Thursday, December 18, 2008

Bologna and some of everything after



Here I am at the most amazing sunset in Cinque Terre after a long hike through all the five towns , it was one of the best days of my trip!

Firstly I would like to say that having read my last post I am embarrassed at my extremely pour spelling and grammar, but I do have an excuse, I was writing on an Italian computer with Italian spell check, which obviously did not help me and I now see that I rely on it quite a lot, plus I was in a weird internet cafe and was paying too much money for the computer time. Alas with that said on with the story...
Leaving Rome I spent one night in Bologna, one of the oldest University towns in Italy with lots of red marble arch ways that cover the sidewalk ways along the streets. I sent way too much money on a closet of a hotel room looking to have a brake from hostel life with a hot shower and room all to myself. I spent most of the night looking for a place to do laundry and finally after walking around town for and hour in the rain with all my dirty clothes in a plastic marks and spencer bag, I found the laundrette that was really crowded and expensive but I was desperate and was proud of myself for navigating this unknown city in the rain and dark with a simple goal. As my clothes were washing I found a little pizzaria with huge slices of Italian and American style pizza. There I met this guy from Bologna who just started chatting with me about the joy pizza and of course wanted to know where I was from. It is the small random encounters like this that make the difference when you are traveling alone, it is nice to get to know the local people when you travel and if I was with other people I don't think I would have been as open to conversation. He accompanied me back to the laundrette and I found that some one had opened my now finished wash, and later i was to find that they stole only one sock, just to mess with me I think, I said goodbye to my new friend and made it back to my room to watch a little Italian tv and have some undisturbed sleep. I woke up and after a nice breakfast from the hotel made my way to the train station and was on my way to Venice. It as rainy and cold when I arrived but Venice is everything that people rave about. It is beautiful and there is no other place like it in the world, no cars or roads, only bridges and boats. As I was riding the Grand canal ferry to my hostel stop I noticed that most of the locals seemed to be wearing rain boots, I soon found out why. Venice has been flooding with all of the rain that Italy has had this season, plus the rising sea levels makes for a constant threat of water washing out st marco's square...
Sorry everyone I have been writing and trying to continue this narrative of my trip but I can't find the focus to do it now, rather than wait for the inspiration to finish it, which may take another week, I would like to update the blog with what I have and add some pictures as well. I will at some point continue the story but not now.

1 comment:

Sandy said...

Hi Maura, we missed you this Christmas but it was great to see the pictures of you having such a great time, and to read your stories! Love, Sandy