full of bologna

Sorry it takes me so long to write these days. I can only publish things from school and that means lugging my laptop around with me everywhere. This weekend I took the train from Venice to Bologna. I love the train! What a wonderful way to travel. I got the inside local scoop on cheaper tickets and I was able to save a few euros that even Rick Steve’s with all his knowledge didn’t know about. I was happy to get on the mainland and see the Italian countryside. Funnily enough it looks a lot like California. Except that in California we don’t really have ruins of castles dotting the hillside. Bologna is a city the dates back to the Middle Ages in the middle of northern Italy. My friend likes to live in Bologna because he is a musician and it’s a two to three hour train ride to most of the major cities in northern Italy making it easy to get to gigs everywhere. It was a two-hour train ride from Venice to Bologna. The weather was wet this weekend, which was perfect for Bologna because almost the entire city is covered with arcades to walk underneath. One of the photos you see is of a pair of towers in the center of the city. The story goes that there was a competion between two families to see who could build the tallest tower. At first the shorter tower was the winner but it was built at a slant and it fell over making the other tower the winner. Hey everyone’s a winner!!
After we cruised the city for a bit we headed to Modena, balsamic vinegar anyone, for a jazz performance with a live painter (as opposed to a dead one) It was a great art “happening” and I enjoyed the experience. After we hopped back on the train and went back to Bologna for Bruscetta. After dinner we met up with some more Italians. Two of the people we met were Actors and it was awesome to get to compare stories of trying to make a living in the arts. As lovely as Bologna( bologna and bolgnese both come from here) I was happy to get back to Venice. There is really nothing that can compare to how beautiful it is here.
Pietro my roommate just arrived home from work. He is a Doctor and in Italy it is common for the patients to bring gifts to Il Dottore. Because Venice is a fishing village the gifts are often times fish. He just brought in a giant bag of squid and an equally giant bag of artichokes. On Friday Pietro gave me a fish took cook for dinner. It was the first time that I have ever cooked a fish in it entirety. It took a lot of courage for me to venture in this particular cooking experience, but the rewards were worth how squeamish it made me. The squid are super icky and I hope that I have nothing to do with cooking them. I will stick to the eating on that one. Last night I had Italian guacamole with tuna and anchovy. It was quite a surprise when I tasted it. It was very yummy, just like everything here.
Today I went to the market and was completely overwhelmed by ALL of the good-looking food. I wanted to try everything. I settled for a few things to add to the dinners that everyone here cooks!
I continue to feel blessed and joyful!!
Ciao!!