Bologna Continues...

Bologna cont.:

As our day in bologna continued, we wondered around the city and happened upon a fountain. The Neptune fountain! This fountain is located in the Piazza Nettuno. This fountain was commissioned by the cardinal legate for his uncle who had just become Pope. The fountain was designed by Tommaso Laureti in 1536. I especially liked this fountain, because it is seem so outrageous for the time period that it was constructed in. The women have water spouting out of their breasts. I find the fountain quite beautiful, but I am still shocked that it was accepted.

Not far from the fountain was the tower. Kayley insisted on climbing it, while I wasn’t too keen on the idea I decided it couldn’t hurt. The tower we climbed was one of 2 towers still standing in bologna. Due to Kayley’s extra project on towers, I have found myself looking for the towers everywhere we go. This tower was the straight one, the other is leaning but it is not climbable. Consisting of just about 1000 steps up and down, I am definitely getting my workout in. as we were climbing the stairs remained constant, unlike some other buildings we had climbed. Once we arrived at the top, the views were spectacular. It was nice to look out and see the entire city in its entire splendor. Until it began to rain and at that altitude, the wind was picking up as well. And then….. It began to SNOW! So that was that, we descended back down to the ground. At this point we moseyed our way through the streets heading back to our bed and breakfast. We were all so tired that we decided to be true Italians for the night…… take a nap and go to dinner really late!

We woke from our nap around 8:30 or so and head out towards the college district of Bologna to find something to eat. It was quite intimidating, we hadn’t seen that many Italians our age in a concentrated area yet and I speak for myself when I say I was being stared at. We finally came to a place that looked good enough, walked in and sat down. The place was filled with young people ranging from 18 to 25. We sat patiently and tried to not look so much like Americans, although it was hard to mistake. I ordered a pizza that was quite tasty. Half way through our dinner a large group of Italians came and sat at the table closest to us and began playing cards. They were extremely loud but it was interesting to see them interacting and I realized that we are not all that different after all. On our way back to the bed and breakfast, we kept ourselves occupied by glancing in all of the bars we happened across and the nightlife that was increasing as the hours did.

Saturday morning, we woke up slightly later that we had wanted to. We stopped in for a cappuccino and croissant from our new found favorite place, and then we were off to the train station. We were heading to Ferrara!! Once we arrived in Ferrara, we were greeted by an extremely lovely castle and moat in the center of town. Before exploring the castle, we decided to have a look around the market which was very close and small. The venders were less likely to bargain, but we attributed that to the fact that they didn’t need to. They don’t have any competition in the city. I purchased a few knickknacks and we were on our way.

The Castle Estense is one of the oldest castles that still have a moat around it. This castle has 3 entrances with drawbridges. These are still there, but they have been permanently left down. The castle does have a tower; however I did not climb it. I have to admit that I was slightly disappointed with the castle once inside. The exterior is so beautiful and I thought that surely there would have been something staged inside to make it look as it would have. It did not!!

The only thing of great interest to me in the interior was the ceiling décor. The ceilings were elaborate and detailed.

After leaving the castle we mingled around the city! Seeing that there was nothing left to see we headed back to bologna. I’m sure you can guess, but next came another nap!! YAY.

Dinner came next and that is a evening all unto itself.