna and me.  You can guess what happened next.

We waited.  And waited.  And waited.  No taxi.  At 7:30pm I called again (my Italian is better than Susanna's).  The line was busy but eventually I got through to the operator, only to be told there were no taxis available in the city centre.  It was a Friday night after all.  I then asked the waiter at a nearby restaurant for help.  He called two other taxi companies but got the same story.  I then remembered someone telling me that I could use Uber anywhere they operated.  After installing the app on my Italin phone and resetting the password (which I had forgotten of course) we finally had transport.  It had to be one of the fancy cars (Uber Black) as that was all that was available, but we were on the move.  Susanna and I finally arrived at the restaurant at 8:15pm.   However, this is considered a civilised time to eat by Italian standards so the others were still just having aperitivos and admiring the view.

 

 

It was a pleasant enough view, but it looks out over the hills, not back towards Bologna.  Once the sun has set there is nothing to see, so we went inside and had dinner.  The dinner was nice enough but nothing special.  I've had better here in the city centre.  Still the company was good fun and journey was an adventure.

To return to Bologna, the staff at the restaurant called us a people mover from a car service so we could all go in the same vehicle.  I was very pleased as I didn't want to waste time standing around calling for taxis or Ubers late at night.  We got back to Bologna after 11pm and were dropped at the taxi rank for a round of fond goodbyes and (false) promises to keep in touch.  I had wondered what it would be like walking back to my apartment at that time of night but there were lots of people around.  The evening was mild and every bar and cafe had people spilling out onto the street.  The piazza near my house had more people in it that I have ever seen in the daytime. 

 

An entertaining day but a long one.

 

Day 27 - San MIchele in Bosco

# Campari & Soda: 1, # Gelati: 0

Today was another lovely day, weatherwise at least.  In class we went over our homework on prepositions.  Then our teacher, Arianna, emailed us copies of a book just on Italian prepositions.  It is a 110 pages long.  Because our brains weren't completely fried by then, we moved onto pronouns.  We were given an article to read.  We had to identify all the pronouns in the text and what type each was - subject, direct object, stressed direct object, indirect object, reflexive, possessive, relative, indefinite, demonstrative or,  finally, combined.  After all this, we only got to have coffee in our break!

After the break, in our conversation class, we were organised into groups of three.  We were given a situation and we had to role play.  I was with Suzanna and Paolo.  We had to pretend we were tourists to Italy and wanted to buy souvenirs.  So not much of a stretch.  Suzanna is my age but Paolo is 78 (although I would have guessed early 60s).  Anyway, Suzanna pretended she was looking to buy something for a female friend.  She had found a scarf, some drinking glasses, some bowls and a small statue of Neptune.  There is a famous fountain here with a very large, very naked figure of Neptune in it.  That statue is on lots of souvenirs.  Paolo (pretended?) to be horrified that she would give someone a gift of a naked man.  I told her she should buy a bigger one.  Suzanna, and Donatella our teacher, fell about laughing and agreed with me.

For lunch Kim and I went to the Osteria Buca delle Campane.  This trattoria again had some tables in a (very pretty this time) courtyard but the bulk of the restaurant was actually downstairs in the cellar.  Apparently, in the evenings it attracts the university student crowd as they have a DJ and sometimes live music.  For lunch it was very pleasant and much more our scene.

After lunch we went a school excursion to San Michele in Bosco.  This is an old monastery just outside the city centre, surrounded by woods.  It was perhaps a 30 minute walk there from the centre.  The church is still a church but the monastery has been converted into an orthopaedic hospital.  If I had to have orthopaedic surgery I would want it done there.  The views from your hospital bed as you were recuperating would be fabulous.  The views from the courtyard were lovely.  The ancient monastery has a very, very long (500 feet) corridor (now part of the hospital) with a very odd optical illusion.  When you are right at the window overlooking Bologna, the Asinelli Tower looks small and far away.  However, when you are at the far end it looks much bigger and much closer.  Almost close enough to touch.  I don't know how they did it.

View of the tower from the window.

 View of the tower from the far end of the corridor.

 

As we were leaving a group of tourists road up on vespas.  They were part of a tour group immaginatively called La Bella Italia in Vespa.  It looked like a fun way to travel, but there must have been at least 40 people in the group which was just too many.

When then walked back into the city centre and settled in for an aperitivo and some people watching.  By 7pm we started to get chilled and finally had to admit it was time to call it a day.  We all headed our separate ways to have dinner and do homework - for the last time!

Day 26 - Spring Is Here Finally

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 1

Finally had a pleasant day.  It was warm and sunny with a very civilized top of 23C.  During our coffee break I snuck off to a different bar to the usual one with two classmates, Jackie & Suzanne.  The bar we went to has outside tables and table service.  We went upmarket.  Instead of coffee only costing 1,20€ we paid closer to 3€ but it was worth it.  Living the high life.

In class today we finally abandoned studying the congiutive but have moved onto a review of prepositions, which are worse.  Those are all those little words like: in, to, from, by and such like.  We've been warned that there is no logic to the rules, you just have to memorise them.  This was more of a warning to Ken, who gets very cross when things aren't logical.  In Italian, when you say you are going to a place you use "a" for places such as a shop or a city, but "in" for regions or countries.  No reason why, you just do.  I'm not sure if Ken is going to be able to cope.

After class I had to go to a WindTre mobile phone shop front.  I have a SIM card from them which was a special deal for tourists.  I have 70GB of data, unlimited local calls and 300 minutes of international calls a month.  However, you can't recharge your account with a non-Italian credit card from their app or their website.  I'm not sure they've thought this through.

