Hey all! I went to Bologna and Florence over Easter Break, but for now I'm just going to tell you about Bologna.

I left Sunday April 8th on the train- it took about 8 hours with a stop in Milano Centrale. I got there about 1:30 in the afternoon and found my hotel, which was super nice, and then took a nap because it was raining and I had had to get up early to catch the train. When it stopped raining, I wandered around a bit: I saw the Piazza Maggiore:

 and the church there, then the Due Tori, and finally the Chiesa di S. Maria dei Servi, which I ducked into and accidentally attended Easter mass because I was cold and it was spitting outside again.

A called me and came to meet me at the Piazza Maggiore so I could come to her house for dinner! I  met her housemates and we had ragu, which was very very yummy, and I stayed quite late. Monday morning I slept in and then registered for Smith classes for the fall (thankfully the hotel had a public computer!). Then I headed over to A's again while she registered for classes. She was nice enough to show me around afterwards, so we saw a church on Dell-Indipendenza, and the Towers of Bologna again:

 and then St. Stefano, one of the oldest churches in Bologna (if not the oldest, I don't remember). We ate some gelato afterwards and it was so good! They eat it with a spoon, though, even if its in a cone. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of a cone???

I went back to A's for dinner again that night and I helped make stir fry (seeing as how I make it so often at my place that I'm really good at it now). She brought me home late, then met me the next day at the hotel.

Before she met me Tuesday I wandered around and saw a giant book stand:

 and a big park. After lunch at A's we climbed one of the towers and saw the amazing view of Bologna! Here are some of my favorite pics:

Afterwards, A brought me to the train station so I could catch my train to Florence/Firenze, which I'll tell you all about later!