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

Friday morning, my cinema class visited the cinecitta, which is like Rome’s version of Hollywood! We saw a bunch of different sets being built, and walked through a museum with a bunch of props and costumes from some pretty famous Italian films. Besides Italian films, there have also been many American films made there as well, like “Gangs of New York” and “Ben Hur”. It was pretty cool because one minute we were in 1920s New York, the next in modern L.A., and then the next in ancient Rome. I felt like a time traveler! :)

It's snowing in New York! Just kidding, it's Rome. And fake snow.

Theater One! They were building a set in it while we were there.

Some costumes inside the museum.

Friday night Theo and I jumped on a train to Bologna, Italy! The train was super nice and went at 220 mph, so we got there in about 2 hours! The first problem we encountered was trying to find the hotel. Now, I know I’m not very good with directions in other cities, but even I could tell we were lost. But we walked around in the rain until we eventually found the hotel! Haha!

Saturday, we just explored the city. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, in Bologna is so nice! Everyone would stop us and ask us if we needed help finding something. And the first place we went for lunch had such a helpful staff that gave us free wine! We also went and saw the two towers of Bologna, which lie in the center of the city. After climbing 500 stairs or over 300 feet in the air, we finally reached the top and saw an incredible view over the whole city! The climb up and the view were so cool, but climbing back down the steep staircase with narrow stairs was not exactly my favorite activity!

The two towers of Bologna! Fun fact: the tallest leaning tower in Italy is not in Pisa, it's in Bologna!

View from the top! Don't look down!

While walking around the center of town, we spotted the oh-so-familiar white tents. We knew it instantly. It was a chocolate festival!!!!! Perugia round 2! It was quite the surprise for us, but really was one of my favorite parts of the trip. We spent a lot of time walking around but almost always managed to find our way back to the chocolate! And don’t worry, we ate our fair share of hot chocolate, brownies, chocolate with almonds, and chocolate covered strawberries. Actually, we had FOUR rounds of chocolate covered strawberries. Yum.

The first of four rounds of chocolate covered strawberries! We took a picture with each one! :)

Speaking of food… I’m not exaggerating when I saw Bologna is known for it’s delicious food, and the rumors are true! I felt like we were eating constantly to the point of being uncomfortable. I ate tortellini in brodo, ragu, delicious panini, and this amazing cream and potato soup with meatballs. Ugh. So. Dang. Good. And probably one of the dumbest foods we had was a Bolognese hot dog. And even those are better!

A meat and cheese market. I almost bought some salami, but it was quite pricey!

Day two, we climbed to the top of this huge hill to a monastery. Again, we had some amazing views of the city, and saw another gorgeous church. The top of the hill is so peaceful and quiet, even with all the tourists around.

And I learned something on this trip: When you have to spend an hour climbing to the top of monuments, it makes you really appreciate the time you spend at the top. But everything was SO worth it. Bologna is such a cool city. The most fun thing you can do is just wander the streets. Every turn you make you find another cool piazza or church or restaurant. It was an amazing weekend!