Bologna

Staying in Castel del Bosco affords us a unique opportunity to travel to all sorts of cool places that might seem far away, but in actuality, are really only just daytrips. Case in point: Bologna.

Maureen and I had decided that Wednesday would be our day to go to the beach, so we were trying to figure out what to do on Tuesday. "Did we go to Bologna when you were here the last time?" The answer was 'no,' so I suggested that we point the Peugeuot north this time.

Over dinner on Monday night, we read the Italy guide book section on Bologna and Emilia Romana and decided to start the day in Ferrara, to see the Castello d'Este, then head back toward Bologna and poke around there for the rest of the day.

We got an early start, leaving at 9:30. Within a couple of hours, we were parking the car in the parcheggio centro storico (in front of Piazza John F. Kennedy-- I never cease to be amazed how the Italians love to honor Americans with piazzas. There is even a Piazza Jane Fonda on the way to Lucca...)

The thermometer in the car read 39 degrees celsius. It felt every bit of it, too... even though I am not sure what 39 degrees celsius means off the top of my head. I do know the little rhyme: 30 is hot, 20 is nice, 10 is cold and 0 is ice... so, 39 is much hotter than hot, as far as I can tell. We left the car and headed into the city. Ferrara is a city under renovation, it seems. Everywhere you look there are scaffolds and workmen and work in progress.

After a short walk, which seemed much longer, on account of the extremely suffocating heat (Africa-hot... which is actually what it was: a high pressure system from Africa had settled in over Europe), we found ourselves in front of the Castello d'Este. We both decided that we had come too far not to go in, so we paid our 8 euros each and embarked on our visit. The Castello is actually interesting, as far as castles go. It is definitely worth a visit if you are traveling with kids, as they can see what dungeons look like up close (a serious object lesson, if you catch my drift) and they can climb the tower and get a really nice panoramic view of the area. (mind you, we did not climb the tower, but I imagine it is a lovely view.) There is a moat (kids love moats... also, another good threat), and cool paintings, which are easily viewed through an intricate system of mirrors, lest you injure yourself craning your neck looking upwards). In short, something for everyone.

But, we soon were bored (or just super uncomfortable) and decided to walk back to the car. Upon arriving at the Peugeuot, I plugged our next destination into the GPS. When the choices for "Bologna" came up, one of the destinations was called 'Castello di Guelfi Bologna.' This intrigued me. We were staying in Castel del Bosco. We had just seen Castello d'Este. Did we have a theme for the day being decided for us? Maureen and I decided that this was a sign and we should go see the castello of the Guelphs. Now, at this point, I was jazzed to see a castle. It was only after we arrived at our destination that it occurred to me that there might not be a castle, except in the name. I mean, there is no castle in Castel del Bosco.

However, we soldiered on. We drove a bit into the town and sure enough, we saw it... the turrets to the ancient castle. All four of them, in fact. The town has been built into the walls of the 12th century castle, which is largely gone. The turrets survive and they are inhabited and owned my private citizens. It is a very cool sight. Feeling like we had just discovered America, we triumphantly snapped a few photos and then headed back to the highway which would take us to our initially intended destination: Bologna.

Bologna is a very interesting and unique city. It is home to Europe's oldest university. It is also a city which is almost completely colonnaded. It is nearly always possible to walk under cover. This was a welcome accommodation, since Bologna was no less stifling hot than Ferrara, or Pisa, for that matter.

We walked from where we left the car, in the Santo Stefano district to the main square, Piazza Maggiore where we hopped onto a 'hop on-hop off tour bus.' We sat through the tour twice and hopped off back at our car. We saw the whole city, or at least everything that the tourism board deems worthy of being included on the tour.

Thoroughly exhausted, we packed it in and motored home. It was on the way home that we made an interesting observation: between Florence and Bologna, there are 29 tunnels, which we both found noteworthy. I am not sure why we were struck by this, but we were. Struck enough to count them... I guess that makes us crazy, or just crazy from the heat.