For lunch I went to the Osteria delle Donzelle.  It is down a side street and had a few tables outside in what, frankly, looked like the parking lot behind the surrounding buildings.  I thought they would have more tables inside but was only partially correct.  It turns out the main restaurant is actually downstairs in the cellars of one of the buildings.  They've also crammed a couple of tables on the landing at the top of the stairs, as well as a good 20 or more downstairs in various rooms in the cellar.  I felt for the poor waitress.  Never mind having that many tables to manage, but also the stairs!

The waitress was the first person I've met here in Bologna that didn't (or wouldn't) speak any English.  We managed to comunicate but she was not very efficient or perhaps just frazzled by the workload (and the stairs!).  I had an entree of a plate of salamis and various cheese.  (They have a cheese here, which is on all the cheese platters, squacquerone, which is like cottage cheese only with less flavour.  I wish they didn't.)  Anyway, she brought me my entree but no cutlery.  Once that what sorted, she almost immediately brought me my pasta.  I ate the pasta first, before it got cold, then my entree.  

I had the lunch menu which included coffee but I skipped that.  I've been having trouble sleeping.  I sleep long enough but never feel fully rested except last Monday night.  I had thought it might be all the wine I'm drinking but I've had a few alcohol-free days and they didn't help.  However, last Monday I didn't have an after-lunch coffee.  It has dawned on me that perhaps I'm drinking too much coffee or just perhaps I shouldn't drink coffee after midday.  It is a good thing I have a PhD.  Without all that education I might not have been able to reach such a profound conclusion.

After lunch I just ambled about some more as it was such a pleasant day to be out in the sun.  There is a ridiculous amount of churches here.  Huge ones, that look more like cathedrals that just the local parish church, although that is all they are.  Some look as if they haven't been maintained for years and are falling down, but still have the hours when mass is said listed on their doors.  Others just never got finished. This particular church was built in the 1450s but they clearly ran out of money and never bothered finishing the facade.  They haven't even bothered to finish it all around the doorway in the last 500 odd years.

Day 25 - Rest Day

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 1

I woke up this morning feeling much better.  All the same I decided to take it easy instead of visiting another city or going for a hike.  Since I've been here I've been walking at least 5km each day, often more, so I think it is best if I give myself a rest.  The weather was cool, overcast and often drizzly so that didn't tempt me out of doors much either.

After a leisurely lie-in and a leisurely breakfast I finally decided to go outside.  I had thought of heading to a park and just sitting in the sun and reading a book.  However, the lack of sun put paid to that idea.  Instead, I rambled about parts of the city I hadn't visited yet.  There is a lot of grafitti around.  Most of it just ugly tagging and scribbles but some of it is just amazing.

Bologna is a fabulous city.  I stayed within the ancient city walls, so right in the middle of the historic centre, but it is clearly a place where people live.  There are greengrocers, butchers, hairdressers and laundromats.  Many of the cafes are clearly filled with locals - either students or little old men.  It hasn't become a theme park for tourists like Venice.

After ambling about for a bit I stopped at the Pizzeria Trattoria La Mela for lunch.  They have 4 separate sections on their menu - one for food from the Amalfi coast, one for Bolognese food, one for pizza and one for vegetarians.  It was good of them to cater specifically for vegetarians but they are a bit unclear on the concept.  One of the "vegetarian" salads had tuna in it.  Marks for trying though.  The staff were all friendly and welcoming and let me practice my Italian.  I had a pizza and a glass of wine before tottering back home.  A "glass" here is the equivalent of two glasses back home, hence the tottering.

On the way back to my apartment I came across this group of buskers.   The guitarist is the leader and is from Morocco apparently but the music sounded more Caribbean to my ears. In any case, they were very good.  The best part was the man in red wasn't part of the band!  He just wandered over and joined in.  He was an excellent musician too so they let him play along for a couple of songs.

 

I'm now back at the apartment trying to work up the enthusiam to do some Italian homework.  I've finally figured out how to get subtitles to work on the free-to-air TV but I can only get Italian ones for the hearing impaired.  However, if I stick to trashy cop shows or action movies I can still follow the plot.

Day 24 - Start of The Last Week of School

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 0

I woke up this morning feeling a bit blah.  Not actually sick (yet) but with the scratchy throat and stinging eyes that suggest a cold is on its way.  One of the pharmacies near me sells COVID tests in a 24 hour vending machine outside the shop.  I guess I should get one and check.  In any case, I'm not doing either hike tomorrow or visiting any other city.  I'll just putter about my apartment or stick to wandering around outdoors.

This week is the last week of classes.  We are still working on when and how to use the congiuntivo tense.  One other person in the class got very cross when the explanation for why you use this tense in one particular case is "because you do."  As if English spelling and grammar followed consistent rules, without any exceptions.

In our "conversation" class the teacher handed out those free magazines that real estate agents put out with listings of houses & apartments for sale.  We each had to pick which one we would buy (assuming money was no object) and explain why to the rest of the class.  Most of us (including me of course) picked apartments in the historic centre with a view although one person wanted a house with a garden.  The apartment I'm staying is up for sale but so far no-one has been to see it.  This exercise made me realise why.  He is asking 330,000€ for it, which to my Melbourne-tuned eyes seemed not excessive, but actually is way too much.  The magazine had similar apartments in similar locations for closer to 200,000€.  Even allowing for real estate agent exaggerations, his asking price is optimistic.

Bologna is heaving with tourists right now.  I think a lot of people are taking Monday off so they can have a 4 day holiday as tomorrow is Liberation Day.  There is going to be a massive parade.  I've been told the street the parade goes down gets so crowded you can barely move.  I think I will happily miss that event.

One consequence of the tourist influx is that the queues of people at some sites have gotten just ridiculous.  Bologna has quite a large network of canals but almost all of them are covered over these days.  However, there are two that are still visible in parts.  Recently, for one of them a window has been cut into a wall so you can peer through a see the canal as it passes behind two rows of houses.  Here is the queue of people waiting to see

this view

 while completely ignoring the view from the bridge on the other side of the street.

