As the weekend grew nearer, so did my anticipation. Aside from the homesickness I felt during the apartment hunt, I often forget how far away from home I actually am. Every now and then I am overcome with waves of nostalgia but it comes and goes. At the same time, I was so looking forward to seeing a familiar face. I was also a bit nervous because Bologna doesn't offer much in the tourism department and I wanted to make sure that Kevin got the full Bologna experience.
He arrived around 10:30 Saturday morning and we barely skipped a beat. Since it was a bit early for lunch, I decided to take him to the open-air market, which is set up every Friday and Saturday on the main road not too far from my apartment. There are vendors of almost every type and everything is super cheap. My friends and I frequent the open-air market quite often and one of our favorite things to do is pay a visit to the stalls that sell sweaters for 1 euro. They all have funky colors and patterns and weird graphics, but with a little digging you will undoubtedly find a fashionable treasure. We may have hit the jackpot. For myself a blue sweatshirt that reads "Simply Sensational" in cursive script and for Kevin, a red sweatshirt depicting a seal wearing a Santa Claus hat done in a style that reminds me of the Coca Cola polar bear. I think he fell in love with Bologna then and there.
We then went met up with my friend Allie and headed to one of my favorite restaurants, Trattoria Rosso which offers a menu of the day consisting of two courses and dessert or caffè for 10 euro. Not to mention you can get amazing wine for a very affordable price. And the food is ALWAYS delicious. Bologna may not have much to offer for tourism purposes, but there is honestly no better place to indulge in outstanding food. And that we certainly did on several occasions. I also had the privilege of introducing Kevin to the wonders of gelato, in addition to the traditional Italian breakfast of Cappuccino e Brioche.
Not only did I get the opportunity to revisit some of my favorite places in Bologna while catching up with a friend from home, but I was also able to discover a new part of Bologna that I had yet to see. Since the weather was nice on Saturday, we made the trek up to San Luca, a church that sits atop a hill overlooking the city. To get there you must hike up the side of the hill beneath exactly 666 arches of "porticci." These porticci were constructed in order to protect those wishing to make this pilgrimage - a historically symbolic journey in which one is traversing his or her sins (hence the 666 arches) to make it to San Luca. It was indeed quite a hike, but the sites that greeted us once we made it were unbelievable. Inside and out San Luca is absolutely gorgeous and the views looking down over Bologna and its surrounding towns were breath-taking. We spent a lovely afternoon there.
Sunday was full of more delicious food, gelato, a visit to the Due Torri, as well as a trip to a Chocolate Festival. Unfortunately after Saturday's warm spell I woke up to find snow on the ground Sunday morning. Only in Bologna. However, the view from the Due Torri was nonetheless beautiful. It was actually kind of cool to see it with the snow falling even though very little of it actually stuck to the ground and eventually turned into a cold rain.
But the chocolate festival was by far the main attraction of the day. We paid 10 Euro to enter the modern-day version of Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory. We were treated to three floors free samples of chocolate from all around the world, and we definitely got our money's worth. There was chocolate of every flavor, type, and shape from moka pots to a chocolate rendition of Bologna's Due Torri. They even had chocolate wine and probably some of the best balsamic vinegar I have ever tasted. Everything was delicious and despite how full I was getting, I couldn't stop. I felt like a little kid in a candy store. It was so cool. They also had shows going on throughout the duration. The stomach ache I had afterward was totally worth every bite.
On Monday I had class from 9-3 so I handed Kevin my map and sent him on a tour of some of Bologna's most beautiful churches, including La Basilica di San Petroni and La Cattedrale di San Pietro (one of my personal favorites). He was also able to venture down to the Giardini Margherita even though the weather wasn't necessarily ideal for outside activities. After class we met up at one of my favorite book stores, which has three floors including a restaurant and a winery, and we sat for a while and chatted over a glass of wine. After a delicious and early dinner at Osteria dell'Orsa I said my farewells as Kevin boarded the bus that would take him to the airport.
I wouldn't change a thing about how the weekend progressed. The weather could have been nicer, but it was wonderful and so nice to have been able to catch up with one of my friends from home and bond over our experiences thus far and everything that we miss from Chapel Hill and from home. And although I can't speak for Kevin himself, I think he ended up having an amazing time, so I was glad that I was able to be a good host. Showing him around for the weekend made me realize how much I have come to know Bologna. I have favorite places and hang-outs, and I can even name off the top of my head at least three places that sell bottles of diet coke for around a euro (which is extremely important not only for my addiction to diet coke, but also for my bank account because a lot of the main-stream places hike up the prices to 2,50). It is a great feeling. Bologna, tu sei la mia città.
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