Piazza Maggiore
Since our first full day in lovely Bologna (the porticoes, the towers, the medieval feel in a modern city) was spent mostly with our cooking class, today is our first "exploring" day. And since we were up so late last night, it is a very good thing that breakfast at the Hotel Paradise is served until 10 am.
Since we know that we are taking our adventures in the slow lane, and since we will be here a whole week in order to do just that, we first set off on a few housekeeping errands. It was always our intention to purchase an inexpensive Italian cell phone, and that was the first thing we did today. New proud owners of a small blue telefonino, that took a whole day to charge and work, but work it does.
Next up was the visit to a pharmacia. David had brought antibiotics in case of need for his leg, which did show signs of infection early into the trip.He started taking the meds, but after a few days felt he needed something stronger. After doing some research, he asked Monica whether she thought the pharmacist would fill a prescription for him. When David told her that he was a doctor himself, she said we should just see the pharmacist. Who turned to be a charming gentleman, who had had 5 leg surgeries himself; they discussed the drugs and dosage, and then he gave David what he wanted, and also a "professional" discount - this all took 10 minutes and cost us less than $15.00. It makes me incredible sad to think how a foreigner would be treated in our country, with our myriad of horrible health care options.
So, after returning to our room to charge the phone and take the meds, it was close to lunchtime; I picked a trattoria, da Gianni, from our list, in part for its proximity to the Piazza Maggiore, and we took a taxi there. David realized that da Gianni was quite close to the culinary shop that Raffaela had recommended for purchase of the tool we would need to make the garganelle pasta, so while he had a beer in a cafe, I went and found the shop. Let's see, two blocks past a small piazza, left turn at Georgio Armani and there it was. The shopkeepers spoke no English, and after I did a fairly good pantomime of rolling the garganelle for them, we found the little trays next to the cash register. Success.
Verdure gratinee
On to lunch, where we had pastas, then a salad for David and a vegetable plate for me. Wine of course, to fortify ourselves for some real exploring. Jerry and Sandi had told us about the hop on, hop off bus tour of Bologna, which sounded perfect for us - a hour around the city in an open air bus, with audio. Too bad, we got to the square and realized that the bus was on lunch break for two more hours. Somehow we managed to fill the time in the heat - gelato, a visit to the tourist office in the piazza, a little shopping. Eventually we hopped on the bus and had a really nice tour, got our Bologna bearings a bit, then hopped off near our hotel.
Hop on, hop off bus
Outside da Nello
Last night was Palma's and Jerry's last night in Bologna, and we (David and I, along with Jan and Ken) joined them for dinner at da Nello, which turned out to be close to our hotel so David braved the walk there and back. I do remember drinking Lambrusco, and that the food was good - I had stuffed zucchini flowers, and a seafood risotto, David had a pesto pasta and another version of the colatella Bolognese; he and the cutlet have become one already. Even though we had begun dinner at 8:30, a very large party arrived as we were finishing, the room became quite noisy and we did not linger. We walked back to our hotel with Jan and Ken.
Jerry's truffle dish
Comments (2)
Marcia, I am enjoying your blog. Can't wait to get there myself.
We'll probably try the taxis and hop on/bus too.
Thanks for mentioning this and for the parking info. you posted on ST.
chiaro
Posted by chiaro di luna | June 11, 2010 11:39 AM
Posted on June 11, 2010 11:39
Congratulations on your new little blue telefonino!! That's pretty cool that he was able to get the meds he needed. I can just picture the two of them discussing the options. It is very sad to think about our medical system here and how we treat foreigners (although my friend from Italy was able to get good help when he hurt his back while in San Francisco).
I have never heard of the hop on and off bus. Sounds like fun! I have had some good meals at da Nello's. Stuffed zucchini flowers and seafood risotto - yum!!!
Posted by girasoli | June 13, 2010 9:27 PM
Posted on June 13, 2010 21:27