Due cappacino per favore!

Pheroze and I just arrived home from a wonderful trip to Italy yesterday.  2 days in Bologna, 2 days in Florence.  My mom thinks we're living the lives of millionaires but the truth is our flight there was only 32 GBP round trip for the both of us, taxes included.  And we stayed in cheap places, and did pretty cheap things so it winds up being pretty manageable.  PLUS keep in mind we live in a closet and get a sweet deal on rent and have learned to find entertaining things to do that are free or very cheap in day to day living.

Now, back to Italy.  There are a bazillion pictures here.  But what was our favorite part of the trip you ask?  1.coffee  2. food 3. what else?  haha no we actually did a lot and saw a lot of cool things.   Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) this blog has capped the number of pictures I can post here so our Florence opera pics, and meal pictures (one was a groupon pizzeria meal!) which were taken on my small camera aren't here sadly.  I might have to start a new blog, start really limiting the number of pictures I post or pay for more storage.  We'll see.  Here is a synopsis of the trip through the pictures I have. 

We arrived in Bologna late on Friday night and woke up to a bright sunny morning!  This was the view from our hotel room.

Pheroze was slow to wake up as he had a bit of a cold (proof of who the bed hog really is as well) so I entertained myself with some Italian soap opera...hilarious!

This little scene here was followed by some very explicit french italian kissing...ewwww!

The entire city's sidewalks were covered in these porticos.

Tempting tasty treats EVERYWHERE.  Bologna's nickname is  "la rossa" (or the red) because of the red porticos all over but has evolved into "la grassa" meaning (the fat) for the reputation it has for its food

Wow these porticos are so novel and exciting in these first 5 minutes of walking.  I'll take about 30 pictures of them!

This was the street our hotel was on.

The city's famous "two towers".  There were a handful of these leaning towers around the city that used to occupied by nobility.

This church front is fake as it was never completed.  So weird.  Why not just go ahead and finish it? 

Here it is again.

fontane neptune in piazza maggiore

Pheroze really scrutinizing this fountain...

hmm there must really be something interesting about it...

Where is the water spraying out of?  Take a close look.  Yes, it is.

sidewalk fountain

these meat/cheese shops were everywhere.

This is my cheese shop buddy who described numerous types of cheeses to me while I nodded enthusiastically.  He quickly discovered my Italian wasn't at the level he had assumed.  He allowed me to sample the parmasanio regianno that bologna is famous for.  3 years aged was one little bit of information I was able to derive :) smelled like smelly feet.

I'm playing tour guide here pointing out the most impressive marble alter here with a bunch of different saints sculpted into it.

Random statues on the side of a church or some old building.  Random stuff like this everywhere.

Now, I loved this museum a little too much I think.  I'm obsessed with medieval times and they had some sweet medieval trinkets and treasures here.  I selected a "few" favorites here...

even in medieval times they knew of the importance/functioning of fine tooth and wide tooth combs.

medieval gelato scoops (haha don't take what I write here too seriously).  obviously they had a different idea of what the size of a scoop should be back then.  Obesity was, hence, not a problem back then.

I've had a love of beer mugs with tops that flip up ever since we had one on display in our living room at home.  Look how big that one is top/left!!  That could easily fit 3 pints.

Saintly hall of fame.

rings for giants.

The museums itself was an artifact.  You could see original parts of the museum building throughout

Creep factor here.  This was the side of a sarcophagus.

We must have seen 75+ Maddona and Child depictions on this trip.

Wouldn't want to get on this guy's bad side.

King Arthur's sword! (or what I imagine it would be like)

Now this fellow here reminds me of someone I saw earlier in the day on tv. ..think italian soap opera haha

market time

This was the beginning of our 4km ascension of porticos to a church on the top of a hill outside the city.

assuming top model stance/facial expression

frescos inside the porticos all the way to the top

Almost there.  There's a cross at the top so it's like you're climbing to heaven or something.

The top!

SUCH a nice view

Inside the church

view of Bologna

Can you see him?

Still pretty small zoomed in haha

on the way down now

There was this odd little broken glass door to this old dilapidated church. 

here's what it looked like inside.  probably pretty stunning at one point.

