Mi Sposto in Bici

Read on if you want to hear about the video game I'm planning based on riding a bike in Bologna. 

One of the very first things I did when we arrived was get myself a bike. I was really looking forward to spending a year in a town where we can get around on public transportation, walking, and cycling.  

As our Italian host-daughter, Annalisa, put it, Bologna was made for getting around by bike!  Bologna is mostly flat and the distances are not far.  Add to that the bike racks tucked (sometimes, partially) under the porticoes and there's a lot of reasons to ride here.  Here's a picture of me riding back from the pool last week (in a quiet spot where a selfie was safe).

Riding a bike in Bologna is no doubt very different from riding a bike in Copenhagen, or Amsterdam, or Paris, or Rome, or Palermo, but I'd like to propose a video game in which urban bike riding comes with levels for each of these cities and you have to quickly figure out what the cultural rules of the road are for everything you encounter, and then you have to try not to get smooshed nor run over any pedestrians.  Which cities would you add?  Pictured- the parcheggio di bici da noi (the bike rack in front of our apartment)

Here's what I have discovered about Bologna rules of the road and a list of the characters in the game: 

• Busses and trucks follow all the rules but also can sometimes take up every inch of the road they are on- be very careful around these!
• Cars here also follow the rules, and they are used to sharing the road with bikes and pedestrians and (almost) always yield to bikes and people in crosswalks.  I suggest making eye contact as you enter a bike crossing, and when in doubt on the road on your bike, take up space like a car.
• Vespas and motor cycles are opportunistic and will pass cars and busses and trucks in made up lanes between traffic to get to the front of the line, but they stop for all red lights.
• Delivery drivers on ebikes do whatever they want.  They don't stop for red lights.  They can go as fast as Vespas, they sometimes drive on sidewalks and in aree pedonali (walking traffic only). 
• Other bikes and battery powered stand up scooters go everywhere anytime- they turn left on red lights, sneaking wherever they fit.  Occasioanlly people use hand signals to let you know what they are going to do.  Some people even ride under the portici, where you are supposed to get off and move your bike by hand with pedestrians.  This group is the most distracted, smoking, talking on phones, or looking at smartphone screens are the most common simultaneous activities.
• Pedestrians have the right of way, and are supposed to cross streets at white striped cross walks, but they do whatever they want.  They can be the most dangerous for cyclists as they come out of nowhere.
  

A wrinkle for the Bologna level of this proposed game is pavement.  There are several kinds which each offer unique challenges.  Here are the 5 most common types, 3 come with photos.  Grazie, Annalisa! who taught me what these are called:

1. Ciolttoli- This pavement is basically stones held together with dirt, slippery in rain, bumpy, and don't try walking on it in thin-soled shoes!  Piazza Santo Stefano and via del Pratello are both paved this way.
2. San Peitrini- This pavement is made up of very square-cut stone that is arranged in a pattern that shows slight arcs.  When I come across construction I can see the benefit of it, it seems easy to pull up and replace, the pattern is forgiving.  This is my favorite kind to ride on, it's pretty smooth, not too slipery in the rain.  You can find it all over town
   
   
3. Pavimento Italiano Normale- These are big rectangular pavers.  You can see them all over town and in larger streets that don't have asphalt (and for the ones that do, this is probably underneath!).  These are easy enough to ride on, unless one is loose or sticking up, in which case you have to be careful.  I have a picture here of one of the main streets in town Strada Maggiore that I take to get to school everyday, pictured here on the weekend when they close some streets to motor traffic.
4. Asfalto- This is not pictured, it's on many major streets, especially the further you get from the centro storico.
5. Marmo- Sometimes this is straight up marble, other times it is pieces of marble set in other flooring material. Often found under the portici.  If you're biking on this, stop and move your bike by hand.  It's incredibly slippery when wet and gets that way everytime it rains here, despite being covered.  It feels like a miracle that people aren't killing themselves daily slipping on it.  When I'm not worried about seeing someone fall, I'm enchanted by its beauty.  I will include lots of pictures of this in an upcoming post.

What Italian Teens Think about the US

Is it possible that it's hasn't even been a week since the election?  Read on if you're curious about what Italian teens are thinking about the US.

This entry is excerpted from an email to a friend at the New Hope YMCA.

I think the question of yours I can anticipate is this- what do the Italians think of us here in the US, and what do they think of the election and the results?  I can't encapsulate it all, but I can tell you about a cool experience I had last month that addresses at least part of your question.  

My Friend Philippa from Monterenzio works in a local high school.  She invited me to be a volunteer guest English lecturer for a couple of weeks.  Here are a few photos.  Students chose what they wanted to learn from a selection I offered, including: The 2024 US Presidential Elections, African American History, Cultural Diversity in the US, Rights and Freedoms in the US, or North American Geography, Travel, and Sports. For each topic, I asked students to share words they knew in English related to the topic and to come up with some questions in small groups.  I based my presetations on short print or online articles that I shared with the teachers for a follow-up reading activity.

