This and That

In choosing the location of our holiday, we usually check whether it's easy to get to other locations from there!  We decided on Bologna this time because it has good rail connections to other towns and we chose the particular apartment we're staying in, because it's a quick and easy walk to the train station.  What did we do before the Internet?  We relied on travel agents to do the best they could for us and we trusted we wouldn't arrive at accommodation that turned out to be an empty parking lot behind a crack house.

Aside from making interesting tours and excursions while here, we've taken some little day trips: the first was to Pisa, as we've written about, then Padua, which is a place we've visited (and loved) on a previous trip.  We stayed there for a month a few years ago - the story of that month is elsewhere on this blog and can be easily found.  When we went there a few days ago we found that nothing had changed and it is still a beautiful town with a great deal to offer the tourist.  Probably its greatest advantage is that it's only 25 minutes from Venice but has far fewer tourists and is much more relaxed.  

When we went to Modena last week on our foodie tour, we decided it was well-worth another visit, so we took a train trip there a couple of days ago.  There's plenty to see there, including a magnificent Duomo.  The photos below don't really do it justice, as is usual, because it's so massive and you can only photograph a small section at a time.  The church is on several levels - the lower level appears in the first panorama shot.  The columns are an unusual and beautiful feature.

While in Modena we also climbed the Ghirlandina Tower, a UNESCO World Heritage site.  The view from the top was very beautiful.

We had a very different experience today when we visited the Ustica Memorium here in Bologna.  On 27 June 1980 an Italian DC9 passenger plane left Bologna airport bound for Palermo, but crashed into the sea near Ustica Island, killing all 81 people on board.  No cause for the crash has ever been found, although there have been decades of investigations, court cases, theories and accusations.  The wreckage has been re-composed around a metal scaffold inside a purpose-built hangar in Bologna and it's eerily fascinating to visit.  Around the interior of the hangar, where visitors can walk, are 81 black mirrors with speakers behind them - while walking around, you can hear whispered voices, simulating the conversations of the people on board, looking forward to their summer beach holiday in Palermo and making plans for their activities while there.  Hanging throughout the building are 81 lightbulbs which continuously dim and brighten, to simulate the beating hearts of the victims and the families they left behind.  Nine large black boxes contain the personal belongings recovered - shoes, flippers, snorkels, clothes and so on.  There is also a separate video room where you can hear news reports and accounts relating to the crash and discover further information about the investigations.  All in all it was a fascinating visit and a bit off the beaten track of most tourists to Bologna, a fact which has great appeal to us.

[Photo credit: www.bolognawelcome.com]

Also today we visited the Palazzo d'Accursio here in Bologna - in the 12th-13th century it was the residence of the Accursio family but is now the seat of the city government and houses several important city meeting halls, a beautiful chapel, art gallery and ceremonial rooms.

Following are some photos of Bolognese. 😋

And an early morning photo of a section of the magnificent Basilica of San Petronio - sans tourists.  This basilica houses the largest sundial in the world.  It's embedded in the floor of the church and designed using such a brilliant feat of engineering (or astronomy, rather) that a fine sunbeam shines through a tiny hole in the ceiling precisely onto the line of the sundial at midday each day.