Back at the two towers again!

purchasing a mini-bottle of the sparkling red wine famous in the region.

First photo in Florence.  this church was just outside the train station.

Due cappacino per favore was a favorite expression of ours throughout the trip.  We stopped for one on our way to our B&B.  There was no limit to the number of cappuccinos one can consume in a day.

Heaven.  Can you tell I had to take a sip first before I took the picture?

One of many gorgeous bridges

On our way to our B&B

piazza Signore

First sighting of David.  Replica.

Nice bum where ya from?

Duomo photo-mania

Had to do the 360 walk.

We almost paid to walk around inside.  And then we saw it wasn't very impressive compared to other churches we had already been to.  I snapped these couple boring pics here to document it and we left haha.  apparently the views up top are nice.  But I have view photos coming up...

Anybody home at the Duomo?

Baptistry.  Another more impressive outside than inside.

A couple beauty shots to finish off...

and done!

Oldest church in Florence (Italy?)

Another beautiful church.

Ravioli making mmmm

Waiting to order my tripe sandwich.  Do as the Romans do.

That would be a cow stomach sandwich.

I asked for piccolo (small) but they only had one size fits all size.

First fearful bite.  Pretty nasty stuff.  I pretty much ate the whole thing though.

Non photo?  Non capisco.  David #2.  The real thing.

Take a ticket.

Pheroze having a little cultural interaction of his own.  Wanted to try the foccacia bread.  The lady asked "salato o dolce".  Pheroze though they were having a misunderstanding and she was asking if he wanted a salad haha.  I, the Italian master, intervened at this point to request the salty rather than the sweet ;)

There was confetti all over the city streets from previous celebrations.  Not sure what celebrations.

Some sort of celebration was happening here though.

amazing

Timbits ain't got nothing on these little sugar coated delectables filled with warm citrus deliciousness

Hey what do you know another church?

It's not a church but a synagogue!

Tripe stand.  Makes my stomach turn.

Sitting on the steps of another church in santa croce square...

Santa Croce.

Finding the cheapest gelateria in all of Florence (and Bologna!)

1 euro each for these sizeable tasty treats.  Ignore him!

that's our B&B just across the river

A lot of care and thought went into taking this picture obviously.  thanks random stranger for taking a moment to really make this shot count!

Views from Piazza Michelangelo

David #3.  Green David.  Lights up at night as well.  Classiest of all the Davids.

Time for a nap at our B&B

view from our B&B window...just can't escape that Duomo!

Local wine from our wonderful B&B hosts! Yum!

Snapshot on the bridge outside our B&B

Pheroze playing the flute.  Pheroze smoking a pipe.  Pheroze shooting a blowgun.  Pheroze....?

I also wanted to mention we went to the opera this night.  It was very serious and had super elaborate sets.  We thought it was about some fancy pants gold digger woman who married for money and then fell in love with a student who can't provide for her but we couldn't really tell. In Act 2 the stage is turned into an elaborate bedroom with a giant bed in the middle of it.  And, at one point, if you can imagine a stereotypical huge pot-bellied Italian opera man literally flying onto the bed from a run all the way from the entrance in a dramatic display of despair, belly flopping, you would be hard pressed not to laugh.  We are the only ones I think, in the whole opera house to immediately laugh at this.  So serious.

Rainy day.  This day we went to the famous Uffizi art museum filled with famous pieces like the birth of venus.  I just learned there is this website where you can view all the paintings as well.  We also went to this amazing family owned italian place for lunch.  Pictures aren't uploaded though :(

Another beauty of a church

Walking to B&B #2

Only took us 2 hours to get there in the pouring rain no biggie haha:)

morning view from B&B window

Our B&B.

By the way, this hat I'm wearing was a boxing day sale acquisition in London.  Pheroze thinks it's an old lady hat.  That may be, but it was a great traveling hat!  Kept my head head warm and dry, and covered up nasty hair.

Walking to the bus stop to head to the train station back to Bologna to fly home...

I caught Pheroze's cold on the last day so I brought home the cold.  I also brought along a bag of coffee, biscotti, 2 kinds of cheeses and a couple amazing pastries - the pastries are already gone of course.

Up next month....Berlin!