Italy October 2009

What an amazing trip - we just all loved it so much, thank you to Alberto, Alice and their families for such a fantastic time. We stayed in the heart of the city of Bologna http://www.bologna.world-guides.com/ a very beautiful city at Alberto and Alice's home.

We arrived on Saturday from our Ryan Air flight, which started at Stanstead Airport - quite a treak from Newport, Wales. A lovely dinner of lasagna (Maddy's favourite dinner).

The next day we got up early and headed up to the Sanctuary (and it was very much uphill, 400 odd steps and lots of just walking up the path, but what a spectacular walk that was and the view and Cathedral up the top was beautiful. Well worth the trip up. http://www.fotopedia.com/en/Sanctuary_of_the_Madonna_di_San_Luca,_Bologna

Once up there we enjoyed the sunshine and the views overlooking the city and pineapple lumps :) Photos show views from walking up to being at the top.

One of the beautiful things about this city (and there are many) are the covered footpaths, everywhere you walk you are under wonderful colums and covered walkways. Most things are not open on Sundays, only a few very small convenience stores and a great bakery where we did get some bread. After our walk we headed back down (much easier) and walked back to the apartment for lunch (about 2pm). Alberto and Alice then had an AFS meeting to be at for prospective parents and students so we walked with them then headed off on our own into the city centre, we found the main square fairly easily.

The centre of Bologna is the Piazza Maggiore. This magnificent square was created in 1200 and was the site of an ancient Roman Forum. These days lined with some of the city's most important buildings. We had a great look around the centre, but being Sunday most things were shut but we just enjoyed walking around looking. Speaking of things being shut also during the rest of the week everything tends to shut around 1pm for a couple of hours to give people a lunch break, where many head home for a break - so if you are shopping you need to be aware you will be asked to leave the shop for lunch. This only happened once though for us and on our last day, it was OK.

Then we found our way back to the meeting room where AFS mtg was and as it hadn't finished we hung around there, didn't understand a word but very good turnout to the mtg. After it did finish we met a young guy who was very excited to be meeting some peoplle from Wellington as he had returned from a two month programme in Wellington last year and loved it.

We then headed back where Alberto's mum had made us dinner.

All for now, but will be adding each day separately and probably making some additions here too, but just wanted to get some photos loaded.