DAY 2 - WHY BOLOGNA IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE CITIES

We spent the morning getting reacquainted with the central part of Bologna. About 5 years ago, we stayed in Bologna for a week, so it was nice getting reacquainted with it, helping me remember the reasons it is one of my favorite cities. Here are some of the reasons I like it so much:

Not touristy: Although it is a wonderful city, other than in the central square, it isn’t full of tourists.

Architecture: It is a very old city, dating back to before the Middle Ages. 
The central part of the city has preserved many of the old buildings, which feature 2d stories which extend out over the sidewalks and form what are known as “porticos”, which are covered sidewalks featuring arches.

This is the interior of the public library, which is housed in what I believe is an old palace, built over some even older ruins which you can see through the clear floor.  Here Marge is resting in a very modern chair while being ogled by a man a bit older than her.



















Good Food: It has an abundance of good restaurants. I don’t remember having a bad meal there. As a dedicated eater, this is really important to me in guiding my travels.
University Town: Bologna is home to Bologna University, the oldest in the western world. There are also a number of other universities in the city, so although I don’t think of it as a university town, there are a lot of college students in the city.

NICE LUNCH / LIGHT DINNER

We decided to have a big lunch and a light dinner, so we chose CESARI, a restaurant we had enjoyed when we were here last time.

Since our family style of ordering had worked well last night, we tried it again, with my sister Ann doing the ordering. We had several different kinds of pasta again, including rabbit ravioli, mixed salad, mixed grilled veggies, grilled eggplant, and, of course plenty of wine. Ann pointed out that over our 2 restaurant meals we had had at least 5 different kinds of pasta so far – nice start to our Italian dining adventure.