Escaping the cold by going...North!

Lately, the weather in our region has been cold and damp; it rained and/or snowed most of last week.

View out the bathroom window, yesterday morning.

So we decided to escape the winter blahs for a few days.  We started checking the weather in a few places where we thought it might be warmer and drier - but it turned out that Napoli was going to be cold and damp as well; and so was Palermo.  To our surprise, the better weather (at least right now) is to the north of us.

So on a sort-of whim, we chose to spend a few days in Bologna, in the Emilia-Romagna region (fun family fact:  my great grandmother Emma Grandi was from a town about 45 minutes west of here).  It's a very old (founded by the Etruscans) and very young (full of students of the University of Bologna, est. 1088) and very diverse city, famous for its porticoes, its Due Torri, and for having been pretty heavily bombed during WWII (and maybe for a few other things as well).  The weather this week should be mainly sunny and mostly in the mid-50s F - perfect for getting out and exploring; the centro storico is very walkable, even in bad weather, thanks to all those porticoes.

We were scheduled to take the train from Termoli to Bologna Centrale at 13:20 yesterday.  It had rained and snowed all the day before, and although the snow hadn't stuck to the streets in our comune, we decided to leave a bit early, just in case we encountered snow or ice on the roads outside the comune.  Which, in fact, we did:

The road was perfectly clear right up to this point...and it was also clear on the other side a bit farther on...because Italy, I guess.  No idea what happened here.  Fortunately, we did not get stuck when turning around...although I think we almost did!  About a 10-12 minute drive from this point and everything was completely snow-free.

Despite the road block, we still managed to make it to the train station in plenty of time...only to find that our train was running about 25 minutes late.  Pretty typical of Italy, although it's rarely happened to us personally.   I tried to take a few pictures from the train during the four-hour ride:

Pesaro station, Pesaro being the origin of the name "Pesaresi"

I'll just mention here that this seems to be a pretty good time of year to visit, what with decent weather while still being outside of the tourist season; there are good deals to be had on hotel and B&B stays. We booked ourselves four nights at 051 Suites, a very nice B&B in the centro storico; it's a few steps away from the Two Towers and a very short walk to the Piazza Maggiore, one of the main piazzas in the historic district. It's in a building that also houses other businesses and apartments; the reception and breakfast room of the B&B are on the 1st floor, while the rooms are all on the 3rd floor.  I have to say that the staff here are super kind and helpful; even before we arrived, they emailed me a rather detailed list of restaurants we might like to try that serve typical regional cuisine - the kinds of places the locals would go, not tourist traps (I made sure to book a couple before we left).  

By the time we arrived, got a taxi to the B&B, checked in, etc., we had just a little bit of time to settle in and freshen up before heading out to find the restaurant where I booked dinner, which turned out to be about a 6 or 8 minute walk.  I chose a place called Trattoria Anna Maria; the B&B recommended it, plus, the Anna Maria depicted on the website looks like someone's nonna - who wouldn't want dinner cooked by Granny?  It wasn't anything fancy, but it was delicious!  I started with passatelli in broth - a dish I remembered from my childhood that I had not eaten in many years.  It tasted very much like I remembered - delightful.  Paolo chose tortelloni with butter for his first course.  

A bowlful of childhood memories

For our second courses, Paolo tried the stinco al forno (roast pork shin on the bone) while I ordered the coniglio arrosto (roast rabbit).  I'm not sure if the server - a mildly crabby older gentleman - was trying to be funny, or just didn't want to hear my poor Italian again, because when he set the dish in front of me, he called it "Roger Rabbit."

Roger was perfectly cooked and practically fell off his bones.

No fancy sauces, no artistic plating - just good food.  It was a perfect way to start our little adventure here.

I'll have to do a second post later, to describe our day today - but you'll have to excuse me now, as it's time to get ready for what will hopefully be another delicious dinner.