I took my photo of the view through the little window late one evening after the day trippers had left, but the other two were taken at the same time.

People are strange.  Two people in my class had gone to Venice on day trips last weekend.  Both hadn't enjoyed themselves as the city was just too crowded and you could only see other people and not the sites.  I made the right choice to visit Parma instead.

 

Day 24 - Parma

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 1

Today was a Sunday so I took a day trip to Parma.  I had wanted to visit the Museum of Pasta, the Museum of Parmigiano Reggiano and the Museum of Prosciutto but they are all in villages outside Parma itself.  Instead, I settled on the Casa della Musica, the Museo Glauco Lombardi and the Teatro Farnese.

I slept in and then sauntered off to the railway station.  I got there 7 minutes before a train was due to leave, which should have been plenty of time.  However, the Trenitalia app, which will normally sell you a ticket virtually instantaneously, decided today to be super slow.  I ended up having to run for the train while still seeing a spinning wheel on the payment page.  I sat in the train, clutching my phone, worried that the payment would fail.  If it did, I wasn't sure if I could re-do the purchase as I would be trying to buy a ticket for a train that had already departed.  I wasn't looking forward to another massive fine if I was found on a train without a valid ticket.  However, the payment did eventually go through and the ticket inspector never showed up anyway!

First stop was the Casa della Muscia, aka the House of Sound.  It is a museum devoted to the development of radio (heavily featuring Marconi) and also records/discs.  Marconi was actually Sicilian but spent a lot of his life in Parma.  They had a room where there were speakers all around so when they played a piece of music it sounded like you were in the middle of the orchestra.  They also had this massive cone of speakers which were playing sounds like rain on a tin roof or wind in trees.  Depending on where you sat underneath the cone, you heard different sounds.  I like small museums on specific topics.  They are often more interesting that the bigger museums.

Next it was time for lunch.  As it was a lovely day (25C) the place was full of tourists.  After getting turned away from several places I settled on the Ristorante La Filoma.  The dining areas of this restaurant are in two rooms on the ground floor of a palazzo.  They don't have any tables outside and the door into the restaurant itself is off a hallway into the palazzo rather than on the street.  It isn't obvious it open or even there.  When I arrived at 12:30pm I was the only diner there.  

I was given a table in the back room and for a menu I was given a scruffy piece of paper with a QR code on it.  The place started to fill up around 1pm, but with people who'd booked in the front room and random people off the street in the back with me.  The service was fine at the start, but started to fall apart when the number of diners increased.  Two couples were seated in the room with me.  The couple that came in 2nd were given printed menus immediately.  The 1st couple had to wait 10 minutes before they were given anything.  They also asked for an extra 2 minutes to make up their minds to order, which was a mistake as they were given 15.  The best was when an little, old man in scruffy jeans wandered into the room.  I thought he was a beggar from off the street but he was the sommelier!

I started with a platter of proscuitto and parmigiano reggiano (of course) with a small salad (insalatina) of mixed greens and sliced apple.  Whoever sliced the apple forgot to take the sticker off first.  They were very apologetic.  I was amused.  For main I had a plate of Antica Pasta della Filoma which was a pasta made from four different ancient grains.  I was pleased I had it as it was an interesting change from tagliatelle di ragu, but I wouldn't have it again.  I had planned on dessert but I wasn't sure how long that would take (they were full by this point and service was becoming somewhat free-form) so I just had coffee and got gelati for dessert elsewhere.  

After lunch and a restorative gelati (they place I went to didn't have pistachio!) I headed for the Museo Glauco Lombardo.  Maria Luisa Hapsburgh, who was the 2nd wife of Napolean Bonaparte, was made Duchess of Parma after he was exiled to St Elba.  Apparently she was a very popular ruler.  Among many other things, the museum had some of her dresses.  She was taller than Napolean (but only about my height) but had the tiniest waist - even allowing for the fact she would have been wearing a corset.

After this musuem I had planned to visit the Teatro Farnese as it is fabulous and apparently looks like this.

However, the was a long queue at the ticket office so I wandered around the Ducal Park for a bit and  just sat in the sun and relaxed.  Unfortunately, when I wandered back to the ticket office the queue was now out the door and around the block.  By this time it was getting on for 5pm and I decided I was museum-ed out.

I headed off to the railway station and amused myself by attempting to understand the announcements while I waited for my train back to Bologna.  All the trains originating in Milan had been delayed for some reason so there were a lot of announcements about how train X was N minutes late and how train Y was now leaving from platform B rather than A.  Plus, all the usual "don't leave bags unattended", "stay behind the yellow line" and "let other people off first".  These were obvious enough but all the others gave me plenty of practice at understanding numbers in Italian.

Tuesday 25th here is a public holiday too - Liberation Day - to celebrate the liberation of Italy from the Fascists.  I'm trying to decide what to do.  Options are visits to either Padova or Verona (although I have zero interest in seeing Juliet's balcony) or going for a hike in the hills around Bologna.  I've downloaded GPS tracks for two hikes - one of 12km and the other of 24km.  The 12km one starts by heading up to the Sanctuary of San Luca which I've already done, however it is a more practical distance.  Must ponder.

Day 23 - Markets x 3

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 1

My first completely alcohol free day since the start of this holiday.  I think my liver appreciated it.

I spent the first part of my morning on admin.  I've booked a flight from Brindisi in Pulgia to Palermo, via Rome on the re-branded Alitalia.  I'd paid extra to select seats but for some reason my seat selection only "took" on the first leg.  I had to ring them up to fix it.  I carefully practiced how to say "I don't speak Italian very well.  Can I please talk to an English speaking agent." before I called.  When I called, I was greated with a recorded message, in Italian of course, saying what I pretty sure was the standard "Our call volumes are higher than normal but we'll get to you as soon as possible" and then it went into options.  You know, pick 1 for something completely unintelligible, 2 for something equally bewildering and so on.  I hadn't allowed for what to do if I couldn't actually speak to a person.  Fortunately, some digging uncovered another number for non-locals to call.  In theory it has now all be sorted.  I guess I will find out.

