Dove siamo?

We are staying in the historic center of a beautiful northern Italian city, Bologna.  We planned to return to the area where we spent a year in familgia doing a year-long sabbatical in 2008-2009.  This time we're just in due, celebrating 25 years of marriage and not waiting until we retire to enjoy some time away.

Maybe you read the NY Times article about Bologna in August?  I saw it before we left and quickly ignored it, scared to hear any news that might make me regret our plans.

For now, I'll share some pictures and descriptions of our area, maybe later I'll address the NY Times piece.

This is a map of Bologna's historic center.  It's a medival town, originally surrounded by a wall.  The part shown here is inside the wall, though only parts of the wall remain.  Image from this link.

This is the 'block' we live on, in via Marconi.  The arcades, or portici are typical of Bologna.  Today it's raining and I walked to class, which is just under 2 km from our place.  I walked almost entirely under porticoes all the way there.

Some portici here are medival.  I go under one on my way to school that was built in 1250.  You see Gibbs here under one in via dell'Archiginnasio that is likely from the 1500s.

Our block is WAY newer than either of those, finished by the Fascists in the 1930s.  Despite its youth, our building honors the style that is typical of the city.

Our apartment is about 700 sq ft.  We have one room with a kitchen, dining area, and couch, and this incredible (to us), yet totally typical view of the Bolognese skyline.  We also have a bedroom that doubles as Gibbs' office.  It's not a lot of space, but it's more than enough, easy to clean, and feels like home already.