Italia 2017 - Finishing Bologna And Finding 'Experiences'

Wife and I are starting to get into our groove. We're over the double whammy of fatigue from the flight and change from home life to travel life. And as I am getting more and more comfortable with the camera and photography, we are finding a common joy in just wandering about, taking things in, capturing them with our cameras and at the same time finding all those precious 'experiences' that give spice to the whole travel activity. Truly we are blessed in so many ways and thankful to be having this time in our life and having the physical capability and energy to fulfill it. By the way you should be checking out Wife's blog, for her very different take on our experiences and her excellent photography. 

Bologna is for Walking

There are over 60 kilometers of covered walkways along the streets of Bologna which make it a great place to walk around

Street Scenes

I guess this is as good a place as any for your bike

Never met a reflection I didn't love :)

Saint Stefano

I am constantly amazed by finding these places on our travels that are not the 'prime' places to visit that knock our socks off. Our photo teacher here took us to this church as a locale and encouraged us to visit it. Way better than I expected.

First it is seven churches in one

This model shows much better because it is hard to get a good exterior perspective

Some exterior shots

The interior

There were so many hidden gems of art and architecture inside

The look on Mary's face here - so evocative

What is better than my absolutely favorite subject when traveling

Ah Experiences

Outside the Basilica I was just standing and thinking about shots when and Asian woman came and asked if I would take her picture with her camera. The price is always that I get to take their picture. Turned out she was from Japan. Lived in Yokohama so we talked about our experience there and the ramen museum. And her father came from Kagoshima. And we talked about Namba-Nishanbushi in Osaka.

Then we were off to a neighborhood nearby to get lunch at a place a friend of daughter #2 had suggested.

What do you think this is?

A garden right?

But not just any garden

A garden that we were allowed into even though it is a private residence because a local lady, an attorney

Was telling us of this poet

Carducci who wrote about the very pomegranate tree in this garden
Just one of those experiences

And we will finish up Bologna with a vision of the red tile roofs that give it the name of Bologna the Red

And on to our next destination, Firenze - Florence!

Ciao!