As when one sees the tower called Garisendafrom underneath its leaning side, and then a cloud
passes over and it seems to lean the more,
thus did Antaeus seem to my fixed gaze
as I watched him bend...
- Divine Comedy, Inferno, XXXI, 136-140[1]
I went solo some days, and met up with friends from North Carolina on other days.
I flew into Milan's Malpensa Airport, took a bus to the main train station, then took a train south to Bologna.
Bologna is a city of about 375,000 population in the metro area. It's not on the main tourist trail, but that's not really fair.
Bologna is just a lovely town - clean, safe and walkable. Like seemingly all of Italy, you can't walk two blocks without running into history and beauty. And terrific restaurants that cost less than the ones back home.
Walking down to the Piazza Maggiore, to my left I saw the impressive Towers of Bologna, which brings the World Trade Center to mind.
The taller one is called the Asinelli while the smaller but more leaning tower is called the Garisenda.
They were built in the early 12th Century, and probably had some sort of military purpose. Apparently, at one time Bologna had about 180 towers, which must have been one amazing sight.
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I walked past the 69th Street Key Food site yesterday. They were working there on a Sunday, and progress continues to be made. The foreman said that it will open in about six weeks. We'll see.
Don't know about the parking lot across the street. It looks awfully cramped and small in there, no matter what they do to it.
4 comments:
What a great photo! As a native Brooklyner of Irish decent, one really misses the Italian atmosphere in N.Y. So much of the NYC feel is from the "Old World." This is one of the things which makes it immortal, like your photo, and like the Twin Towers.
Bravo, and welcome home!
Great place to visit there..I hope that it would be one of the best place to visit there..
I am glad you posted this. Bologna is too often overseen by tourists. Home of the oldest university, in addition to the attractive urban quality shown by your pictures, it has a great food tradition. For a taste of what real tortellini are supposed to be, (not the cheesy varieties we normally get in the US) I recommend stopping in Bologna and ordering a plate.
I am hearing good thoughts about that twin tower but I don't think that it is going to look like this. It is an amazing tower. I am going to visit that one day.
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