Not my picture (found it on the internet) but this is the piazza during the summer when the films are showing
At the end of June, I started meeting with a second person to do some English conversation practice and earn some more money. He's a nice guy, maybe 35 years old, that works for the University doing some kind of molecular, biochemical research or something. He's got an awesome little Scottish terrier named Ulisse (Ulysses), so the first time we met up we took him for a walk in a nearby park. It was nice, and with this being only the second time I'd gotten together with someone to do English practice, I was already starting to get over my initial reservations about it. There's not much to complain about when you are earning some money simply by going for a walk or sitting around and speaking your native language. It went well, and afterwards I used my spoils from the first gainful employment in a year to meet up with Jessica in the piazza for some dinner. I wanted to show her one of the best spots in Bologna, the little osteria near the university with cheap, homemade food. I made sure she tried the famous tagliatelle al ragu (so famous they don't even have to put it on the menu), and I had some orecchiette ('little ears') pasta that was equally delicious.
The next day I earned a little more cash again through speaking practice, with the first guy I'd started with, then went out immediately afterwards to celebrate with friends from class. We hit up a place for aperitivo, then decided we needed to go out that night. It was Wednesday, after all, so that meant it was free to get into the club in the park. But first, we wanted to get started so we wouldn't be spending a bunch of money at the bar. Someone had a bottle of liquor with them, but no cups or anything to mix it with. Our little group of about eight people ended up roaming the streets of Bologna trying to find the necessary accoutrements, and we managed to get some cups from a coffee shop. We even managed to get a couple of bags of ice by going to a few different cafes and asking nicely! Ice is a lot less common here than you'd think - my friends were amazed when I told them how we can just go to the corner store and get a ten pound bag of ice for a dollar. Here they don't sell bags of ice at all, and you're lucky to get more than a few cubes in any drink you ask for. But we now had a couple bags of the cold stuff, some little paper coffee cups, and something to mix with, so we were good to go. After a brief stop in a club in the center, we ended up once more at the club in the park. It was a good time as always, and that night I discovered that the cheapest thing they had to drink were shots of Wild Turkey. There's a funny Argentinian guy that hangs out with us (he's not in our program) who had never heard of the stuff, so I had to introduce him to it. To put it briefly, I now have a whiskey-drinking buddy. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but at least I'm not alone when I have to stretch my budget!
The evening of the next day, I met the guy with the dog to help him out with a presentation he needed to give in a few days time. I went through the slideshow with him and gave a few little suggestions here and there. It was actually pretty interesting, as it was all about molecular and biochemistry stuff that goes on in the human digestion system. I think I actually managed to learn something, and I was getting paid to do it this time instead of the other way around. After that, I headed back into the city center (he lives in the hills just outside town) and met up with Jessica. We were going to see the film in the piazza that night, but first we stopped in a little cafe right nearby for some dinner. She had been craving some tortellini like we have back home; that is, in a sauce. Here they traditionally eat tortellini just in a broth, but this place had it in a cream sauce as well. I enjoyed a nice little lasagna, which made it a fairly authentic Bolognese meal all around as both kinds of pasta were born here! After dinner we went and got a some seats in one of the cafes lining the piazza - it's much more comfortable to sit in their seats, plus you get table service during the movie. We got some gelato and something to drink to enjoy while we watched the film, and that night it was a classic which I hadn't seen before: The African Queen. It was pretty interesting and we both really enjoyed it, although I did get kind of upset when Katharine Hepburn's character poured out all the gin. What a waste! Anyways, it was a nice night and again kind of surreal to be watching a classic English film under the stars in the middle of an ancient Italian piazza.
