Santows in Bologna (July 14th to August 7th, 2011)

Our main base during our 24 days in Italy was the city of Bologna, in the province of Emilia-Romagna, in northern Italy.  As you can see below, Bologna is not far from Florence or Venice.  It is also close to Pisa, Verona, Modena, and the Chianti region of Tuscany.  We visited all of these places before leaving for London on August 7th!

While Shana and I have both been to Italy before (we honeymooned there), neither of us has ever been to Bologna.  My UMD colleague Matt Sneider has traveled there many times on research over the years, and always waxed rhapsodic about it.  As you will see below, it is a lovely old city, and it is nicely situated for further explorations of other parts of the country.  Indeed, as we later realized, because it is a hub for Ryan Air, cheap travel to North Africa and the rest of Europe is at your fingertips!  The day we were flying out, we realized that we could have been in Marrakesh in just under 2 hours (how cool is that?).  Next time...

We decided early on that renting an apartment would be better than staying at a hotel.  It is of course cheaper, but it would also enable us to better immerse ourselves in daily life.  Since Bologna is renowned for its terrific locally-sourced markets, having a kitchen would allow us to make good use of them.  Our first choice was to swap places with an academic -- they would stay at our house in Providence, while we stayed at their apartment in Bologna.  To that end, we joined a couple of academic sabbatical websites.  While we didn't do a home exchange, what we did do worked out perfectly:  we found a wonderful family to rent our house, and a terrific apartment to rent in Bologna.  Mortgage and rent roughly canceled one another out...

Our apartment is right in the centro, near Piazza Maggiore, the heart of the medieval city.  Via Rizzoli, Via Ugo Bassi and Via dell'Indipendenza all meet at the Neptune Fountain, adjacent to the Piazza.  Via dell'Indipendenza leads right to the train station...and the rest of Europe, really.  Virtually all of the bus lines had stops on or near the Piazza, though the city is remarkably dense, and thus walkable.


In the map below, you will find the Piazza Maggiore roughly in the middle, just to the left of the two towers.  Our apartment is just south and west of the Piazza.

Even better, our apartment (with 3 bedrooms and a lovely little courtyard) is owned by an American photographer with two little kids, Elizabeth Garvey.  Elizabeth was a vital source of information, advice, and leads on babysitters!

Bologna sits at the foot of the Apennine mountains, in one of the richest regions in Italy.  It is also much less touristed (and thus somewhat less expensive) than Florence, Venice or Rome.


Do you like tortellini, lasagna, prosciutto, Parmesan cheese, and Bolognese sauce?


Then the Bologna region is your kind of place.


Do you like high-end shopping under shaded porticos?


Going home to rest between 1:00 and 4:00 pm, so you can eat, drink and chat late into the night?


Climbing ancient towers,  & finding extraordinary churches & public art in hidden piazzas?


Eating the best pasta, cured meat, and gelato in your life?


I thought so.


The first description one generally hears of Bologna is the following:


Bologna la Dotta:  the Learned -- it contains the oldest university in Europe
Bologna la Rossa:  the Red -- generally refers to the city's leftist politics, and its red-hued buildings
Bologna la Grossa:  the Fat -- because the city and region are obsessed with food


Is it any wonder that I was drawn to it?  Food, books, and leftist politics?  Sounds like heaven...and looks like it too, as all of Shana's photographs clearly convey below.

Santows in Venice, July 16 to 18, 2011

Bologna, of course, was to be our Italian home for just over 3 weeks.  But our first real destination after Paris was Venice -- for the Redentore festival.

The Redentore, like most Venetian celebrations, seems to combine the sacred and the profane (or, if you prefer, piety and party).  It honors the end of the plague of 1577, one of the city's worst.  In an age before clean water, contagion and public health were fully understood, cities were frequently devastated by plagues and outbreaks of disease.  This was true well into the 19th century, in the US and elsewhere.  Venice was particularly vulnerable, because it was an island, and it was so well connected to other places through trading ships.  The 1577 plague is believed to have been caused by flea-infested mice brought over on Venetian ships returning from Asia.  One popular story, perhaps true, is that the plague was brought to an end when hundreds of cats were brought in from Syria.  Many at the time (and since) think that constant public devotions by the survivors in Venice's many churches did the trick.

History aside, the Redentore is celebrated with a massive fireworks display, and a huge city-wide party, most of it taking place on a makeshift flotilla of boats loosely attached to one another.  What better way to celebrate the end of a plague than to drink and blow sh*t up?  How could we be in Italy, and miss that?

Shana, as always, captured the essence of Venice -- and our visit -- in photographs.  To see more pictures, go to

Our hotel, the Caneva, was a bed and breakfast near the Rialto and Piazza San Marco:

Maya, on our balcony over-looking a canal

A view from the lobby of our hotel

Venice, as I'm sure you know, is a remarkably unique city.  There are no streets, in the modern sense -- at least not any passable by cars.  Transportation is either on foot, or on boats.  It is also next to impossible to find your way around Venice without a map.  In my experience, most visitors just voluntarily lose themselves in the maze.  That's really the best way to see Venice, because there are constant surprises around every corner.   It is a heavily touristed city -- the permanent population is small, and getting smaller as the island sinks and the water rises -- but one can suddenly and inexplicably find yourself alone, if you wander far enough.