Bangor, Cymru

After the pre-session with BCSP ended I took a trip to visit my old university, University of Bangor, Wales.

It was great to visit old friends I hadn't seen in almost 2 year, relax, get a proper english breakfast, and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

We also celebrated my friend Gaz's birthday, visited the favorite local pub, and took a little drive to Beaumaris on Anglesey Island.

Urbino

Last Saturday we headed out early to take an adventure to the pinnacle city of renaissance architecture, Urbino.

Urbino is a small walled city on the top of a hill in the Marche region. It is quaint and beautiful only accessible by car or bus- no trains.

We wandered around Il Palazzo Ducale and saw some of the most important paintings from the renaissance. We also ventured on up to the La Fortezza which has a breath taking view of the city, and we saw the birth place of painter Raffaello.

We also were able to catch a glimpse of traditional 18th and 19th century dances in a piazza just before heading back to Bologna!

Penne, Farfalle and Tagliatelle Oh My!

BCSP organized a pasta making night at Osteria La Traviata.

We were tutored by an adorable old italian lady who has been making pasta by hand for her restaurant for 70 years.


eggs, eggs, eggs and some flour

We made all sorts of different pasta: tagliatelle, farfalle, penne, tortellini, tortelloni which was followed by a delicious meal.

Rivaling Neptunes

In the early 16th Century Florence desired a beautiful statue of the god Neptune in Piazza della Signora for Francesco I de Medici's wedding with the grand duchess Johanna of Austria . Artists came and presented their ideas and one of Bologna's very own artists Jean di Bologna, otherwise known as Giambologna, presented his miniature statue to the city of Florence but it wasn't good enough.

Giambologna was not given the job and instead artist Baccio Bandinelli won the competition. Unfortunately, Bandinelli died before he started carving the piece and so Bartolomeo Ammannati sculpted the Neptune that still stands there today in 1565.


Giambologna was very unhappy about this outcome and when the people of Bologna heard about it they commissioned Giambologna to sculpt his version of Neptune and even give him it's own little piazza- Piazza Nettuno.

Our Neptune (that being Bologna's) is of course much better than Florence's Neptune.
The poor statue in Florence has suffered quite a bit.
- It was used as a wash bin in the 16th Century
- In 1830 a satyr was stolen during a carnival
-In 1580, 2005, and 2007 the statue was a target of vandalism

Piazza Nettuno is the meeting spot of young and old in Bologna. Giambologna's work stands tall for everyone to see.

Colors of Firenze

Sunday lent a beautiful day trip to Florence.
Florence is one of the more romantic cites in Italy- it offers its magnificent Duomo, famous Ponte Vecchio, Arno river, and genuine leather at a good price.



(Piazza Michelangelo)

Left Turn

Madonna San Luca is a church on the top of a little mountain, which in order to get there you need to walk through 666 porticoes.

Over the weekend I set out with a friend to try to climb through the beautiful arches to San Luca. We started walking in the correct direction, however we ended up on a completely different road heading in a completely different direction after we had mistakenly taken a left at a fork in the road.

This wrong turn was very serendipitous in the end.

After walking for a little over an hour we arrived at some steps that lead up a hill. It was very picturesque with apple and pear trees and a breathtaking view at the top. Once at the top we realized that we ended up behind San Luca.


Even though the walk outside of Bologna was long and did not bring us to our planned destination, it was more than worth the adventure, and now this week we will try to actually make it to Madonna San Luca

France in Italy

Last night my friend Meghan and I made crêpes for dinner and they turned out great!

It was a last minute idea so we through together some eggs, flour, water, butter, and salt and mixed up a double batch of batter.

We had savory crêpes with salami milano and havarti like cheese and also sweet crêpes with nutella and banana! Mmmmm