By the time I returned from the airport, it was already getting on into the afternoon. I took Ry to one of my favorite places for aperitivo, where we enjoyed some beers on their patio and got in some good people watching (the Italian national pastime). Plans for the evening involved meeting up with my friends from class to go out, so we headed home after our meal to get ready. Wine bottles in hand, we went over to the house where everyone was meeting up. After some generous pre-gaming while waiting for everyone to arrive, our sizeable posse rolled out and we made our way towards a popular summer party spot, Villa Serena, which is just a huge villa that's been turned into a club and party venue. During the summer, they set up bar tents all over the huge greenspace surrounding the villa and put out lawn chairs and couches for people to chill on. We all hung out there for most of the night, dancing and imbibing. At one point Ryan and I decided we needed to sing the national anthem, which I'm sure was a treat for all those listening.
As the night wore on, people started heading home. My friend Saar lives pretty close to the place, and invited us to continue the evening at her place with more drinks and Guitar Hero (yeah!). Now who could refuse an offer like that? We marched to her place, and commenced to playing video games and eating stroopwafels, which are my new favorite thing: thin waffle cookies with a layer of sweet caramel inside, ie, perfect drunk food.
We played through the early morning, since there weren't any buses running at that time anyway and it was most definitely too far to walk home. At some point Saar let us know we had about three minutes to catch the first bus of the day, so we booked it down the six flights of stairs and up the street to the bus stop, where the bus was arriving just ahead of us. The bus driver saw us running after him, and thankfully stopped to let us on. Another successful night!
We hit the hay hard and slept in, and when we awoke on Saturday afternoon I realized Saar had sent us home with a care package of stroopwafels and a guidebook to Rome, where Ryan and I were planning to go in a few days. Not a bad take for an evening out! We used the afternoon to do a little sightseeing around Bologna (one of many tours I would be giving over the next few months, as it turns out).
A little piazza near the university quarter, where all the weirdos hang out (not including us).
On the piazza. To the left is a building which used to be the stables for the rich people in the area; now it's been transformed into a cafe/restaurant/nightclub.
Tiny Italian car, with Ryan for scale. Hey, at least it's a convertible!
On the main piazza, with the cathedral, Neptune fountain, and other assorted historical buildings.
The memorial in the main piazza dedicated to all the partisans that fought and died for freedom against the Nazis during the occupation. Each little tile in the glass case is a portrait of one of the partisans; each one is about 3"x4".
The 13th century Palazzo Re Enzo, opposite the cathedral on the piazza.
Ryan was really excited about the cathedral!
I took Ry by one of Bologna's little-known secrets: in one of the 14th century buildings, an ancient arrow protrudes from the portico high above pedestrians' heads.
Ry also got to see how Bologna used to look in the middle ages: criss-crossed by canals, much like Venice. Only a few, like this one, still remain visible in the city; over hundreds of years, they were built over, but still remain utilized underneath Bologna.
After our tour, we got some delicious sandwiches at the same student-favorite osteria where we had eaten our last meal with Alee a few nights previously. There were already plans again for going out with my classmates, so after the meal I took Ryan with me to see the local grocery store and pick up party favors for the night. We had a fun little conversation when we were there; stopping by the deli counter, the older guy running the place could tell we weren't Italians so he asked us where we came from. Seeing as he deals with meat all day, I thought his response was pretty funny upon finding out we were from Arizona; the first thing he said was 'Ah, Arizona - cowboys! Lots of steak!' Gotta love it. We continued on our grocery run and then headed home to get ready to go out that evening. We met up with the others in the piazza near school, where we pre-gamed on a couple bottles of wine. The others wanted to go to a popular club which is out on the edge of the city, but Ryan and I were a bit hesitant because we were planning on waking up fairly early to catch a train to Rome the next day, and a night out to that club would definitely not be conducive towards such an early start. However, once the wine started setting in, we both became pretty confident that we would have no problem going out that night AND waking up at the crack of dawn to catch a train. So of course we agreed to go along. I think we all see where this is going... But before leaving for the club, I wanted Ry to experience the awesomeness of the bar that does shots on fire, so the two of us stopped there first. A few flaming shots later and we were off to a night of dancing and more craziness, which lasted altogether too long into the night. Or should I say morning. By the time we got back home, we had about an hour to take a nap before getting up and catching our train. We can swing that, right?
WRONG!
