Italy: Chapter 3: la Dotta, la Grassa, la Rossa

Goodbye Manarola! 

Four more trains and our first Freccia (fast train) - I think we might have figured out the train system?... maybe

 So many vineyards

The view from our hotel room in Bologna, Italy of the Margherita gardens dating back to the 1800's

So much orange and warm colors - la rossa 

The Basilica Di San Petronio, a gothic basilica with 22 side chapels, the 15th largest church, was started in 1390 and planned to be the biggest church of the time, but construction was halted when the Pope found out, hence the half completed facade:

A cabinet of relics:

Look down: a meridian line designed by Giovanni Domenico Cassini, who was teaching astronomy at the University. It's one of the largest astronomical instruments in the world:

And an awesome buffet style spread at a divey college bar for dinner - la grossa

The next day was a day at Bologna's centers of education - la Dotta.

The Orto Botanico founded in 1568 as the university's main garden for botony:

And the biggest rhododendron trunk I've ever seen- for those of you not familiar with this plant, it's considered a shrub, not a tree:

Next, into the university's museum of some real things:

Some fake things:

And some very cool things:

The first "electrical cord"

Gorgeous wood cutouts of fort structures

Ancient maps:

A huge library:

With some huge books:

Then to the zoological museum where they had at least one of everything stuffed:

I was a little tired of dead things so we climbed up the Torr towers in the center of the old city. They are two leaning towers that are taller than the tower of Pisa.

So narrow you had to squeeze into the corner at each landing to let people pass:

And now all the way back down:

We deserved a true la grossa lunch in a meat and cheese shop in the old city food market. 

Why didn't we schedule a whole afternoon to sit around and eat this tortellini?!?