My second bit of housekeeping was finding somewhere to store my suitcase in Bari.  I'm only staying there one night before catching an afternoon bus to Matera, which is the first stop on my Puglia hike.  However, that one day is 1 May which is the Labour Day holiday here in Italy.  My B&B doesn't let you store luggage after checking out.  I had used a service called Bounce to mind my bag when I arrived here in Bologna.  They are a middle man who put travellers in touch which shops, restaurants and hotels who want to earn a little money on the side storing bags.  I booked a luggage spot in Bari that was a hotel.  I figured they would still be operating even on a public holiday.  They took my money but 24 hours later cancelled and refunded me.  The only other Bounce locations were shops, which are even less likely to be open.  I started thinking my day in Bari was going to be ruined.  How could I go sightseeing lugging a suitcase behind me?  Then it dawned on me I could just look for a different luggage storage company.  I can't even blame a lack of caffeine for the amount of time it took me to think of this.  I found Stow Your Bags which just have banks of lockers.  You pay the fee and they send you a code, so they operate year round.   My day in Bari is saved.

After this I decided not to push my admin skills any further and headed out to meet Kim.  We wandered around the flea market but managed to talk each other out of buying things we didn't need.  We then went to the park where, last week, the perimeter had been wall to wall food trucks.  However, today there was only a fairly sad half dozen or so.  We settled on a snack from the Sicilian truck - cassata and something called Iris which was a deep-fried piece of brioche filled with pastry cream.  Some Googling (there is an Italian verb Googlare) told us there was a Finger Food Festival going on just outside the historic centre, so we headed off in that direction.  We found the rest of the food trucks there and had a pleasant time checking them all out.  We ate something from a Puglia truck (bombette) and dithered about getting hamburgers made with horse meat from another Sicilian truck.  However, they were playing a recording of a truly awful cover band and we couldn't stand it any more so we left. 

We were close to the part of Bologna where Kim is staying and she knew of another market with a great gelati stand so we headed there.  However, we got there just before 2pm and most stalls we shut, including the gelati one.  It was siesta time.  The gelati place was supposed to open at 2pm so we hung around.  At 2:15pm a young woman and her boyfriend/brother (?) showed up to open up and put out tables & chairs.  At 2:30pm they were ready to serve customers.  Well, she was.  His job seemed to be to loiter around.  Kim asked for a sundae but the young woman said she'd never made on in her life and didn't know how to do it. Kim then asked for a cone with her two chosen flavours but they didn't have them.  We both ended up having pistachio and sour cherry gelati.  The gelati was delicious but the whole experience was so Italian.

After dessert we went our separate ways.  Kim back to her place to study and do laundry, while I headed to the Historical Museum of Bologna.  In addition to the regular sort of museum exhibits they have this virtual reality experience that you can also do.  You sit on a swivel chair with a headset with goggles and headphones.  In you hands you have two joysticks - one to move you around and another to highlight objects and select them to get a bit of canned commentary.  I greated the woman in charge and got all set up, entirely in Italian.  It wasn't until I asked for the English commentary that she realised I wasn't an Italian speaker.  It made me feel much better after my morning experience with the airline.  The VR tour of medieval Bologna was absolutely amazing.  You could walk around the streets and go in and out of buildings.  You also got to fly around above the city, swooping up to the tops of towers and then down again.  Fascinating, but not for those with a weak stomach.

After this I headed back to my place to do laundry and study too.  The thrills of life in Bologna.  On the way home, I stopped at a local supermarket to buy a big tub of minestrone, some cheese & salami and bread for dinner.  My hiking pants, that used to be a little too big and needed a belt to hold them up, are now a little too small and, frankly, uncomfortably tight.  I need to exercise more.  The alternative, each less pasta, pizza & gelati, is just not a practical option.

Day 22 - Three Weeks Done

# Campari & Soda: 1, # Gelati: 0

I've completed three weeks of class now and I realise I've learnt a lot.  I've also realised that where my knowledge is lacking is in 1) vocabulary (mine is very limited); and 2) idioms.  Italian is a very metaphorical language and also its idioms use a lot of pronouns and prepositions and other. generally little sneaky words.  I learnt today that the phrase "it was close" in a sentence like "I didn't miss the bus but it was close" isn't translated as "it", "was" then "close" but "there I came near".  That is a simple example.  Most idioms are more obscure.

Also, they never use three sentences when they can cram it all into one.  Plus, they will sometimes move the subject of a sentence to the end for emphasis.  So instead of "I throw the ball" it can be "the ball throw I", preferably as the final clause in a sentence where you've described how you came to be throwing things in at least two other clauses.  I've given up trying to read books and I'm now reading a comic/anime given to me by Vanessa about a hero called Dylan Dog.  It has lots of slang and idioms but at least I have the pictures to help figure out what is going on.  This is the one I'm reading. 

 

This afternoon's excursion was to a museum of musical instruments, but this one focused on pianos and harpsicords, with a few dulcimers and spinets too.  There was a man there repairing a harpiscord by restringing it.  We were talking to him in bad Italian, but got scolded by one of the museum attendants for bothering a craftsman at work.  He didn't seem to mind.  In fact, he seemed to be pleased by our interest.  The best part of our visit was a tour that was given to more important museum visitors.  To please them one of the attendants played one of the harpsicords and then one of the pianos so you could hear the difference between the two types of instruments.