The following day, I spent most of the afternoon shoe shopping. I was desperately in need of a new pair and you wouldn't believe what a hassle it is to find some decent looking shoes. I couldn't really justify spending a lot of money on some new ones (mostly $70 - $120 in the stores), but all of the cheap ones at the various open-air markets were just ridiculously, comically ugly. Italy (maybe even Europe in general) is in love with shiny, plastic-y, brightly colored shoes, and even though I was more than willing to spring for the bargain-basement prices, everything I could find was just too damn ugly. And believe me, I looked a lot. I'd been keeping my eyes open for weeks and weeks for a new pair, but it was finally at the point I had to replace my old ones. Unfortunately, that day I still couldn't find a decent pair, so I went home defeated. Later that night, I met up with Jessica again to check out another film in the piazza. First we went for a nice aperitivo, then headed to the square to see the movie. It was the old German silent film 'Metropolis', and they had it subtitled in Italian, English, and French (plus the original German text in the movie). I had seen bits and pieces of the movie before during film classes at ASU, and I had always been wanting to see the whole thing. It was a bit slow, and between that and her early to bed, early to rise schedule, Jessica was fading fast, so we ditched the movie and went for a walk around town to wake up. We didn't stay out long though, and called it a night fairly early, but we made some plans for the upcoming Fourth of July holiday. I was really glad to have another American to celebrate it with!
The next day was July 3rd. Jessica and I met up in the city center, and I gave her my patented tour of Bologna with all the sights. We worked up an appetite walking around the city, so we went to eat at this place on the outskirts of town that Jessica had heard about. Called Victoria Station, it's a bar/pub with an English theme, and lots of American-style food on the menu like burgers, ribs, wings, etc. The place is famous for having a real double-decker English bus on top of the restaurant.
We arrived there around 7pm, which of course made us the early birds because the restaurant was just opening for the evening. They eat so late here! We of course were the first ones, so they sat us down and the waiter started chatting us up. He got really excited when he found out we were from the US. He told me all about how the owner spent years in America, working in restaurants, and he wanted to know what we thought about the menu. He spent about 20 minutes just talking to us until other guests started to trickle in. We decided to go all out for our dinner, since there was so much American type stuff on the menu and it was almost the Fourth. For starters we ordered some hot wings and 'nachos', which ended up being a teeny little bowl of tortilla chips with an even tinier little bowl of red sauce to dip it in (I wouldn't exactly call it salsa). The hot wings were good, albeit they were more flavored with paprika or chili powder instead of a proper buffalo sauce.
Oh what I wouldn't give for a bottle of Frank's Red Hot! We each got a burger for our main course, and it was pretty good as far as the burgers I've had here go. And like any good Miller dinner, we spent half the time planning out what we were going to eat the next day for the Fourth.
After dinner, we went back to the city center and Jessica headed home, while I stayed out and met up with my classmates. We started the evening at the flaming-shots bar, which was a pretty good omen for how the evening would end up. Following that, we went back to the open-air club in the courtyard of a palazzo, where we spent most of the night. A bunch of people decided to head home relatively early in the evening, but a handful of us decided we weren't through with having fun yet. Somehow we decided we needed to go to a club that was on the other side of town, so we thought it would be a good idea to have the three of us pile onto one bike and pedal over there. Not the brightest decision ever. With all three of us on the bike, we made it about a half-foot before the rear wheel completely collapsed and crumpled from our weight. Doh! We all fell to the ground in a heap, laughing hysterically. At that point we came to the conclusion that it was probably for the best if we just headed home, but we still had the problem of the broken bike. Solution? Jump up and down on the back wheel until it straightened out, of course! We made it straight enough to 'roll', that is, move it forward as long as we pushed it hard enough (which took considerable force). I was working up a good sweat pushing it towards Riccardo's house, and when the others stopped to get pizza they took turns feeding me bites as I labored against the ruined bike. In hindsight it probably would have been easy enough to just pick the bike up and carry it, but that didn't occur to us after such a rowdy night out.
I was only able to get a few hours of sleep that night before having to wake up and meet Jessica once again in the city center - partly because I woke up relatively early, and partly because it was so incredibly hot that I couldn't fall asleep. Very few homes here have air conditioning, and we are unfortunately not one of them. Anyways, we met up and went to one of the only grocery stores in the city that is open on a Sunday, where we loaded up on Fourth of July goodies. We pretty much planned on spending the whole day at my place listening to, watching, and eating all things American. We cracked open some beers and started a movie, then made the main course. We don't have a grill, but that wasn't going to stop us from cooking up some good ol' American burgers on the stovetop. Some buttered sweet corn from a can and patriotic music in the background rounded out the meal. We watched another movie, this time National Treasure, to get a little dose of American 'history' for the holiday. Halfway through the movie we stopped to make some very traditional, all-American desserts: oreos and milk, and smores! The smores were pretty interesting. Of course all we had to use for a flame was the stovetop, and things got a little bit messy. The marshmallows were a little strange too - they don't have big white ones here, just medium-sized ones that are shaped kind of strangely and with lots of colors, but they taste the same. And graham crackers don't exist here! So we improvised with some cookies that taste kind of similar and already come with a thick chocolate coating on top of them.
