Off to Bologna, Italy

As you can see, I am a tad behind on the blogging, so here goes our arrival in Bologna

Studying my Italian in the airport

Bologna

Our new address on Via Broccaindosso

our street.  We will find out that these porticoes are on almost every street in Bologna.  Once we got settled in we went out to yep find coffee and lunch and a grocery store.

Our first coffee

Lunch was I think found in the university area (a good old cheeseburger and fries)

Under some the porticoes there are old frescoes

The porticoes

a few of the streets and sights

of Bologna

Our patio

Fresh meats and homemade pastas

A little restaurant where we had dinner.  We were the only patrons for quite a while

Yes they eat late here also

On Saturday I got haircut and Terry got color at a little shop just up the street, called Riflessi Hair Studio;  owned by two lovely ladies Luisa and Paola.  Paola took both of us

For Moi a haircut 

For Terry a color

Voila we are beautiful again, 

and just in time for Easter

We cooked in tonight (our first with one of our staples Chicken, vege and salad.

We booked a resevation for 1:00 PM, again just up the street at what turned out to be a great little restaurant where we had a stupendous meal of WAY TOO MUCH FOOD.

we dressed

we ate  

There was a pasta dish (mine was little tortellini in broth, which was really delicious) and then a pork cutlet with ham and cheese on top, sides of roasted vegetables and potatoes and then a marscapone cream and strawberries with the special cake only served at Easter. And wine of course.

Needless to say we were nearly in a food coma by the time we left two hours or so later.  There was an Italian family sitting next to us who spoke a little English.  They had totally different stuff.  What looked like lots of small dishes they shared and then about four kinds of dessert.  The desserts.

We got to talking to them and learned a lot about ordering.  They told us we could order to share, but most people don't and of course one doesn't need to order everything on the menu. Ha.  Anyway, it was a lovely lunch and they gave us a doggy bag because we couldn't eat all of our Pork Cutlets.  Yeah dinner for tomorrow.

Another table behind us was a large family with small children.  They had a wonderful time and came into the restaurant with little easter bags with chocolate and they restaurant gave the a big chocolate egg.  Just like home.

After returning to the apartment and changing into our walking shoes, we went out for a walk.  As we were returning, we passed a small church and heard music coming from inside.  We stepped into see if there was a concert and ended up standing quietly in the back listening to about the last 15 minutes of an Easter Mass in Italian.  The singng which was beautiful was actually the parishioners and a very small choir.  The acoustics in these old churches are wonderful.  A lovely end to a nice Easter.