Day Trip to Bologna

One of the shopping streets.
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Today I took a trip to Bologna. No, I did not eat any bologna, but I did have some really great Lasagna! The food there was probably my favorite part of the trip. We stopped at a little restaurant in the University district, which I am told houses the best restaurants, for a lunch around noon. It was tricky finding a place to eat since most of the restaurants and shops close down in the middle of the day, but we were eventually successful! Restaurants in Italy are kind of tricky compared to what we are used to in the states. The water and bread that they set out on the table when you arrive are not free, they just assume everyone wants it and you pay for it when you pay for the rest of your meal. It's usually only 1 - 3 Euro, so nothing to worry about. I ordered lasagna which was to die for! The noodles were so moist that they melted in your mouth; it was amazing!

The main piazza and palazzo.
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Usually the portions they give you for a "prima" are big enough that you won't need a "seconda", but it depends on the restaurant. Here the lasagna was huge and delicious so I didn't need anything else. A thing we had to watch out for while ordering was "cavallo" which means horse, so if you don't want to eat that i would steer clear of cavallo.

After lunch our group split off into two. Brittany and I decided we wanted to enjoy the shopping side of Bologna so we headed to the main drag to check out the stores and shops along the street. Bologna's set up is very shopper friendly. All of the stores are in one spot or along one street instead of being spread out like they are in Florence and other Italian cities. It made shopping really easy and hassle-free for us while we were there.

Weird pyromaniac.
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I ended up buying a coat that is cream-colored and falls just below the knee. I really like it and I ended up wearing it to the Opera that we saw on the 29th of January. :) I would say it was a good bargain since the shops in Bologna are cheaper than the shops in Florence.

This is kind of a weird addition to this journal entry, but upon entering one of the main piazza's in Bologna we saw a "fire-breather" of sorts. I thought he was going to juggle which I will admit made me a little excited, but I was disappointed when he did not. He had a bottle of some kind of alcohol on the ground next to him and proceeded to spit the alcohol onto his stick of fire to give the croud a huge burst of flame. At some point he took off the cotton (or whatever he used to burn at the end of his stick) and ate it which was a little disgusting. He did the usual circus act, so we didn't stay that long to look at him, but I found it amusing for a little bit. :)

Street off of the main piazza.
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We stopped at a little cafe on the way to the train statin to buy a little panino for the ride back. They were delicious and you can buy them either cold or toasted. We left Bologna around 8:30pm after thoroughly exhausting ourselves with a day of shopping and touring the town.