We managed to sleep through the alarm all the way from 7am to noon. DOH! There were plenty of other trains to Rome though, we'd just be there a good five hours later than we had planned... such are the lives of socialites like ourselves! Ryan was leaving on a flight out of Rome in two days, but I'd spent a night there with him at a hostel before returning to Bologna the next day. He packed his giant travelling backpack, I threw some clothes in my bag, we made a couple sandwiches for the train and then we were out the door and off to the station. Ryan generously got us some tickets on the fast train to Rome, which aren't cheap, but we got there a lot faster than if we took the regular train. Still it was a good two-plus hour journey. The hostel we stayed at was close to the train station there in Rome, so it was mercifully a short walk. The place had a reputation for being one of the better hostels in all of Europe, and when we got there we could see why. It was pretty clean, looked secure, was definitely run by professionals, and they even had their own bar/lounge/game room inside. In the downstairs beer pong room (you read that right) the walls were covered in messages scrawled by past guests, and after just a minute we noticed some messages left by fellow Sun Devils! Pretty cool, but then again there are 60,000 new Sun Devils every year so I guess it's bound to happen. We put our stuff away in our room, and settled down with a couple drinks on the bar's patio in front of the hostel. Right away we met a slew of interesting characters: an Australian, a New Zealander, and a number of other Americans. We sat there for a while just meeting and chatting with people over some beers, until it was time to get some grub. Our motley crew of about eight people headed out in search of food; unfortunately it was a bit of a hike to get to the part of the city where there were some restaurants. We searched for a while trying to find something that wasn't too touristy, but eventually caved in and went to some kind of pseudo-Irish pub. We had some pretty decent pizzas there, even if it was a tourist trap, and headed back to the hostel to see what would happen for the night. After a while, we all reconnected in the hostel's bar, which was awesome for several reasons, not the least of which are a) they sold entire bottles of wine on the cheap and b) the house shot, ominously dubbed "The Chuck Norris Round House Kick to the Face". And that, my friends, is exactly what it feels like. A deadly mix of Jagermeister, Sambuca, Absinthe, and Tobasco sauce... so nasty you have to try it!
The bartendress pouring us a lil Chuck:
Waiting for the shots; one of the New Zealanders we met was really excited to be out of New Zealand:
We prepare to suffer the consequences of this terrible decision:
Enhanced for emphasis, here is the immediate aftermath of the Chuck Norris Roundhouse Kick to the Face:
I don't even know how to describe the sensation of drinking that hellish affront to humanity. I suppose it would be like getting punched in the junk by a little person while licking the bottom of Gary Busey's garbage can and having Satan himself simultaneously pee on you and whip you with a fiery demon lash. Kind of like that.
So, yeah, we only did one.
After that, we headed out for some fresh air. We wandered towards the Spanish Steps area, hoping to find a bar or something, but there appeared to be absolutely no such establishment in the midst of this capital city. And the streets were practically a ghost town; we were the only ones wandering around, and it wasnt even that late at night. I guess all the action in Rome happens outside of the ancient city center. But we still had a good time wandering about, and we had the Spanish Steps all to ourselves.
After a while, nature started to call, and with there being no establishments open in the area, we set off to find a dark corner somewhere (pretty common in Italy, actually). The lucky corner that was chosen seemed legit at first, but after all was said and done we looked upwards and realized it was an angle between a church and a defense department/army building, covered in perimeter security cameras. Whoever was watching must have been asleep, or else was just laughing too hard to do anything about it. Either way, we weren't about to stick around to find out.
Wanted men?:
When we made it back to the rest of the group, we found the New Zealander bartering with one of the many immigrants in Italy that make a living on the streets by selling completely random stuff out of plastic bags. Apparently the guy was trying to sell us beers for five euro a pop, but the Kiwi was trying to talk him into a bulk discount. After several rounds of negotiations, he talked the vendor into 100 euro for 50 beers or some such nonsense. The actual number escapes my memory; the point being that the vendor was totally serious, and we had to talk our comrade out of blowing 100 euro on beer in one go. We hung out for a bit, but Ry and I headed back to the hostel fairly early. We'd had a solid week of living it up and hanging out, but unfortunately our quality time was drawing to a close. I had an exam two days from then, so I needed to return to Bologna the following morning to prepare. Ryan would stay another day in Rome, and fly out while I was neck deep in a WTO trade regulations test.
But, we still had some time left. We awoke early-ish, and I decided to take a later train home so we could go into the city and wander around a bit. We grabbed a greasy breakfast of bacon and egg sandwiches at the hostel, and then set out for the Capuccin Crypt. I visited it for the first time when I was in Rome over Christmas of last year (see that blog entry and pictures here: http://justinitaly.blogspot.com/2009/12/roman-holiday.html), but it was so cool I thought Ryan should go check it out for himself. A short recap for those too lazy to look up the old post: it's a multi-chambered crypt beneath an old church in the heart of Rome in which the bones of Capuccin monks were preserved, separated, and turned into grotesque sculptures in myriad shapes and arrangements. Pretty cool stuff. So, we checked that out, and decided to grab some lunch before I had to leave. We swung by the hostel so I could pick up my bag, and when we arrived we found our new friends from the night before a little worse for the wear. The Kiwi had somehow destroyed one of his shoes, so he tagged along with us on our search for food, hoping to find a place to buy a new pair. We had a pretty good lunch in a little cafeteria type place that was totally devoid of any tourists (always a good sign), and then sought out a department store that was supposedly in the area. After a good deal of walking, we finally found the place. It was definitely one of those uber-fashion (and uber-expensive) Italian places, so after a bit of looking around we left the poor fella to contemplate his expensive-to-replace shenanigans from the night before. I needed to catch a train soon anyway, so Ryan and I started off in the direction of the station. It was just a few days after Alee had left, and it sucked having to say goodbye once more; after nine months with little to no contact with anyone from back home, I'd gotten used to hanging out with my best friends again, and now that it was coming to an end it was like going off alone to Italy all over. But I am really glad Ry came out to visit me along with Alee; it's one of the nicer surprises I've had in my life, that's for sure! We said our goodbyes, and I headed off towards home. Getting back into the rhythm of school was definitely not easy after such a fun filled couple of weeks. As soon as I got home that evening, I had to settle back in and hit the books. Time waits for no man, and there was a test the next day; of course the adventures would continue as well, but like always, that is a story for another time!
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