Fuck Austerity

I went to Bologna yesterday and saw several graffiti saying "Fuck Austerity", however they were mostly around the university. For those off you that don't know, the University of Bologna is the oldest university in the world. For that reason, I thought that it would be small thinking that much of the community grew around it making it difficult to grow as one identity. Oh no, it was bigger than I thought and parts of it reminded me as if walking through Brooklyn. I think it was the random trees in a sea of buildings and the graffitti everywhere.

So when you look up Bologna, or talk to others about it who have been there, one of the things it is known for is their food. Don't worry, we were on it. I went with Rachel and Marlena and we were happy to lounge around for the food. First, on the train to Bologna, we ran into one of our camp directors at the first camp. Random, I probably only know a handful of Italians in Italy and we ran into one leaving town. When we arrived, she happily pointed us in the right direction as we headed south from the train station. In July, almost all the stores in the country have a sale ranging from 30-50% off. On Saturdays too, Bologna has a street market as well so we were able to mill around and shop for things as we made our way to the piazza. We arrived at the piazza to find the Neptune fountain and took our customary pictures. I didn't notice it at the time, but all the women on the fountain are fondling themselves which makes it a little uncomfortable to see.

During July, Bologna has movies in the piazza which if I was staying longer I think it would have been fun to check out. From the center, we picked random paths and started walking down one. It was our food path. We walked down a street market of vegetables, fruits, desserts and delis. Lots of pictures were taken my friends. Also, we each bought a little thing of food to eat while walking. I got a big thing of roma tomatoes. Oh, eat your heart out they were so good. We then walked into a bascillca which as you can imagine was quite beautiful. No pictures could be taken inside. But I found out why....they didn't want us to know but one of the apostles is holding a light saber. Not a joke! It is bright blue and blends in with his garments but it is a light saber. I asked several people. And there are no post cards of that particular stain glass, but there were of the others. It is a conspiracy I tell you.

We then were on a mission to find food. Bologna is known for their tortellini and bolegnse (Bologna meat) sauce. After searching for what seemed to be forever, we found a decent little place and sat down. Our waiter was happy to have tourists and I think very happy to have a Canadian. We ordered a cheese platter (yum) with a local wine and snacked on that and relaxed. We then ordered meat tortellini with a potatoe and rosemary sauce and a pasta which was very thick, in a red sauce and shrimp and split it amongst the three of us. Delicious.

After our long 2 hour lunch, we walked by the university and happily headed back to our host families after our nice relaxing day. Although Bologna is small, smaller than I expected, totally worth checking out.