Feet Don't Fail Me Now!

After almost 12 hours of sleep, both of us felt oh so much better! We headed to a local cafe called Aroma and instead of our usual cappuccino, we opted to try some other foo-foo coffee drink with chocolate and cream in it. It was very good, but I think it was supposed to be for dessert and not first thing in the morning. Never again.

We then just started walking. And walking. Covered over 10 miles today trying to see it all.

The porticoes here cover almost every sidewalk in the city. Today was another gorgeous day but I'm sure when it rains or it is really hot, they provide shelter and shade for walkers. Many of them are beautiful too and we want to try to capture some of them at night. Here's a few during the day but I'm sure there will be more.

After a morning of walking, we stopped for lunch. Of course....

We found the train station and bought our tickets for our first day trip we'll go on tomorrow. Greg wanted to rest, but I ventured out to explore some more. There was a memorial for the people who were part of the resistance during WWII, and I thought it was fascinating.

There were a lot of things going on in Bologna today! First, there was supposed to be a transportation strike that was to include all buses, trains, and airports. But for some reason, we saw tons of buses all over town so I don't know what that is all about. Italian workers strike often and I guess they sometimes just change their minds. Plus we kept seeing large groups of people walking and carrying signs.

Were they the people who were supposed to be striking? But wait! They are wearing pink scarves and ribbons and tutus! It's International Women's Day! OMG, I should have brought my pink hat! There was a large rally in Piazza Maggiore, and then they marched down one of the main roads chanting something that sounded a lot better in Italian than it probably would have in English. Fun! And all over town, people were handing out small bouquets of yellow flowers for the occasion. I checked with the apartment owner, and she says they are mimosa.

Here's just a few random pictures Greg and I took around the city today.

Bike Shop

This afternoon we visited the Teatro Anatomico which is part of the University of Bologna where they used to conduct anatomy courses. The room is all beautifully wood paneled with a table in the center where they put a corpse for study. Lovely. But interesting.

And we loved the Basilica Santa Stephano. It appears to be an plain church with a simple facade. When you walk in, it's like every other church in Italy. But there's a door in the front that takes you to another chapel and another courtyard and another chapel and it just keeps going! With frescos everywhere! It is as if they started with one building back in the 400's and then just kept adding to it. Greg says it's like a remodeling project gone bad. But it's fascinating! Hard to imagine anything that old.

Oh, and BB this is for you. I wonder if my Vivian Lous will work in these. Also available in dark chocolate.

Wonderful dinner tonight but too tired to post food porn now. More tomorrow.