The students had an insiatiable appetite to know more about politics, society, freedoms, rights, opportunities, and history (especially African American!) in the US, no matter which topic they initially chose.  You can see some of the words they already knew on the chosen topic and the questions they asked.

You might be wondering about the students.  Bologna has changed immensely in the last 15 years- the world has arrived here and they are trying to figure out (teachers, students, families, the whole community) how to move foreward in this new reality.  Students of color in the classes I worked with here were especially curious to learn how we welcome students from cultures around the globe.  I was proud to share about and reflect on the things we do in MN and what Edison High School does.  We haven't figured everything out, but we do a lot, we know a lot, and we know how to show we care.  Here's a group I got to learn with:

 I'm going back to the high school later this month to do a day of French presentations.  I'm curious to see what questions I get then, post-election.  One thing I feel sure about- these students are watching, and not just for the election results, but for what happens next.  They are watching how we, the poeple, respond.  They get that we are not perfect, but they are fascinated by the stories of freedom, justice, welcome, diversity, opportunity, and overcoming adversity that we have shared so far.  I believe there is more to that story we will write together.

Due Permessi di Soggiorno, Per Favore

 Happy American Presidential Election Day (and Opal's birthday)!  I voted and I encourage you to do the same if you haven't already.  Read on if you want to hear about our experience getting permission to stay in Italy for the year.

Today I'm getting ready to spend 1-5 hours in the Questura di Bologna (State Police Headquarters) Ufficio di Immigrazione (Immigration Office).  I don't know how long it will take and I don't know yet how many times I might have to do this to get my Permesso di Soggiorno (Residence Permit).  Here's a non-exhaustive list of the things I needed to do to get to this point in the process:

1. Go to the Questura in the first 8 days we were here
2. Go to the Questura again in the first 8 days we were here because they sent me away for not having something that wasn't on the list of documents to bring
3. Beg them to let me and two other students into the Questura after they announced they were not seeing anyone that day, it was just too busy (they let us in!)
4. Leave the Questura without submitting the document I thought I needed because after looking at my case, they decided I didn't need to do that part after all
5. Go to the Patronato, an agency that supports people to get through the Permesso di Soggiorno process to get help completing my kit (application for the Permesso di Soggiorno in which you resubmit all the papers you already gave the Consulate for your visa application)
6. Ask for a new enrollement from my school after paying for more classes so I can stay legally through June
7. Go back to the Patronato to complete the kit (I got amazing free help from really knowledgeable folks)
8. Go to the Ufficio Postale to pay for my bolletino (slip that says I paid my fee to have my kit processed) and pay for the shipping fees
9. Leave the post office without getting that done because I got the wrong kind of waiting number and I missed a step
10. Go to the Tabbaccaio (yes, Tobacco shop) to pay (in cash only) a fee for a Marca di Bollo (special stamp to put on the top of my kit)
    
    
    
11. Go back to the Ufficio Postale to figure out how to get the right waiting number and try all over again
12. Speak with the postal worker to make all the right payments, sign several documents, and listen to instructions about how and when to show up for my convocazione

Which brings us to today, I'm headed off to my convocazione in a few minutes.

You might have noticed I didn't mention anything about Gibbs.  That is beacause during the steps above, we learned from the local experts that the Italian government is no longer offering Permessi di Soggiorni to spouses of students who are studying for less than 2-3 years.  So Gibbs is heading to MN to make his own visa request and then get in line for all of the above in the months to come.

In all of this, I can't help but think about my dad, whose birthday it would have been yesterday (75th, if I'm doing my math correctly).  I think he would appreciate the overwhelming similarity between our experience and a certain Monty Python sketch. 💕

Photos: me, in the Ufficio Postale with the right waiting number, my shiny marca di bollo, and below, my Lettera di Convocazione and all my receipts

Scuola Per Me!

 A few people have asked if I have started studying Italian here yet, read on to learn more!

We arrived in Italy on August 27, and since Sept 3 I have been a full-time student (with a little time off to do a fun project I will share more about later).  Being full-time here means 20 hours or more per week.

Every weekday I arrive at school around 9am and have a two-hour grammar lesson with a small group of other people (non-Italians, mostly from Australia, Japan, Germany, and Holland- often I have one other American with me in class).  We have a native-speaker Italian for a teacher.  The grammar we practice is both real-life applicable and tied to an official 'Italian as a Second Language' curriculum and ultimate credential we can achieve.

This is a photo of the narrow vicolo where our school is located.  The little green archway behind me is at the front door to the school (ARCA Bologna), it's a 16th century building.

At 11am we all head to the bar, where we get a coffee or a capuccino and maybe a cornetto and chat.  You coffee comes with a little shot glass of sparkling water to rinse it down.

Here's a photo of our capuccini, and sparkling water chasers, my cappucino is soy.  When I walk in, I smile and say Ciao and the barista already knows my order.