Our group then went to have an aperitivo as it was a mild evening.  We felt very Italian.  After this I had dinner with Kim.  We managed to stumble across the Roman restaurant Da Fortunata and ate there again.  I had tagliolini with cacio e pepe in honour of my teacher Adrianna.  It is her birthday today and that is her favourite dish.   Apparently, her boyfriend is making it for her for dinner tonight (she is a bad cook).  I can't say I'm a fan of it.  Too rich for my taste.

Adrianna has two indoor cats and she told us a funny story about them today.  Marijuana is legal(-ish) in Bologna.  You can have 2 plants (or some small number) for you own personal use.  There are also several shops that sell it, minus the THC (the bit that gets you high).  Adrianna lives on the 3rd floor and her balcony is enclosed.  The bottom half is glass while the top is mesh so the cats can sun themselves without getting out.  Her downstairs neighbour smokes a lot of marijuana (the fully leaded sort).  One day, because of oddities in the air currents, her balcony was full of pot smoke and she had left her two cats out there.  They were completely stoned.  They couldn't walk in a straight line but were very mellow.  I wanted to ask if they had the munchies too, but I just didn't know how to say it in Italian.

Day 21 - Fine Weather Was Too Good To Last

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 0

The weather today started off pleasantly enough, but by mid-afternoon the rain had set in.  At least the temperatures are still mild.

Class today was not too bad.  The number of students is back up to 8.  Several who weren't there yesterday, showed up again today plus we had someone (Jackie) who had switched into our class.  Poor woman, as we spent a good 30 miinutes discussing the homework which, of course, she hadn't seen before.  The rest of the grammar session was spent on new material - when to use the different forms of the congiuntivo.  There are four options - principal phrase and secondary both in the present, both in the past, principal in the present and secondary in the past, or principal in the past and secondary even earlier.  Not hard to remember.  Just don't ask me to remember how to conjugate the various verbs in each tense but at least I know which one to look up. 

The "conversation" session (which has remarkable little conversation in it) got derailed on a discussion about Starbucks in Italy, sustainable tourism and the evils of multination corporations.  Our teacher's politics are decidedly left of centre, but not extremely so by Australian standards.  However, you could see some of the American students getting very uncomfortable.

I had lunch with Kim at the place where I had dinner last night as they had artichokes on the menu and Kim is very fond of them.  They seem to be more of a Roman speciality as not many restaurants here have them on the menu, although they are in season and I see them on all the greengrocer's stalls.  After lunch Kim headed off to her private conversation lession while I headed back to the apartment to do my homework somewhere warm and dry.  The homework was 50 sentences where we had to conjugate the given verb in the correct version of the congiuntivo.  I will find out tomorrow if my smugness in my understanding of this tense if justified.  I suspect not.

For dinner I took advantage of all the porticos in Bologna and just ducked out to La Rustica which is just down the road from me.  I had a very pleasant plate of pasta and glass of wine.  For the sake of my health I also had a large salad.  Besides tomato it was some of the first vegetables I've eaten all week.

I like this trattoria.  They offer sound advice.

 

Day 20 - Day Trip to Modena

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 1

We finally had proper spring weather today.  Pleasantly sunny with a mild temperature.  It is too good to last though.  Tomorrow the forecast is for rain.  As is the forecast for Friday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of next week.

Class today went better.  We studied the congiuntivo imperfetto, which was not easy.  However, nobody else in class had done it before so we were all equally clueless.  We've been reorganised again.  We are in a new room, 4 people have moved to other classes and we have a new classmate, Susanna.  At least, that is what she is called here.  She is German and I think her name is really Suzanne.  She is a large, cheerful, friendly soul and is a pleasing addition to the class.

Often people's names are converted to something more Italian here.  One Dutch student has been dubbed Beppe.  He has told me his name twice, but it completely failed to register both times.  The first syllable is something that isn't used in English and my brain just doesn't process it.  

In the "conversation" class we listened to our teacher describing why Friday 17th is bad luck in Italy rather than the 13th.  Then we each had to write a brief story about a bad day we'd had (real or invented).  I got one idiom wrong and mixed up the passato prossimo & imperfetto tenses as usual but was able to write half a page without any (other) difficulties.  My Italian is getting better after all.

Today's excursion was an afternoon trip to Modena, which is the home of balsamic vinegar, as well as several vroom, vroom cars.  They have an Enro Ferrari museum there - but we didn't visit it.  Our guide was Diana as usual.  However, in Modena we met up with a friend of hers from university, Simon, who also played guide.  It was a useful experience as he spoke at a more normal pace (when he wasn't being reminded to slow down) and didn't work as hard at keeping his sentences simple.  I still managed to understand him, so that was a pleasing boost to the ego.  We mainly just walked around the town, having the sights pointed out to us, although we did stop for gelati.  We got there too late to do the free balsamic vinegar tastings unfortunately.  On the way back to the station we went through a park and I saw this cutest (big) puppy with his favourite plushy toy.  Of course he moved as soon as I got the camera out.

I've decided against going to Venice on the weekend.  This Saturday is the only pleasant day, besides today, that we'll have all week.  I can see that Venice is going to be horribly crowded.  I'm having trouble working up the enthusiam to spend 3 hours travelling (on crowded trains) to spend more time in crowds.  I'm thinking of spending Saturday here in Bologna visiting several food markets with Kim.  Perhaps on Sunday I might go to Parma.  I had read that they have a Museum of Prosciutto, a Museum of Pasta and, of course, a Museum of Parmigiano Reggiano.  Unfortunately, all three are actually outside the city and you need a car to get to them.  Still, there should be plenty to see and do there within the historic city centre.

Day 19 - Classes Still Hard

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 1

This morning's grammar class was yet more on the use of the gerund, but I think I understand what is going on now.  However, my confidence was shaken when we got to the "conversation" segment.  Here we did a review of the use of two past tenses - the passato prossimo and the imperfetto - and the subtle difference between "I had to" in both tenses.  To do this we had an exercise where we had to pick the right tense for each verb in a short text.  I had done this very exercise in my first week of classes.  I still got some of it wrong.   On the plus side, I made fewer mistakes this time.