We enjoyed our makeshift smores, and finished up our red, white, and blue evening watching the movie. When Maria, one of my roommates, got home later that night, I introduced her to the smore and she immediately fell in love with it, as can be expected. Don't say I never did anything for you, Italy. It was a good trade too, because she'd brought home a standing fan for me to use so I could actually get some sleep that night. I could part with a few smores for that!
Still more stories left to tell - stay tuned gentle readers!
The next day I earned a little more cash again through speaking practice, with the first guy I'd started with, then went out immediately afterwards to celebrate with friends from class. We hit up a place for aperitivo, then decided we needed to go out that night. It was Wednesday, after all, so that meant it was free to get into the club in the park. But first, we wanted to get started so we wouldn't be spending a bunch of money at the bar. Someone had a bottle of liquor with them, but no cups or anything to mix it with. Our little group of about eight people ended up roaming the streets of Bologna trying to find the necessary accoutrements, and we managed to get some cups from a coffee shop. We even managed to get a couple of bags of ice by going to a few different cafes and asking nicely! Ice is a lot less common here than you'd think - my friends were amazed when I told them how we can just go to the corner store and get a ten pound bag of ice for a dollar. Here they don't sell bags of ice at all, and you're lucky to get more than a few cubes in any drink you ask for. But we now had a couple bags of the cold stuff, some little paper coffee cups, and something to mix with, so we were good to go. After a brief stop in a club in the center, we ended up once more at the club in the park. It was a good time as always, and that night I discovered that the cheapest thing they had to drink were shots of Wild Turkey. There's a funny Argentinian guy that hangs out with us (he's not in our program) who had never heard of the stuff, so I had to introduce him to it. To put it briefly, I now have a whiskey-drinking buddy. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but at least I'm not alone when I have to stretch my budget!
The evening of the next day, I met the guy with the dog to help him out with a presentation he needed to give in a few days time. I went through the slideshow with him and gave a few little suggestions here and there. It was actually pretty interesting, as it was all about molecular and biochemistry stuff that goes on in the human digestion system. I think I actually managed to learn something, and I was getting paid to do it this time instead of the other way around. After that, I headed back into the city center (he lives in the hills just outside town) and met up with Jessica. We were going to see the film in the piazza that night, but first we stopped in a little cafe right nearby for some dinner. She had been craving some tortellini like we have back home; that is, in a sauce. Here they traditionally eat tortellini just in a broth, but this place had it in a cream sauce as well. I enjoyed a nice little lasagna, which made it a fairly authentic Bolognese meal all around as both kinds of pasta were born here! After dinner we went and got a some seats in one of the cafes lining the piazza - it's much more comfortable to sit in their seats, plus you get table service during the movie. We got some gelato and something to drink to enjoy while we watched the film, and that night it was a classic which I hadn't seen before: The African Queen. It was pretty interesting and we both really enjoyed it, although I did get kind of upset when Katharine Hepburn's character poured out all the gin. What a waste! Anyways, it was a nice night and again kind of surreal to be watching a classic English film under the stars in the middle of an ancient Italian piazza.
