A Slice of Bologna

A couple of years ago, I read a novel that took place in Bologna. Every since then, I have been interested in the tall medieval towers built in the 13th century. It seems like the wealthy families at the time wanted to show off their wealth in a very visible way. The towers stood as a symbol of a family’s power and influence, the higher the tower the more influential a family was. They also served as safe havens and lookout spots for a nervous aristocracy. Perhaps the best known tower in Bologna is Torre degli Asinelli, which stretches 97.20 meters into the sky and leans by two meters. Between the 12th and the 13th century, the number of towers in the city was very high, possibly up to 180. During their heyday, there were high aerial bridges connecting important families together so that they never had to actually go down to the streets below where all the “little people” lived. How strange it must have been to see this far off city in the 13th century that looked more like modern Manhattan than a medieval town. While we were there, we visited a museum. There was a painting with a small detail of what Bolonga looked like at the time. You can see from the painting that some of the towers were already starting to lean. Of the numerous towers originally present, fewer than twenty can still be seen today. The other amazing architectural feature of Bologna is the amazing number of porticoes walkways connecting the city together. There are over 38 kilometers of these covered walkways. You can virtually walk to any part of this amazing city under these grand covered walkways. It’s a great city to visit even during a rainy day. It all seems so civilized. I am not much into collecting souvenirs when I travel. It seems more like you are collecting dust rather than memories. And the boat has only so much shelf space. But one of my favorite things to collect is taking local cooking classes. So Steve and I signed up for a morning cooking class. When we arrived, we were the only ones whose native language was English. The class started in Italian. That was going to be a problem. So the instructor switched to basic English. You know the type that occasionally his word choices were a bit hilarious. It turns out everyone spoke some English. And when we didn’t quite understand what was being said, someone was more than happy to help us out. We ended up learning how to do a 7 course Italian meal starting with appetizers that were amazing, made our own pasta and sauce, and finished with dessert. It was both amazingly helpful and delicious. We got to eat all of our creations at the end of the class. It is going to be a bit difficult to make any of the dishes on the boat because of so many special ingredients and the space to spread out. Rolling out pasta along takes up more than the counter space I have on the boat. But I can’t wait to get home and try mastering each and every savory dish. Yummm. While we were there a special exhibit of Dutch masters was going on. The superstar of the collection is Vermeer’s “The Girl with the Pearl Earring”. And it is a masterpiece. It originally sold at auction in 1881, almost 200 years after Vermeer’s death for 2 Guilders 30 cents. That is less than a dollar. How did a painting that was once considered almost worthless rise to become one of the world’s most treasured works of art?