# 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.
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