A Weekend in Bologna - March 4th & 5th

Hobo feeding his rat (on his left arm)

Early Friday morning, our class headed for Bologna for an art history "field trip" with Dr. Lev, as she wanted to take us around the city where she studied longer ago than she would tell us.  The bus ride took about 4 1/2 hours or so to get there, and the road took us up into the mountains, where there patches of small towns here and there, surrounded by terraced slopes for vines.  It seemed like it would be an ideal trip--walking around in a Medieval town, eat some great food, and visit an art museum and some churches.  All of that happened, but it was cold and damp for the vast majority of the time.  It wasn't really rainy or anything, but it had recently rained before we got there, and it made everything else colder.

Santa Mara della Vita

Terracotta statues in Santa Maria della Vita

Our bus driver drove like a 'damn animal' (to borrow a Billy Madison quote), and he got stuck in the middle of a roundabout that was kind of on the outskirts of the main part of the town.  So, that of course meant that we walked about a mile or so to our hotel--the Hotel Due Torri (or Two Towers Hotel, due to Bologna's two remaining great towers, one of which is on a slant).  After we dropped all our stuff off, we met Dr. Lev in Piazza Maggiore, Bologna's main square, whence we preceded to tour the city.  We visited a couple neat churches, had lunch, regrouped and headed for more churches.  A funny side note: we went to the food capital of Italy, and...we got McDonald's.  And they didn't have a Euro menu either. This stuff was expensive--over 10 Euro for a meal of just a burger, fries, and drink.  And apparently they don't know what free refills are either.  It had two levels, though, and had a host showing people to open tables, which I thought was kind of funny, considering that this would just be another crappy McDonald's in the US.  One of the more interesting encounters was in front of Santa Maria della Vita, when I saw a guy letting his pet rat drink from the same beer he was drinking.  That and the fact that he was kissing it like weirdos in the US kiss their dogs kinda weirded me out.  The church itself was beautiful, though, and there were terracotta statues making up the scene when Christ was taken down from the cross.  Nicodemus is on the far left, with four women (Mary on the far right, Mary Magdalene second from right, and two others), along with St. John in the middle, contemplating the scene.

From there we proceeded to the University of Bologna, where we were able to see the room where medical students would observe a doctor dissecting a dead body in order for them to learn about all the different parts, how everything worked, etc.  An interesting note, the operating doctor could not even touch the body until he had attended the funeral Mass, or at least one offered in the deceased's name.  Also, there was an overall supervisor sitting in a high chair, and a high window from which a Church official could observe to make sure that the body was not desecrated.  It was really interesting because the whole room was made up of ornately carved wood of gods, important orators, and bodies minus the skin, so that the muscles would show.  I think I saw a statue of me up there somewhere...

Outside view of two chapels of Sette Chiese

Afterward, we ventured on over to San Stefano, also known as Sette Chiese, or "Seven Churches", due to the fact that there are seven churches and chapels that are meant to look like the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.  This way, pilgrims could "visit" Jerusalem without actually going all the way to Jerusalem.  They were truly neat buildings, and one of them (the octagon chapel) held the bones of St. Petronius, the patron saint and protector of Bologna, until they were moved to the Basilica of St. Petronius.  I should have mentioned this earlier, but since I don't have any photos of it (because they wouldn't let us take any, and with good reason which I shall explain), we visited the Basilica in which there is a painting of the last judgment, among other things, including Gothic architecture, a beautiful altar, and a perfectly calculated meridian line.  The last judgment scene depicted in the fresco in a permanently locked side chapel is visible, albeit through bars, but there is a certain someone--Muhammad--who is being tortured by demons, and is about to get his head ripped off.  Apparently, Muslims don't like this too much, and have plotted to blow up the basilica, but have failed in every attempt (this may be why pictures can't be taken inside).

Overall layout of Sette Chiese.  The highlighted one is the
oldest building in the complex, dating to around 450 AD

So, after the Sette Chiese, we had some free time, and some of us wandered around Bologna until dinnertime.  We ended up looking for a hat because it was cold, but Nolan was the only one who got one because most were either too feminine or expensive--just a side note, in Italy, pretty much all apparel except for suits is gender neutral or feminine.  Kinda....interesting....  Anyway, we got to taste the good food that Bologna had to offer at dinner.  We started off with gnocchi and spaghetti sauce, then lasagna, and then a mixture of Italian bacon (not sure exactly what it was), chicken, and vegetables.  What they lacked in portions, they more than made up for in taste.  Aside from the downside of tiny portions, the wine was OK, but a little fizzy, which was not what I was expecting considering the price of the meal (which I'm assuming was expensive). This was a pre-planned meal so we didn't pick out the food, but it was great nonetheless.  We hit the town afterward, but didn't stay out too late because we had to get up early the next morning.

Saturday, March 5

Madonna and Child

Last Eucharist of St. Jerome

We woke up early and had a fairly standard Italian breakfast, with some of the standard cornetti, cappuccino, and the whole bit, but it was nicer than our regular breakfasts at Bernardi because they actually had a) real orange juice (as opposed to the blood orange juice at Bernardi), and b) there was a lot more variety in the foods we actually got.  I'm a little hazy at this point on what exactly the food was, but I do know that I stocked up on what would be mini cinnamon buns in the US, but were mini chocolate buns, but in the same shape as the cinnamon buns.  Anyway, enough about warm tasty chocolate pastries--we all headed out for the Bologna art museum, which held the very best in Northern Italian Renaissance art.  From Perugino to Raphael, to Carracci, there was a lot to see, and it was mostly enjoyable, but it got really warm and stuffy in there, which was a little uncomfortable after awhile, but we didn't end up staying too long.  Afterward, we moved on the Basilica of St. Dominic, which contained one of the more beautiful chapels I've seen in Italy so far.  Back in the day, wealthy Italian families would build private chapels for themselves, but now they are open for the public.  We went to Mass in one of these chapels, but the one we all went to was the chapel of St. Dominic, in whose altar there is an ornate altar containing the bones of St. Dominic, visible from the back.  I stopped in for a prayer, and then we went on to the quickest Mass--clocked at 22 minutes.  I mean, the priest was cookin' it through the liturgy.  It was kind of humorous, and it was a little hard to pay attention when people kept streaming in up until the point of the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

Afterward, we dispersed for lunch, and John, Minh, and I wandered around, and we found an open air, fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, and meat market.  I didn't get anything because it was all too expensive and I didn't know enough Italian. I ended up getting just a bag some hard, dissatisfying olive-flavored (not olive oil, just green olive) breadsticks and a one liter of Coke (which is much better over here because they use real sugar).  After lunch, we gathered our stuff and headed to the bus--apparently the bus couldn't get near enough to our hotel, so we walked about a mile or so, hopped on, and headed home.  Unfortunately, there was a car accident in the mountains, and the Italian police really like to take their time, so we were there for well over an hour. But after that, we headed back to Bernardi after a tiring, but OK weekend in Bologna.  Next up...Assisi.  The weather would turn out to be worse, but the experience much better.