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.