The following day, I spent most of the afternoon shoe shopping. I was desperately in need of a new pair and you wouldn't believe what a hassle it is to find some decent looking shoes. I couldn't really justify spending a lot of money on some new ones (mostly $70 - $120 in the stores), but all of the cheap ones at the various open-air markets were just ridiculously, comically ugly. Italy (maybe even Europe in general) is in love with shiny, plastic-y, brightly colored shoes, and even though I was more than willing to spring for the bargain-basement prices, everything I could find was just too damn ugly. And believe me, I looked a lot. I'd been keeping my eyes open for weeks and weeks for a new pair, but it was finally at the point I had to replace my old ones. Unfortunately, that day I still couldn't find a decent pair, so I went home defeated. Later that night, I met up with Jessica again to check out another film in the piazza. First we went for a nice aperitivo, then headed to the square to see the movie. It was the old German silent film 'Metropolis', and they had it subtitled in Italian, English, and French (plus the original German text in the movie). I had seen bits and pieces of the movie before during film classes at ASU, and I had always been wanting to see the whole thing. It was a bit slow, and between that and her early to bed, early to rise schedule, Jessica was fading fast, so we ditched the movie and went for a walk around town to wake up. We didn't stay out long though, and called it a night fairly early, but we made some plans for the upcoming Fourth of July holiday. I was really glad to have another American to celebrate it with!
The next day was July 3rd. Jessica and I met up in the city center, and I gave her my patented tour of Bologna with all the sights. We worked up an appetite walking around the city, so we went to eat at this place on the outskirts of town that Jessica had heard about. Called Victoria Station, it's a bar/pub with an English theme, and lots of American-style food on the menu like burgers, ribs, wings, etc. The place is famous for having a real double-decker English bus on top of the restaurant.
We arrived there around 7pm, which of course made us the early birds because the restaurant was just opening for the evening. They eat so late here! We of course were the first ones, so they sat us down and the waiter started chatting us up. He got really excited when he found out we were from the US. He told me all about how the owner spent years in America, working in restaurants, and he wanted to know what we thought about the menu. He spent about 20 minutes just talking to us until other guests started to trickle in. We decided to go all out for our dinner, since there was so much American type stuff on the menu and it was almost the Fourth. For starters we ordered some hot wings and 'nachos', which ended up being a teeny little bowl of tortilla chips with an even tinier little bowl of red sauce to dip it in (I wouldn't exactly call it salsa). The hot wings were good, albeit they were more flavored with paprika or chili powder instead of a proper buffalo sauce.
Oh what I wouldn't give for a bottle of Frank's Red Hot! We each got a burger for our main course, and it was pretty good as far as the burgers I've had here go. And like any good Miller dinner, we spent half the time planning out what we were going to eat the next day for the Fourth.
After dinner, we went back to the city center and Jessica headed home, while I stayed out and met up with my classmates. We started the evening at the flaming-shots bar, which was a pretty good omen for how the evening would end up. Following that, we went back to the open-air club in the courtyard of a palazzo, where we spent most of the night. A bunch of people decided to head home relatively early in the evening, but a handful of us decided we weren't through with having fun yet. Somehow we decided we needed to go to a club that was on the other side of town, so we thought it would be a good idea to have the three of us pile onto one bike and pedal over there. Not the brightest decision ever. With all three of us on the bike, we made it about a half-foot before the rear wheel completely collapsed and crumpled from our weight. Doh! We all fell to the ground in a heap, laughing hysterically. At that point we came to the conclusion that it was probably for the best if we just headed home, but we still had the problem of the broken bike. Solution? Jump up and down on the back wheel until it straightened out, of course! We made it straight enough to 'roll', that is, move it forward as long as we pushed it hard enough (which took considerable force). I was working up a good sweat pushing it towards Riccardo's house, and when the others stopped to get pizza they took turns feeding me bites as I labored against the ruined bike. In hindsight it probably would have been easy enough to just pick the bike up and carry it, but that didn't occur to us after such a rowdy night out.
Flaming marshmallow goo is dangerous when you're as hairy as I am. Also, notice the chocolate is melting simply from the ambient air temperature...
We enjoyed our makeshift smores, and finished up our red, white, and blue evening watching the movie. When Maria, one of my roommates, got home later that night, I introduced her to the smore and she immediately fell in love with it, as can be expected. Don't say I never did anything for you, Italy. It was a good trade too, because she'd brought home a standing fan for me to use so I could actually get some sleep that night. I could part with a few smores for that!
Still more stories left to tell - stay tuned gentle readers!
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I was not a fan of either Hepburn or Bogey, but for some reason, The African Queen is one of my favorite old movies. (And I hate the part where she dumps out all the gin, too. You're right. It was a terrible waste.)
ReplyDeleteLove, Mom