Then, from 11:30-1pm we have the conversation section of class.  This is held in the same room, and with most or all of the same people, except that we have a different native-speaker teacher.  We talk about all kinds of things, including Italian and Bolognese history, culture, current events, as well as experiences we each bring to class.  I love learning from and with my classmates and teachers.

This photo is from Friday- three Australians were having their last day with us.  Every Monday new students arrive and most Fridays someone leaves.  We have to check on Monday mornings for our level, class configuration, location and teachers.  I started in B1 (intermediate) and then moved up to B2.  Then, last week they combined B2 and C levels.  Annalisa (the one in the front) was our grammar teacher this week.

On Mondays there are little afternoon opportunities to go for a walk and learn more about local food, history, or culture from one of our talented teachers.  Every week is a new theme and host. Last week we had a food tour of the center (pictured below)  On Thursdays there's another fun cultural activity, like eating out together or going for an aperitivo (pictured at the end).  This past week, the Thursday activity was a gelato-making field trip with a local master.  I missed that one.

I am in awe of my classmates who are motivated to add deep language and culture learning into their travel plans, and then who teach us all kinds of things from their home cultures.  I highly recommend my school, check out the ARCA Bologna website if you're interested.  I love getting to be a learner!  I'm also picking up lots of new tips for teaching a second language from my teachers.  

Il Sistema Sanitaria

If you're curious how to get a presciption filled in Italy, read on.

We don't have healthcare in the states this year.  COBRA for me or Gibbs were both ridiculously priced (~$2,000/mo), and if we were going to be abroad for the year anyway, it made sense to just get travelers medical insurance (less than $900 for both of us for the whole 10 months).  We 'should' be covered if anything comes up. It worked great 16 years ago for the whole family, but I'm older now and I have daily maintenance medicine.

I needed more hypothyroid pills just a couple of weeks into our stay here, and I had not yet completed the Permesso di Soggiorno application that gives me access to getting an Italian doctor through the public system.  Luckily, I had already found a docotor through the private system for my swimming pool membership.

I braced myself for another bumpy ride as I reached out to my new doctor.  I shared my latest thyroid level test (yay for Mychart!), and he emailed me back right away with a prescription and a request to use the farmacia that rents him his medical office space.

Gibbs and I happened to be walking nearby just a couple of days later, so I pulled my prescription up on my phone.  It seemed awfully informal, but we don't have a printer and so I figured if this is the first of a series of attempts, at least I should learn something. I greeted the farmacista and showed him my phone.  He said thanks, leaned over and grabbed a box, set it on the counter and said, that will be due sessanta.  My first two thoughts were:  

1) What? No waiting?  No, come back in a couple of hours?  Don't you want to file this prescription somewhere?  Don't I need some kind of account? and

2) Uh, oh!  The honeymoon is over.  I'm paying unsheltered medical prices now: 260€.  I guess I'll submit it and see what I can get reimbursed.

It turns out it really was that fast and easy, and two months of hypothyroid pills cost 2.60€, I guess I just added the due CENTO sessanta in my head.  Here's the receipt:

Vado in Piscina, e me serve un certificato medico per attivita sportiva non-agonistica

I'm working on my 1000 mile swiming goal while we're here in Italy.  I found a pool about a 15-min bike or bus ride from our apartment.  It's a pretty nice 25-meter pool with 6 very wide lanes.  Everyone swims in  a circle, vs splitting the lane.  Most mornings I have been we've been about 10-20 lap swimmers with more men* than women.  The showers are the kind in a big room with no dividers (separate for men and women) and you can't turn them on and keep them on, you have to push a button every 30 seconds or so.  

The pool is part of the Football Club Bologna 1909 stadium complex.  Swimming here costs about half of what going to the YMCA in MN costs me, a year-long membership at the pool is only 350€.  
But there are other challenges!  If you want to be member, you need a certificato medico per attività sportiva non agonistica (a non-comeptitive sports activity medical certificate).
Getting this certificato medico means finding a doctor, which I was able to do by going through the private system (more on becoming fully legal here later).  My new doctor advised me that for this certificate I needed to get an Echo Cardiogram.  Yikes!  That seemed extreme to me.  He said it was no problem, I just needed to go to a pharmacy and tell them my doctor said I need an ECG, and they would help me for a small fee.

He was right.  I went to a pharmacy he recommended, they made an appointment for the following week, and when I came back they lead me into a little closet off to the side with about the same privacy and formailty I would expect from a vaccine clinic.  The pharmacist told me to take off my shirt and then covered the little suction cups from the machine with goo and stuck them all over me.  She had to do it twice because the device wasn't linked to the computer properly the first time, but about 20 min and 35€ later, I had a ECG printout.  Along with my visit to the doctor, the whole thing came to 55€ and kept me out of the pool for a week longer than I had hoped, but now I am all set for a year.

*picture speedos all around, no such thing as shorts here

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.