I had lunch with Kim at the Trattoria Giampi e Ciccio.  This was the place I'd had lunch at on Easter Sunday.  The same grumpy owner/maitre d' was in charge.  He seemed to decide if they were full or not depending on whether he liked the look of you, not based on how many tables were free.  Fortunately, Kim and I passed inspection and were permitted to eat.  We are trying to decide if we go to Venice on Saturday.  Kim has been recently but it has been a good 15 years since I've visited.  The alternative is to hire a car and visit some small towns in the region.  The only drawback witht this plan is I refuse to drive here in Italy and Kim is another person who has let her driver's licence expire.

After lunch I did some basic home maintenance - grocery shopping and dealing with the rubbish.  Dealing with rubbish is a big deal here as paper, bottles & cans, organic waste, plastic waste, and then everything else are all handled differently.  I think I got it right.  I managed to dispose of the pizza box which was my main concern.

I then was supposed to do some studying.  I try to spend at least 1 hour, preferably 2, each afternoon cramming some more Italian into my head.  However, I got side tracked looking at real estate websites.  Vanessa and I talked about going halves in an apartment in Calabria at the sea side.  She could have a summer holiday there in, say July, while I could have it for all of August.  We weren't entirely sober at the time we came up with this plan but I still think it has merit.  Check out this place.  It is bigger than we need but dirt cheap and just look at the view!

After actually doing some study, I eventually wandered out for some dinner.  There is a street nearby with a good half dozen restaurants.  However, I wasn't as spoilt for choice as that sounds, as many of them specialised in fish and I'm not a fan.  I ended up at the Antica Trattoria Spiga.   For my "main" I had tagliatelle with pumpkin and saffron.  Sadly this was a mistake as the pumpkin made the dish vaguely sweet.  I might go back another time and try something more stricly savory, as my other dishes were good and the waitress was pleasant.

We have to write a brief diary entry of a bad day we've had using the two past tenses correctly for class tomorrow.  Wish me luck.

 

Day 18 - Week 3 of Classes

 # Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 1

Definitely no alcohol today.  I think I need to give my liver a few days off after Saturday's effort.

It was start of a new week of classes today.  Every Monday a new batch of students start so things can be a little disorganised.  My class got shuffled from one room to another and then the single new student in class got shifted to a different class.  I'm not sure what was going on.  Nobody else seemed that sure either.

Class was hard today.  The grammar we studied today built on lessons from 2 weeks ago, which of course I hadn't done.  Our teacher was saying things like - "Remember this is a case of periodo ipotetico dell'irrealtà so of course you use the congiuntivo trapassato with the condizionale present or passato as necessary".  The other students are nodding in agreement whereas I'm just sitting there going "Whaaat?"  

I had a quick lunch at the Taberna del Re Vallot which is a small bar near my apartment.  I just had a plate of fresh tagliatelle with wild boar ragu.  It is more the kind of place to drop in for coffee and cake or an aperitivo, rather than a full 3 course meal.  My meal was just decent, but just decent here in Italy means really quite edible.

After lunch I went back to the apartment, planning to study up on what I'd missed.  I was just puttering around, getting set up when my watch reminded me that I had a (timed) ticket to climb the Torre degli Asinelli in 10 minutes.  I threw on my coat and shoes and ran to the tower.  Fortunately, it is not too far so I got there in just in time ... to climb the 498 stairs to the top.  About 2/3rds of the way up, one of the staff members spoke to me but I didn't understand a word.  I knew I was flustered and my brain was full from class that morning but I thought I should have been able to pick out the odd word at least.  However, it turns out he had spoken to me in Spanish, thinking I was one of the teachers with a group of visiting students.

The view from the top was amazing.  I took lots of pictures, but it is hard to tell which is which now that I look at them. I think this one shows my apartment (about 1/3 of the way from the top of the street on the left) and the school (just behind the white blob on the street on the right).  The perspective is all very odd in this photo.  These three streets actually radiate out from the square with the tower.  I don't understand why they appear to be parallel.

I didn't spend as much time up top as I would have liked as all the school children (teenagers!) were quite obnoxious.  Climbing down was almost harder than going up as the stairs were lethally narrow.  The very bottom few flights of stairs were a spiral but were an anti-clockwise spiral up, which is the wrong way, unless the Asinelli family were all left-handed.  

After getting back to ground level I was forced to have a restorative gelati at the Cremeria Mascarella.  Then it was back to the apartment to study up on the grammar I'd missed so I can (hopefully) understand tomorrow's class.

I spent the rest of the afternoon studying (and perhaps web-surfing just a little).  Early in the evening I just pottered across the road and got a takeaway pizza from the Pizzeria Scapa Napoli.   I ate it curled up on the couch, wrapped in blankets, while watching TV.  By law the central heating in my apartment building had to be turned off on 7th April and today is was quite cool.  Tomorrrow will be better I'm sure. 

Hmm, just realised I'm not sure what on earth I need to do with the empty pizza box.  Do I put it out with the paper rubbish for collection or does it go in the general, landfill waste?  I should have eaten in the pizzeria.

Day 17 - Graz

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 0

We were woken disgustingly early by church bells.  Austria is very religious apparently and clearly believes people should spend Sunday morning in church and not in bed.   

We had a coffee and eventually headed out around 9am-ish.  For some reason, neither of us were feeling much like eating.  Instead, we walked over to the main square and then climbed up these stairs to the clock tower on the hill overlooking the city centre.

 

We spent sometime wandering around the remains of a citadel on top of the hill overlooking the city.  After a while we began to feel more human and decided to head back down for some breakfast.  Apparently there is a slide that you can slide down that takes you all the way down to the bottom.  Unfortunately (fortunately?) it wasn't operating on a Sunday.  I think it would have been fun.

