With our bikes already stowed away for the flight home, we’re on foot today. Always the more ambitious half of the team, Rachael has come up with a pair of hikes, one an out and back and the other a loop, that will carry her high up into the hills west of the city. She shares them with me to get my feedback, under our new plan to have me perform a safety/reality check so she doesn’t find herself skidding down a precarious 35% rocky slope on her bum again. Both look fine, she goes with the loop, and has a fine walk that I’m sure she’ll share with you before long after she’s gotten settled in at our studio apartment in Portland and is over jet lag. If you don’t hear from her soon, drop her a nagging comment so she doesn’t forget.
I’m not that ambitious myself, and anyway I’m really more interested in looking around Bologna to see if it still seems as attractive and enticing as it did when we were too briefly here three years ago. And it does - in fact, I think I love Bologna and hope we come back again some year for a still longer stay. I’m thinking it would be a fine place to begin and end a tour of Northern Italy and maybe cross through the mountains into Austria and Bavaria when the right time comes.
Not much else to say though because I’m pretty horribly jet-legged too, but at least I can throw out some photos from the day. Nearly everything here comes from within a few blocks of the Piazza Maggiore.
Built in 1172, Torresotto di Porta Nova was part of the outer walls of the city. Although they’ve mostly disappeared over time, Bologna still includes many remnants of the multiple walls that ringed the city, new ones added as the city expanded.
The facade of the Basilica of San Petronio, the most prominent building on Piazza Maggiore. Begun in 1390, the facade was never completed; but completion is finally planned over six centuries later, under a design team that won an international competition for the project in 2017.
Lyle McLeodThis must have been the inspiration for kids book “Where the Wild Things Are”. It’s crazy what you can find in these church paintings and frescos. Great capture! Reply to this comment 10 months ago
Scott AndersonTo Lyle McLeodIt looks like it, doesn’t it? Certainly would encourage you to lead a clean life. Reply to this comment 10 months ago
The Archiginnasio of Bologna, another of the important structures surrounding Piazza Maggiore. Built in the 16th century, it was originally the main building of the city’s university.
There’s more to the day than Rachael’s long and my short walk though. By prior arrangement, we meet at around two in front of a restaurant we had picked our for our main meal of the day. There’s unhappiness and some unminced oaths expressed when a starving Rocky shows up and learns that there are no free tables, but the day is saved when we find a quite satisfactory substitute a few blocks away. That’s another thing I love about this city - I think you could stay here for months having an excellent lunch at a different spot each day. Saying you’re spoiled for choice is an understatement.
That’s a wrap though. The tour really is over now. We head back to our hotel after lunch to repack, make a last brief foray out for gelato, and then crash early. We have an early departure tomorrow, and the alarm is set for about 3:30. We’re exhausted already just thinking about the day ahead.
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Lyle McLeodThanks for taking all of us along on another great tour. Safe travels back to Portland. Hope AC treats you, and your bikes, well. Reply to this comment 10 months ago
Emily SharpI have not been in service range for a lot of your tour, and then have been super busy with a new job the past month, so I haven't checked in every day. But it looks like you've made the most of your spring tour despite the weather and health obstacles. Hope you can get some good treatment and outcomes while in America so that you can ride hills without worry once again. All the best. Reply to this comment 10 months ago
