Bologna, Italy

On Monday we went int Bologna with Cristiano, our friend whom we were staying with.  He was headed there for work and so we got free ride there.  We spend all day there and returned to his home in the evening with him.  Again we were just amazed at being in the presents of so many beautiful things and old things!!  We walked day Independence Ave which is a lot of shopping and then to the big square and tourist building and such.  We went into 3 churches and saw a lot of wonderful building and art.  We were there on Monday and all of the museums are closed on Mondays, bummer, but would the girls really enjoy those.

This was a bridge that we crossed over to start our journey in Bologna.

This is what was below the bridge.  Unfortunately there was not information about.  We assumed it was the really old bridge.

More art.  Jasmin is really into horses right now for of course we got a picture by it.

This was attached to the bridge we crossed.  I sure wish I knew what it was. I would have loved to know the history.

This was an entrance to some offices with a beautiful courtyard in the middle.

This picture is of where the first university was in Bologna.  I learned information about what this place was by listening into an English tour group going through. 

Many of the churches we saw through out of trip were Catholic churches of course because of the Roman Empire and influence.  The art work was wonderful!

St. Dominic Church

Apparently somewhere in the church there as a Michelangelo statue.  Nothing was labeled or at least not in English.

One of the many offering alters.

Yummy!  This is where we bought a snack. 

Doesn't this scream Italian!!

 The last tourist site we saw was the "Former Jewish Ghetto."   This was my one piece of WWII history that I got glimpse of.  It is still very much a ghetto.  I think this was the only museum in all of Bologna that was open.  We got to go in.  The museum was more of an overall Jewish history museum, but it did include a small amount of the WWII history.  Interesting.  As we were walking the streets I was able to ponder that this very spot is where the Nazi's (and others I learned) confined the Jews.  If I had more time and was not trying to appease 2 small children I could have gotten overwhelmed by the feels I felt as I thought about it.  What horror there must of have been on those very streets.  What horrible crimes against humanity must have been committed.  I know that the Italian did not follow all of the orders from the Nazi Party about Jews during the war so I am sure much worse happened else where, but I cannot imagine what went on in those streets and the feeling the Jews at that time must have felt. 

This is a picture of the tribute to the Jew from this area that died in the Holocaust.

Afterward we did a little shopping and had the BEST Italian meal.  It was the Italian food that people rave about.  (Really until this point we were wondering what all the rave was about!)

That night we went back to our friends house and I then cooked hamburgers and fried chicken for their oldest son's birthday party.  There was also so very yummy homemade Italian food.  We partied hard late into the night (like 11:00pm, but that is late for children who are use to going to bed at about 8:00pm).