Eat, Pray and Eat, Love and Eat

(Day 8 & 9 Adriatic Sea Expedition Riomaggiore to Bologna) 6 May 2015

Breakfast in the usual spot. Put our dirty clothes in at coin-op Laundromat and ran around taking last minute photos and video.

The luggage was a challenge to get on the train. Way too much for two people to carry. We’ll have to take care of this somehow.

I drank two 66CL bottles of Birra Moretti, Italy’s tall boys, on the train. People drink cans and bottles of beer just about anywhere here and it doesn’t seem to be a problem. Where has the United States gone wrong with it’s excessive prohibition on alcohol consumption in public?

Excellent graffiti on trains in Italy! I miss this in New York City. This piece is from the university area of Bologna (more on this in a bit). I didn't take any from the train window unfortunately.

I didn’t have much expectation for Bologna. Maybe this is why I loved it so much. Old, old buildings. Feels very medieval, probably is. Our hotel is on the fourth floor right in the middle of town. It has one of those old school elevators like the one in the film Angle Heart, just much cleaner (this photo borrowed from the interwebs from the Angel Heart film).

There are about one million inhabitants of Bologna and it’s first settlements date back at least to 1000 BC. The Celts ruled this city way back when and now it’s home to the oldest university in the world, University of Bologna, founded in 1088. This is the university area:

Bologna is known for it’s food and Vân and I are ready to put the weight we lost walking in Cinque Terre back on via Bolognese sauce, tortellini and lasagna, all originating from this city.

You know that toxic luncheon “meat,” Bologna Americans feed their kids? Yes, that originated here as well. But it’s actually animal flesh in Italy, not… whatever our food factories produce for us.

My Bologna has a first name,

It's O-S-C-A-R.

My bologna has a second name,

It's M-A-Y-E-R.

Oh I love to eat it everyday,

And if you ask me why I say,

Cause' Oscar Mayer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A!!!!

It’s unlikely you forgot the commercial but if you weren’t born before 1973, here it is: