Day in Bologna – Thursday

I caught the train to Bologna this morning and the first thing I saw was a whole lot of tents and people milling around and several policepeople to each non policeperson milling around. I think Berlusconi was visiting. This was about 9.40am. As I was walking down one of the main streets towards the central piazzas I was surprised at how noisy it was. Combination of many things – lots of people, fairly narrow streets with tall buildings either side, my tiredness ( amplifies noise which I don’t like) Good excuse to duck down an alleyway for a quiet coffee.

In the main square there is a large statue of Neptune . Beneath him on this statue are 4 cherubs and 4 buxom sirens. Water spouts from their nipples. I observed the demographics of the close-up photo takers.. Needles to say they were not women. I went first to the main cathedral , the Basilica of San Petronio. One of my sources says it is the 5th largest church ( how do they measure the size of the church with all the extra bits sticking out?) The highlight is supposed to be the central doorway. This was covered for restoration work. There is a huge sundial in the floor, designed in 1656. It was instrumental in discovering the anomalies of the Julian calendar and led to the creation of the leap year . It was quite nice inside – light and airy. The side chapels were not too prominent.

Then I went onto the Basilica of Sant Stefano. This is a medieval religious complex. You go into a 11th century church, then into a baptistery ( round smallish building with ( usually) large pulpit ) , 5th century, then into a courtyard and another church and a cloister. Many arches – photo later ( maybe). It was quiet,cool and peaceful.

Next stop was a bookshop that I had been recommended that had several eating places inside it. It was an amazing place. Old building on the outside, insides mostly stripped out, lots of glass and steel supporting the 4 (shallow) floors of books and extras. There was a little café on one floor, a pasta place on another and a fancier restaurant on another. The walls of this were well stocked with wine arranged by region. There were many books on cooking, some interesting cooking gadgets. You could see the inside of the escalator ( up only – you walked down the stairs) I ordered my food and had to pay straight away – unusual. It was nice, but not brilliant. I also had a glass of lambrusco, which comes from this region. One of my books says “ Lambrusco is the light-hearted, lightly bubbled red wine that wine snobs have come to deride.. ..it marries with the rich buttery food of the region well. When you can’t enjoy the sheer unadulterated pleasure of a little bit of (thankfully dry) fizz then surely the fun has gone out of life” Bread came in a folded back paper bag. I’m not sure if you could take what you did not eat home. One couple I saw did, the other people who left before me were business people and did not take their bread. I thought not – bread and tomatoes for 3 days is enough this week.

I then went to an art gallery in a lovely old building that had been recommended to me. I walked around some of the exhibits that were OK. There was a large collection of the work of Bolognese artist Giorgio Morandi. After several rooms of similar collections of vases all entitled ‘Natura morta’ I got it – What we call ‘still life’, Italians call ‘ natura morta’. And I thought that they were the ones that enjoyed life and always put a positive slant on things. 'Still life' sounds much better than ' naturally dead' to me. Maybe I'm missing something and an Italian expert with a large dictionary can enlighten me? Sometimes there was an even number of vases – something I thought was supposed to be aesthetically unpleasing.

I walked back to the train and saw the same group of tents, the same ( well who knows – but there were a lot)) people milling around . I passed a van full of police in riot squad gear. This was at 2.30. What a boring wait.

I sat in the garden for a while and then went to the supermarket for some dinner. I stopped in the local ( 5 doors away ) bar and had a glass of nice white and chatted to the lady. There was noone else there and she was asking all sorts of questions about Australia. I was tired, but still managed OK.