Europe Trip #2 – June 23, 2022 – A Bologna Afternoon

We were checked into our apartment, bedrooms chosen, air conditioning cooling, and naps begun for those who slept fitfully the night before. It was time for Buds and me to explore and find food.

Summoning up his inner Jenny hospitality mindset, Buds had a plan for us to eat lunch in a restaurant where we could take his sister and her family when we see them for a couple hours tomorrow, figure out and practice taking the bus to and from the train station so we could make it easy for them to get around, and get their bus tickets so their short visit could be stress-free. And the great thing was, attempting to plan to help them set us up for an awesome day.

We had a delicious lunch at Bottega Portici. Then we happened to pass an international bookstore and each of us selected a paperback. There is something wonderful about reading on the train.

This article helped us decide what to see today, and has fun “facts” about Bologna.

The leaning towers of Bologna are right by the restaurant and we burst out laughing when we saw how much the one is leaning. I don’t think our pictures truly captured it.

We headed to Piazza Maggiore, but on our way we heard music coming from a side courtyard and walked in to see what we might find. It was a delightful surprise to take a breath and enjoy the cacophony.

When we finally arrived in the Piazza, there was a large stage and many chairs set up. They hold movies and concerts here in the summer.

There’s a legend that if you walk across the plaza on the diagonal, you’ll never graduate from university, so the chairs are saving some people from that fate. 😉

We headed into the Basilica of San Petronio next. We read in different places that it is the 10th or 5th largest church in the world…by volume. That made us laugh. We kept imagining swimming inside the huge swimming pool it would be.

We paid cash to light a candle for Cash, and that we’ve seen and paid for in many countries and in many, many churches and cathedrals. Candles aren’t free. Totally worth it to pay to light a candle for special prayers or loved ones.

What we had not seen before was a foto/video charge. If you wanted to take photos or video, you were supposed to go to the gift shop and pay 2 euros for a wristband to show you had permission. When we paid our euros, we just received a receipt, no wristband, but the woman who sold it to us said that was our proof. No one was checking that we saw, but I’m glad to support in a tiny way the ongoing restoration work of this ancient church.

The second thing we saw that we had not seen before was a sign before you entered reminding people that one of the ways you show respect in this place of worship was by covering your shoulders and knees. If you didn’t have “appropriate” clothing, you could buy disposable clothing for 1 euro.

We were fascinated to see the number of women wearing disposable clothing. Yessa asked me if it was only women, and based on our time there, it was. Buds was wearing shorts, as were several other men and women we saw inside, so it seemed the shoulders were a bigger issue.

I would have liked to take a picture of the sign with the disposable clothes offering, but in addition to the attendant from the church they had outside, they were two military folks with machine guns and I assumed they would prefer not to be photographed.

This church has a fair number of split personalities. The outside has never been finished, giving it a…unique look.

The side chapels inside the church are an intriguing mix of a crazy assortment of styles. This article has interesting information about many chapels across Italy. Basilica of San Petronio houses the “Gifts of The Magi” chapel, which is #13 on this author’s list. We didn’t pay to go inside it, but even from a distance it’s beautiful.

The stained glass all around was amazing.

Buds and I sat in the front row to people watch and have a chat and some quiet moments of peace. We were reminded how much the Catholic church, at least the old church, truly felt the common lay person needed a conduit to talk to God. This is not an altar that invited connection to a personal God. The priest stood on this overwhelming, elaborate stage, to bring you to God.

After purchasing some postcards, we jumped on the bus to the train station.

Bought bus passes for tomorrow, visited with a young Brooklynite who is visiting Italy for the first time and wanted reassurance about his bus, then headed back to our part of town to buy groceries.

Buds had said earlier in the day that Bologna was known for its porticoes and I poo-poohed him.

“Venice has porticoes. Vienna has porticoes. We’ve seen plenty of porticoes.”

I quickly realized how wrong I was. Bologna’s porticoes are vast and omnipresent. As a very fair-skinned person with a love-hate relationship with the sun, they were a revelation. I was disappointed when we had to walk down a street that didn’t have one.

We’re settled in for the night after an at-home meal of gnocchi with pesto or pasta sauce. The Carrefour market where we got groceries had a vegan pesto Yessa and I loved. We’re packing that as our souvenir.

A fun, full day; a good omen of the adventures ahead.