Once back into the main part of the city, we settled in at a fairly upscale place and had smoked salmon with toast and horseradish and a green detox smoothie (plus more coffee).  After breakfast we felt even better and spent some time wandering around the city centre and city garden, before finally admitting there isn't much to do in Graz on a Sunday if you aren't a church goer and headed back to Vanessa's place for a nap.

Vanessa did offer to drive me back to Vienna to catch my plane but I refused the offer and arranged to take the train instead.  As it was just a regional train, hence a brisk rather than a fast train, it took 3 hours but it took me direct to the airport.  I got to the airport 1 hour and 10 minutes before my flight.  I was a bit concerned I would be cutting it fine, but it is basically a domestic flight and I only had carryon luggage and I'd checked in online.  Turned out I had time to spare.  

The flight back was smooth.  It only takes a little over an hour.  Because I was in the cheap seats we just got served a plastic cup of water.  Because it was Austrian Airlines we also got a rather decent piece of chocolate as well.

I ended up getting back to my apartment in Bologna about 7 hours after I'd left Vanessa's place, so a long journey after all.  Still, I'm really pleased I did it as it was great to catch up with her.

For dinner, I stopped off at some student dive on my way back to my apartment and bought a kebab.  The man in the shop greeted me in English but I replied in Italian and we did the rest of the transaction in Italian.  I was pleased with myself but there were drawbacks.  He asked me if I wanted it with the lot and I said yes as I wasn't sure my Italian would be up to going through all the options.  However, it turns out that the lot, at this place at least, if not in Bologna generally, includes a handful of (lukewarm) french fries.  I could have happily skipped those.

Now, I've finally finished my laundry so its off to bed to catch up on some much needed sleep.

Day 16 - Vienna

Campari & Soda: 1 (+ others), # Gelati: 0

Vanessa and I spent the most of today in Vienna.  The weather was horrible.   Cold and drizzling.

We started by gorging ourselves at the breakfast buffet at our hotel.  It was important to get value for money.  While I wouldn't go to Austria for the food, they do put on a better breakfast than you usually get in Italy.  They had cereal and fruit and yoghurt; pastries of all sorts; bread, cheese and salami; plus bacon and eggs and such like.  The coffee came out of an automatic machine though.

After breakfast, we checked out but left our luggage in Vanessa's car which was safely parked in the hotel parking lot.  Our first stop was the shop of a nearby museum so that I could buy an umbrella.  Our next stop was St Stephen's Cathedral.  We took a lift up to the observation deck on the North Tower to check out the views.  Even allowing for the fact that German is something of a shouty language, the women selling tickets and operating the lift was decided grumpy.  She either had had a horrible morning or just wasn't cut out for a customer service role.

After this we were quite chilled so we decided to visit a museum, so we could be warm and dry, while also getting a dose of culture.   We picked the Museum of Applied Arts.  Some of the exhibits were interesting, some were fabulous (I need this chair) and some were just .... otherwise.  I loved Vanessa's description of one exhibit.  She said she didn't feel she was able to appreciate it.

At this point we decided it was time for coffee and cake.  We went to a local coffee shop.  The company's colour scheme was pink.  The waitresses had to wear pink dresses with a full skirt, pink shoes and pink running shoes plus a pink ribbon in their hair.  It would have been overly cute on a 6 year old.  On two women well into middle-age it was ... let's just say, not a good look.  The way the business was run could also have used work.  One waitress would take the order from a table, deliver the cakes (getting side tracked by selling take away cake to other people at the same time), then make the coffee.  Only once this was all done, would she take the order of the people at the next table.  The second waitress seemed to just spend her time clearing tables.  Fortunately, we weren't in any hurry and the cake was worth the wait.  I didn't have sacher torte but the one I had was made up of about 8 or so layers of chocolate sponge, with pastry creme between each layer and chocolate ganache on the outside.  It was very good.

We then decided to leave Vienna and head for Graz where Vanessa lives, which is about 1 1/2 to 2 hour drive away.  She drives a Fiat 500 and she managed to get its tiny hairdyer engine up to over 120km at times.  We still got passed by other cars on the autobahn.  We had to drive up over some hills to get to Graz.  It is (supposedly) spring and there was snow on the ground, in thick layers!

Vanessa lives in a very centrally located apartment with views over the river than runs through the city.  Great location but even worse parking than Carlton.

We didn't get to Graz until 7:30pm and when she tried to book us a table at a nearby restaurant that serves traditional food, they didn't have anything free until 9pm.  We decided to head out to a local bar.  Vanessa is doing a Masters under some government scheme where she gets paid 60% of her usual salary for a year while she studies.  She also works as a waitress in a bar for extra cash sometimes.  This was the bar we went to.  We had an aperitif here and chatted to the bar owner, his 19 year old trainee barman and a fellow waitress.  I have forgotten all their names.  Sorry people, you were very friendly but I'm bad at names.

Dinner was interesting.  Very different to what I've been having here.  I had some sort of roast pork with gravy, half a roasted head of garlic and some sort of bread-based dumpling.  Tasty but heavy.  We also had cabbage fried with caraway seeds and a salad of an interesting mix of green leafy things.  We shared a bottle of wine, as Vanessa said that wine by the glass is served in tiny glasses here and wasn't good value for money.

After dinner we went in search of dessert.  Not for us, but for Vanessa's colleagues at the bar.  She had promised to bring them back tiramisu.  The restaurant we were at didn't sell it so we tried a nearby place which had a variety of cakes in a display case that included something tiramisu-like.  However, it was past 11pm by this stage and the waitress said all the kitchen staff had gone home so she couldn't sell cake to us.  We pointed out we didn't need anything cooked, just some slices of cake put in a box.  However, apparently this is against the rules.  The waitress can only serve food once it has been dished out and only kitchen staff can dish out food.  They are big on rules here.  We eventually found somewhere that had chocolate muffins and were willing to sell them to us.

Back at the bar, the muffins were well received so we settled down at the bar for more drinking and chatting.  I had a negroni while Vanessa ordered a bramble, to tease the young barman as she knew he didn't know how to make one.  Some time later we met up with a former colleague of Vanessa's who was in the bar celebrating her birthday with some friends.  Vanessa got 7 shots made of something with Bailey's (I think) and a spoonful of whipped cream on top, 5 for them and 2 for us.  We took them over, drank them and chatted for a while.

Afterwards we headed back to the bar.  At some point, I think the bar owner (somebody in any case) decided to have more shots made for Vanessa's friend.  This one was based on vodka and raspberries.  However, the barman was confused and made 9 of them, thinking the friend was there in a group of 7 and had made 2 extra so Vanessa & I could have some as well.  This meant there were 4, rather than 2 extra shots, but we drank them both so they wouldn't go to waste.  At this point it was after 1am and we were beginning to fade and were thinking of leaving.  However, the bar owner insisted we have a grappa with him before we went, so of course we did, as we didn't want to offend Vanessa's boss.  

We finally made it home about 2am (I think).

Day 15 - Off To Vienna for the Weekend

Canpari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 0

I took a late afternoon flight to Vienna today.  I still get a thrill saying I'm going to another country for the weekend.

Class is going well.  In the "conversation" hour we each had to write a brief travel diary entry.  Our teacher. Donatella, then corrected what we wrote.  I'm very pleased with myself as I got mine mostly correct, without having to resort to Google Translate.  I conjugated an instransitive verb as a transitive one and got the gender of one noun incorrect but those are minor errors.  My only big error was when I tried to write the sentence "I had planned to go to Portugal but they weren't allowing Australian tourists in."  I got the first phrase correct but completely messed up the second half.  Donatella pointed out if I'd rephrased it as "Australian tourists weren't allowed to enter Portugal." it would have been easy - and she was right.  Must pay more attention to her.

 After class I went to the Osteria Da Fortunata with Kim.  This is a restaurant that specialises in Roman food.  We shared an antipasto platter of fritto misto and fried zucchini flowers to begin with.  Then I had strozzapreti carbonara.  We both agreed it was the best meal we've had in Bologna - and it was Roman food, not local food!  

I had a 7:30pm flight to Vienna but headed out at 4:30pm as 1) I was bored sitting around the apartment; and 2) I wanted to be sure I got to the airport in plenty of time.  Well, I did.  The walk to the railway station took 30 minutes, the train to the airport took 20 minutes (including waiting for it to arrive) and clearing security took 10 minutes.  Since I was travelling within the EU it was basically a domestic flight.  I ended up getting bored sitting around the airport instead.

Vanessa met me at the airport and drove me into Vienna where she had booked us a hotel in the city centre.  The drive in was a little exciting.  It was dark and raining.  Also, Vanessa's drivers licence has expired.  Plus, she has recently moved house.  In Austria, your car's licence plate is somehow tied to your address.  When you move, you need to get new plates.  She hadn't organised this yet so technically she was driving an unregistered (and therefore uninsured) car.  

We made it safely downtown and checked into our hotel.  Vanessa had had dinner with a friend while waiting for me to arrive and I was still digesting lunch, so we just had a drink at the hotel bar.  And then to bed.

Day 14 - Still Doing Advanced Classes

# Campari & Soda: 0, # Gelati: 0

I'm sticking with the advanced classes from now on.  I have to work in them, but I'm learning new material, which is the point of coming here to Bologna.  The conversation class went better today.  I wanted to say something about Australians travelling a lot because it takes so long to get out of the country, once we've left we just keep going because that is the easy bit.  I couldn't figure out how to say all that in Italian.  The teacher, Donatella, wouldn't let me use English.  Instead, she got me to take it one phrase at a time.  I'm sure I got the grammar horribly wrong, but I was able to say it once I broke it down into small pieces.  I have to revise my opinion of her.  

After class I went to lunch with Kim at a nearby place, Ristorante Grassili.  It is down a dingy side street and looks rather dingy itself from outside.  However, inside it proved to be rather more upmarket than we expected.  Even though we probably lowered the tone, the staff were friendly and the food was good.   Restaurant food here is nothing like what you would eat at home in Italy.  Lots of cured meats and pasta (or pizza).  Mains are usually just a plate of meat.  However, at this restaurant they had plates of grilled vegetables and such like in a refrigerated cabinet near the door.  They are presumably meant for contorni but we were so starved for vegetables we ordered two plates full just on their own for our second course (first course was pasta naturally).  We finished up with dessert, thereby undoing all our good work.

After lunch I headed out to buy some reading glasses.  The lighting in the school is just OK and our photocopied handouts aren't always very clear.  I just got so tired of spending hours squinting at the page.  I've bought a rather ugly pair of reading glasses, but they have bright blue frames.  Out of all the glasses in the shop, they were the closest to purple in colour.  These things are important.

After my successful shopping trip I retreated to the apartment to do a mountain of homework.  The school didn't have any excursions planned, plus the weather is cold and wet and windy.  There was, therefore, no temptation to head out of doors.  Not even any temptation to eat gelati, the weather was that miserable.

I'm off to Vienna tomorrow.  Apparently there is going to be a train strike.  However, I don't think it will effect the train that goes to the airport.  It is a monorail which isn't run by Trenitalia.  I'll head to the railway station with plenty of time to spare.  If the train to the airport isn't running, I can always catch a taxi from there.  It is only a 15 minute ride.

I won't be blogging for the next few days as I won't bother lugging the laptop with me to Austria.  I bought a cheap ticket which allows carryon luggage only.  I also don't get fed, although I think I get a free (plastic) cup of water.