Wednesday: More B-o-l-o-g-n-a

Wednesday was our last full day in Bologna - as I realized this, I regretted not booking in for a few more days; there is so much to see in the centro storico.  To get the most out of our time, we decided to ride one of the City Red Bus Tours in order to view as much as we could (and to take note of places we might want to visit on a future trip).  The tour took about an hour to complete its circuit.  I tried to snap some pictures from our very good seats - upper level, right in front - however, as it was a bright and sunny day, there was a lot of reflection on the glass windows, so my photos didn't come out as well as I would have liked:

Bologna

Porta Maggiore a/k/a Porta Mazzini

The ruins of Castello di Galliera

FYI:  unlike in FL, we can say gay in Italy.  Particularly in Bologna, from what I read.

Painted porticoes

Porta Castiglione

We'd next planned to visit the Museo Civico Archeologico (Paolo was especially looking forward to it), but when we arrived, we were told that only two of the exhibits were open - the rest of the museum was closed due to some ongoing renovations.  As they were still charging the full admission price for very limited access, we opted not to visit (it will be something to look forward to next time, I guess).

On the other hand, had we gone there, we might not have discovered the Archiginnasio.  This building was originally the central site of the University of Bologna; it now houses a library, the former anatomical theatre (reconstructed after having been bombed in WWII), and Stabat Mater Hall.

Some of the 6000+ coats of arms of former university students

The anatomical professors' chair

Anatomical theatre

Center ceiling detail

Stabat Mater Room

Virgin and Child fresco dating from the 1500s

Look closely and you'll see a book titled Invertebrata of Massachusetts

Some more of the 6000+ coats of arms of former students of the university

After our visit to the Archiginnasio, we walked back the the Santo Stefano area for lunch.  It was very warm and pleasant in the sun, so we chose to sit outside for a very leisurely meal/people-watching session at 051 Santo Stefano:

I had the lasagne alla Bolognese - nothing at all like any lasagne I've ever eaten in the US; I need to try making this!!

In fact, we had a rather large lunch, such that we didn't bother making any dinner plans for later.  Needing to walk this off, we headed over to another church we wanted to see (we'd passed it on our bus tour) - Chiesa del Santissimo Salvatore (Church of the Holy Savior).  On our way, I stopped to take several pictures:

Bologna hosts a jazz festival; this tribute to Benny Goodman was installed in the street last year according to this article

Art installation entitled Big Wide Eye (in English - perhaps because the artist was born in New Zealand...?)

I liked all the heads on this building

The white plaque states (more or less, according to Google Translate) that Guglielmo Marconi was born here.  He was the first to transmit words "without the aid of cables and wires, from one hemisphere to the other" for the benefit of humanity "and the glory of his homeland" 

We didn't stay at Santissimo Salvatore very long as there was an ongoing Eucharistic adoration, and although there were signs saying visitors were welcome, we didn't wish to disturb the devout.  I did take a few pictures from the back of the church before leaving:

Our last stop before returning to our room for a little rest was at a church very close to our B&B - Chiesa di Santi Bartolomeo e Gaetano (Church of St. Bartholomew & Saint Cajetan - yeah, I had to look him up:  he seems to be the patron saint of gamblers and the unemployed.  Sounds like a bit of a shady character to me).

I have absolutely no idea what the connection is between this church and Our Lady of Quinche represented by the statue on this side altar.  There was a sign in Italian describing the original statue in Ecuador, but it didn't say anything specifically about why they have a replica here in Bologna.

Looking up at the main dome

Having been a pretty full day, and still having pretty full bellies, we returned to our room to rest and digest; though we did venture out later for drinks and dessert.

And thus ended our (too) brief sojourn in Bologna.  The next morning, after another excellent breakfast at our B&B, we checked out and made our way down the street to the taxi stand for a ride to Bologna Centrale to catch our train home - which was not only once again late, but my Trenitalia app said our train would be arriving at Bin 4, when it actually arrived at Bin 6 ("bin" being short for binario, that is, "track" or "platform").  I'm not sure why we had issues with late trains on this trip; until now we really haven't experienced huge delays - but now we better understand why people complain so much about the trains in Italy.

As we were waiting for our delayed train, my phone rang.   It was a gentleman from Hertz (the company from which we rented our vehicle) asking, in hesitant English, if we knew our car was parked at Termoli train station, because the police wanted to tow it!  At least, I think that is what he was trying to say.  WTF?  I replied to the effect that of course we knew it was parked there, because we parked it there.  I explained that we did pay the full amount allowed on the parking meter, and that we were literally about to get on a train bound for Termoli and would be back later in the afternoon.  I begged him to call the police back and explain that we were on our way, and to ask them to please not tow our car - which he kindly agreed to do.  At least, I think he did; I'm not entirely sure he understood me, actually.

Practically the whole ride back to Termoli, I was catastrophizing this in my head, imagining various scenarios of us trying to explain to the police that we did in fact pay for parking although it's possible we didn't pay enough because we are stupid Americans who didn't understand the meter machine; trying to figure out how to get our car back; possibly being stuck overnight in Termoli, etc.  Paolo, on the other hand, being a more reasonable sort of person, was fairly calm and not terribly concerned.

When we arrived back to Termoli, there was our car, exactly where we'd left it - and not so much as a ticket for a parking violation.  Of course, that doesn't mean we won't get a ticket in the mail six months from now, because Italy - but thankfully all my worry was for nothing after all.

