Because Oscar Meyer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A

Saturday morning Emily, Miriam, Negrin, Jordan, Doug, and I hopped on a train to Bologna. I was very excited to finally see another part of Italy and get some experience with the train system. The train ride was about 40 minutes, so we hopped off the train, and only got a little lost getting to the center of the city. At first, Bologna didn't seem like much, but once we got to the city center, it was gorgeous. We went straight to the main piazza, where Bologna's Neptune fountain is located, and discovered that it is way more inappropriate than the one in Piazza Signoria in Florence (see Facebook). We spent some time in the piazza and then went in search of what is supposed to be the world's largest sundial. This ended up with us kind of just roaming around the center of Bologna, but it was great seeing all the beautiful buildings around us. We stopped in a park for a little bit to relax for a second and then finally found the church where the sundial was located only to discover it was closed for lunch (fun fact: turns out we were standing in front of the church when we were in the piazza, but the detour route was more fun). So, we went to get lunch at a place our guide book recommened (wow, I sound so touristy right now), and the food was reallyyyyy good. We all got some form of tortellini (Bologna specialty). Afterwards, we went back to the church/sun dial. The church was gorgeous and huge, but the sundial was extremely disappointing because it was basically just a long line on the floor. After the church we saw the two towers in Bologna: one leaning (so cool), one straight. The boys climbed up the straight one, but Emily, Miriam, and I went shopping because there were something like 498 steps, and we needed a break from climbing towers. Shopping was fun, didn't buy anything, but we went into this store where there were tons of teenage Italian girls. It was so funny because they had shirts that said Starbucks, New York City, and one with an American flag, so apparently they like the US. After shopping we met back up with the boys and went for what is definitely in my top 3 gelato places. IT WAS SO GOOD!!! I got this flavor called Samurai, which had ricotta, marscapone, and some other cheese I can't think of right now...uch, SO GOOD. After gelato we headed back to Florence, where Miriam and I went out for dinner with our roommates and then met up with Negrin, Jordan, and Doug at Kikuya. Then the 5 of us went to the secret bakery (YUM!), where Miriam and I got chocolate filled, sugar covered fresh, hot donuts. Multiply however good you think that sounds by 5, because fresh donuts are heavenly.

Also, I swear I don't weight 500 pounds...yet.

Ciao!