October 16, 2006

The Italian Job

After 3 planes, 4 trains and 51 hours travelling I finally arrived in the City of Bologna in Northern Italy. This has been the longest trip I've ever done and navigating Milano after being awake for 45 hours straight proved to be an almost insurmountable challenge. Everything was in Italian, no-one spoke English and I was fast approaching the point of complete physical exhaustion.

Everything here is old, the airport felt like I was walking in the 1970's, there's no modern malls, big supermarkets, or chain stores. Grocery Shopping is done at several small vendors, the butchery, the baker, and yes, there is probably a candle stick maker around here somewhere too! There is also small fruit and vegetable stores that look like they haven't changed for 100's of years. Today I'm working in Anna's office at the University of Bologna, which is 918 years old...

So far I been been getting of over the jet-lag and the dodgy aeroplane food—for the first two days I had a very upset stomach and was feeling rather ill. The food here is quite different to what I thought Italian food was. They put Olive Oil on everything and I mean everything, peas, beans, carrots, broccoli, potatoes, pasta, they're all coated with oil. Bread they eat plain with nothing on it, and at the home where I'm staying they keep the dough pre-prepared in the fridge and bake it fresh each day.

I also found out why Anna and her flatmates don't have a car, apart from the fact there are no and I mean no car parks, petrol is over $3 per litre—and we thought $1.70/litre was bad!!

Below is a photo taken from my bedroom window at about 7am yesterday. Each morning the bells of the Duomo (The cathedral in Centro [the city centre]) ring to call people to mass just after dawn. On Sunday there are several masses in the morning, so they go to town on the bells—there's no such thing as a Sunday morning sleep-in here!! Tomorrow I'm heading to Firenze and Sienna in Toscana, I'll post again in a few days.

View from my window

Posted by Matt at October 16, 2006 11:29 AM

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