Now that I've finally written out this record of our trip, I'll explain why it took so long to do so.  On the Tuesday, I somehow managed to hurt my left wrist and hand - one of those situations where you somehow just "move wrong," although you're not quite sure exactly what you did, and something cracks/slides/clicks/pops out of place, and bam, you have pain.  I'm a righty, but didn't realize just how much I use my non-dominant hand until I couldn't.  Anyway - I've been resting it as much as possible and taking an anti-inflammatory, and I am about 99% better now.  But that's why I've been writing in fits and starts.
  

Coming up this week:  Paolo has to go back to the questura; we both have appointments to get haircuts.

Tuesday: Full of Bologna

On the recommendation of our B&B hosts, we started off Tuesday with a visit to the Biblioteca Salaborsa, the main public library in Bologna, located in part of the Palazzo d'Accursio on the Piazza del Nettuno:

See the three greenish panels to the lower left of the building?  These are discussed below...

One feature that makes this library unique is the ancient Roman archaeological site in its basement.  You can view parts of it through the floors of the library, and you can also walk through the site itself, which we did:

Note the glass panels above - overhead is the library proper

Another interesting feature of the Salaborsa is located on the exterior of the building - a large WWII memorial dedicated to murdered local partisans of the Resistance movement.  There are 2000+ photos that make up the memorial - and there are several with the name of Grandi.  I have no idea if any of them can be found in my family tree, but I was intrigued, so took photos of all the Grandi portraits I could view (Atlas Obscura has a much better picture of the full memorial here):

Next, Paolo wanted to visit the Museo Civico Medievale, a relatively short walk away.  We crossed the Piazza Maggiore, and encountered a large but peaceful gathering of various women's groups giving speeches, lecturing, and carrying protest signs to mark International Women's Day:

On our way to the museum, we stumbled across two churches that we couldn't resist visiting.  The first was the Cattedrale Metropolitana di San Pietro (Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Peter):

"Compianto sul Cristo morto" (translates to "Lament over the Dead Christ"), by Alfonso Lombardi; from the 1500s.  His works can be seen in several places around Bologna.

 The second church we visited was just across the street from the museum:  Chiesa di Filippini Madonna di Galliera e Filippo Neri (kind of a mouthful to say).  The façade is from the Renaissance period but the interior is Baroque:

Close(er) up of the main altar

A stained glass window I liked - I need to learn a better way to capture these with my iPhone

Detail from the floor

We stepped across the street to the Palazzo Ghisilardi Fava, which today houses the Medieval Museum (at one point in its history, it housed fascisti).  This museum was well worth the visit; not only were the artefacts interesting, but the palazzo was the perfect setting for their display:

Shoes!  I can't walk in modern-day high heels; I'd break my neck trying to walk in the shoes on the left.

The interesting thing about this memorial to a medieval university professor is that it still has some of the original pigment on it after all this time - quite rare

San Petronio doing his thing

From a display of glassware; the white chalice to the right is Murano glass (not sure about the blue one)

One of the few remaining memorials from what had been a nearby Jewish cemetery that was taken over and destroyed by an order of medieval nuns

Note the gorgeous beams in the painted ceiling

We spent quite a bit of time exploring this museum.  By the time we were through, we (well, I) was quite hungry for lunch - and it was a bit late for lunch by that point.  So, we did something I'm a bit ashamed to admit, but here goes:  we ate at McDonald's.

I can confirm that McDonald's is just as bad in Italy as it is in the US.  However, I justified it to myself by the fact that we were doing a lot of walking, which would hopefully mitigate somewhat all the unnecessary fat, salt, and calories.

Although we'd already seen some really fantastic things, the final gem on the day's to-do list was a visit to the Santo Stefano complex, which is composed of several churches of various ages.  The buildings contain the (alleged) sarcophagi of Saint Vitale and Saint Agricola; a marble column which purportedly grants you 200 years' worth of indulgence every time you visit it; medieval frescoes; and other fascinating items.  There were a couple of parts of the complex that were closed when we visited, but what we did see was pretty outstanding:

Old pulpit.  The interior of the pulpit (behind the barred window) used to house relics of San Petronio, since moved to his own church

200 years off Purgatory for each of us! 🙄

St. Vitale

St. Agricola

San Paolo 😜

Pilate's Courtyard

Inevitable War Memorial

We ended our day with dinner at 051 Osteria, on a side street just off the Piazza Maggiore.  Note that there are quite a few restaurants and businesses (including our B&B) with "051" in the name.  It was explained to us that "051" was the original telephone exchange for Bologna; today the 051 in the name of a restaurant or other business indicates that such a place offers an authentic Bolognese experience.  I have no idea whether or not this is actually true, or just a story they tell to the stranieri (foreigners) - but I will say that in our personal experiences, it was certainly the case.  Our dinner was delicious:

Starters:  mortadella (of course) and tortellini in brodo

I had the cotoletta alla Bolognese (this Bolognese dish is somewhat similar to Vienna's Wiener schnitzel).  That red machine next to Paolo is an antique meat slicer.

Mimosa - the servers handed these out to all the ladies in the restaurant; these flowers are the traditional symbol of International Women's Day

Meat!

View of the bar

Next up:  Wednesday's activities.

Edit:  This is to include some final pictures of the IWD events going on that night, which we passed on our way back to our B&B.  Note the high police presence - this seemed excessive to me as it was all quite peaceful: