Padova one more time

Time for more photos from Padova.

First, Prato :)

marketplace on Prato

Basilica of St . Anthony (Basilica di Sant'Antonio)

Botanical Garden (Orto Botanico)

 

Italy al dente (5)

Piazza San Marco? Nothing interesting is here...

We woke up at 8:00 because Giulia had to go to college. During the morning coffee we decided to go on a day trip to Venice. Luckily, Justyna agreed to go with me to the station on foot. Great! On the way we passed Prato (of course) and the local market. Lured by the sight and smell of fruits we bought huge strawberries, tomatoes, grapes and ... kumquats. Kumquats are small citrus-like fruit with orange rind. The saleswoman gave us a short course of eating: take fruit in your hand ,wipe it and eat. Skin of kumquats is thin and easy to chew. We took two handfuls, paid and moved on. On the way we passed the Basilica of St . Anthony (Basilica di Sant'Antonio) and Botanical Garden (Orto Botanico). The Basilica is beautiful. In the middle you can find relics of St. Anthony, including its language (that will remain in the memory for long). Basilica was built in the place of burial of the body Anthony of Padua. The only part of his body which does not degrade it the pink tongue. 
 If someone wants to have a picture of a saint I suggest a walk to the garden at the Basilica (please follow the arrows). There you can find a statue of Anton - a link between heaven and earth. 
Orto Botanico is located around 100 meters from Il Santo, however you need to look carefully to find the entrance. Tickets are not expensive. Moreover, school children pay half price and students enter for free. Nice Mr. Ticketer let us inside on our Polish students cards. Maybe Polonia fan? It was end of March and much of the plants lied still in the ground. But what we saw is worth every minute spent in the garden. We really felt spring. Cruising through the alleys you can get to cactus paradise - succulents have there ideal conditions for growth (and Justyna had perfect conditions for photography). On the way back we discovered the green door to the land of great moisture - room for tropical plants :) 
As it was almost noon we decided to move towards stazione. We avoided queues by buying tickets (2.95 €) in the machine and this time we knew to validate them. It was really hot in train but fortunately trip was not long. First thing we did in Venice was to eat rest of fruits as we didn't want them to turn into wine ;) This small picnik lasted almost two hours. Yes, we took some time to tan a little bit and then we moved in search of pizza. Memo for the future:never buy pizza in Italy from Vietnamese. Pizza tastes a bit different and is very oily.
 Venice has its charm - numerous bridges, a lot of alleys and bizarre passages. And the boats. A lot of boats. Once, I would like to life for a long time in this town and see how is the life of an ordinary inhabitant of the city on the water. Justyna forced me to eat eat ice cream. Blackberry taste was not a good choice. Or maybe it was this pizza ... Well, we moved on. Still, we had to visit Piazza San Marco. Fortunately, it's not hard to find a right way in Venice. Finally, we reached the place. For a moment I was speachless. Justyna commended the view in different way: "Uh , nothing interesting". Nevertheless, we took some photos and went back to Padova.
*** The whole pizza with olives cost us around 7 € , a large scoop of ice cream 1 or 1.5 € .

Kazbegi - amazing nature

Kazbegi is a northern side of Georgia. This place is 1740 meters above sea. Winter there is cold and summer is cool. The name of a town - Kazbegi was called in 1925 in Soviet times and in 2006 it returned its original name Stepantsminda, from saint Stephan, Georgian Orthodox monk. The town is located among huge mountains. One of the most famous peak is Shani and the height of this mountain is 4451 meters above the sea. The nature of course is very beautiful. You can enjoy here horse ridding, paragliding and rafting but this last will be a little bit dangerous because the river Tergi is very fast and rocky. Here you can enjoy some traditional food like Khinkali. If you like climbing this is a nice place to feel some adrenaline and extreme. There are plenty of guest houses, hotels and hostels in the town in which the locals will treat you with a warm Georgian hospitality.

                                                                      Good luck!  

Doggie time

I just couldn't stop myself to post those videos :) Yes, I have two crazy dogs. Rico, rusty one, is 4 years old, Tobi, salt-peper Schnauzer, is 3 years old. Usually they make a mess. They like to come back home dirty, to rip their plush toys and to eat doggy snacks.

Italy al dente (4)

Prato! 

We could sleep at will 'cause S. didn't have to go anywhere in the morning. We used this opportunity to sleep off our travel and night in town. Finally we got up and went to kitchen for a coffee, polish coffee. Simone didn't have a kettle so we boiled water in a pot, and poured it into glasses (S. didn't have cups either). S. didn't say anything, just smiled and gave us a croissant with jam - typical italian breakfast. Till noon we were sitting in kitchen talking to our host. Then we packed our bags and in the company of our new friends (who managed to return form work), we went to stazione. We took few commemorative photos and bought tickets to Padova (about 8 €). Unfortunately, our fantastic friends forgot to tell us that we should VALIDATE our sbefore entering the platform. Luckily, conductor of the train explained us whole procedure and didn't give mandate for our mistake.  
Two hours later we were taning in one of the many parks in Padova, waiting for a message from our new host - Giulia. She took us to her home despite of a serious exam she had the next day. Not wanting to disturb her in learning, we went to Prato della Valle.

 Prato is a big green square with a fountain in the middle. It is surrounded by a small 'moat' and two vertebrae of famous figures' statues. It makes great impression. We were siting there with Justyna until late evening. In the end, we moved in search of pizza. We found one nice place near Prato. We also ordered spritz (;)) - the flagship drink of Veneto region. Difference in taste between original spritz and bolognan one is big.   
Munching olives we returned to G.'s flat.

*** Tickets for the train can be bought in vending machines at the train station. They have a bilingual menu, you can choose Italian or English laguage. WARNING! Tickets must be validated before boarding. 
*** In Italy is no student discounts for travel on buses and trains, even for holders of ISIC card.
*** Italians probably have the lights just to make world colorful. :D
*** Ticket for 75 minutes ride in tramp costs € 1.10 and can be purchased at vending machines at bus stops.

*** Quite large piece of pizza is a cost of 1 - 2 €, also 2 € per spritz or small beer.

Closer look on Bologna

Bologna can be called with three nicknames:

the wise, as one of first Universities was created there;

the red because of special colour of roofs;

the fat because of its cuisine.

Great thing about Bologna are arcades. They will protect you from sun or rain and look fantastic.

It's easy to get lost in the small alleys of Bologna.

On Piazza Maggiore you can find map of center of Bologna. It will help you around the city.

Palazzo d'Accursio (or Palazzo Comunale)

Fountain of Neptune (Fontana di Nettuno)

Basilica of San Petronio

Two Towers (Due Torri)

padlocks' bridge on Via Malcontenti

You can also find very fashionable shops there ;)

or go up through forested hill and reach Sanctuary of the Madonna of San Luca and see great panoramic view on city.

Italy al dente (3)

The first night on Italian soil

We sat at Bologna airport and tried to contact potential hosts. After about two hours, salvation. A. had one surfer already but generously offered us a place on the floor. Overjoyed, Justyna bought Pringels for astonishing price. Quickly we found Aerobus stop (ATC) and bought tickets (€ 6 per person). ATC runs from the airport to the train station, and nearby is also a bus station.  
We've learnd a very important word - stazione. We will often use it.  
After 20 minutes we finally located A.'s apartment (thanks to A.'s guidences). And then there were first greetings, hugs and kisses on the cheeks.We highly appreciate that A. saved us from sleeping at the airport.

*** Up to remember: always have a few 'emergency' phone numbers and addresses of hostels in the city.
*** It is important to learn some words and phrases. And not to panic (like us) in case of communication problems.

How can I get to Piazza Maggiore? 

 
We woke up early in the morning because A. had to go to work. It was my first encounter with Italian sense of time and espresso - A. stood up much later than he had planned, and yet he managed to prepare coffee. Shower and espresso was exactly what I needed! A.went to work before 8 o'clock, and we went out with him. We've planned to start our tour from Piazza Maggiore but (for the first and not the last time) we lost our way. Instead of moving toward the square, we walked away from it. Well, at least J. bought her first slice of pizza at some corner shop. ;) 
 In the end we managed to find the right way and after 20 minutes we reached Piazza Maggiore. It looks  great, but unfortunately, our photo camera doesn't do it justice. After taking some photos we watched an exhibition of cartoons about The Moomins, no Italian language in anything we do not mind. 

At the Fountain of Neptune (Fontana di Nettuno) we saw a group of tourists taking photos and making a lot of noice. It was the end of March, so we do not want to imagine how many people visit in the tourist season. Basilica of San Petronio was under some construction works. But city counsil has taken care of tourists, and gave general idea of ​​how it looks, by suspending the scaffolding material with imprinted temple photo. 
J. and I decided to searched for Internet caffee and try to find a new host for the night - A flat was small and 3 surfers was making too much noise and disturbance. It turns out that the Tourist Information Point next to the square, offered a free Internet access.

Quickly we filled request form. Unfortunately, all PCs were occupied and we had to wait an hour. However, we were not wasting time, and took a short look at narrow streets around the square. At 12 o'clock J. went to "TIP", and I decided to wonder a little bit. I've always thought that getting lost in some place is the best way to know it. Walking through the streets of Bologna I found Two Towers (Due Torri),  padlocks' bridge on Via Malcontenti, St. Stephen's Basilica (Basilica di Santo Stefano), and streets with the most ammount of branded designer's shops. I was not paying attention to where I was and eventually I lost orientation. Saved me city dweller, who told me how could I get to Piazza Maggiore. J.'s been already waiting for me. We quickly located the nearest Mac and ordered a coffee (1 or 2 €), hoping that a decent dose of caffeine would put us on our feet. 
 J. pulled out city map she had bought at stazione (of course) and we determined continuation of our tour. Choice fell on the gardens. Walk there took us a looong time but it was worth.  
We came back near 5 p.m. with decision we would leave A.'s apartament. We had two choices - going to Padova or finding new host. Miraculously, we found on our CS account an invitation from S.. After big problems with phone, we managed to establish a meeting time and place. We thanked A. for giving us shelter, said goodbyes and went to meeting. We arrived spot on time, and had to wait few minutes for S. and his friends. Italian sense of time, again. After a short rest and a fantastic pasta cooked by our new friends we went to the city. Everyone should visit Bologna by night, it looks amazing. While drinking wine, we got to know better our hosts - group of students from different faculties, renting toghether a flat. In one of the club got to know spritz - drink based on wine (1 or 2 €), typical to Veneto region.  Spritz served in Bologna tastes a little bit different but it still gives a chance to get acquainted with its taste. ;) 
 In champagne moods we got back to S.'s apartment an fell asleep quickly.

*** Great thing about Bologna are arcades. They allow you to reach your destination without getting wet when you don't have umbrella. Proven - our first day in Italy was rainy. 
*** You should buy a map of the city, even the smallest one. It's easy to get lost in the small alleys of Bologna. 
*** The Tourist Information Point offers free access to Internet. But it must be to place an order, and depending on the quantity of seized computers and wait orders. 
*** We all know it but I still write it. To order a large coffee (in a cup), ask about coffee americana / american coffee. If you ask just for a coffee, you will get an espresso. Very tasty addition to coffee is chocolate croissants. :) 
*** In Italy you can drink alcohol on the street. But usually shops where you can buy it are closed after 10p.m..
*** Smoking in pubs is prohibited. If you want to smoke then you must leave the club, but your drink must remain inside. Cigarette vending machines are available in the package price, however, it's much higher than in Poland. Best to take stock with you. ;)

 

Bydgoszcz by night

Bydgoszcz is a city which likes to play with light, especially during winter. Yesterday we took some photos of how Bydgoszcz was decorated for Christmas and New Year. Take a look!

Italy al dente (2)

We'll sleep at the airport

Getting from the train station to our overnight hosts was not difficult - generously Justyna's uncle drove us to his home. We left our luggage at his place, and we went to the city. Wroclaw has very original clubs and pubs with great atmosphere inside. In Bydgoszcz it's difficult to find similar places. 
Next day we went on a short trip around the city. We stopped at Jatki - it used to be a butchery part of the city and now you can find there a monument in honour of slaughtered animals.  

We promised ourselves that next time we are in Wroclaw, we will find and photograph all the statues of gnomes. (http://www.krasnale.pl/)
On the way to the airport, we got SMS that our host have some family problems and can not host us. Despite this, we still had a good mood - after all, we were flying to Italy! After all, we always could sleep at the airport. Quickly we went through check-in and security, sat near a power outlet to recharge cell battery and waited for gate to open. 

Taking off!

*** Take a walk in Wroclaw at night and visit pubs. You won't be sorry.
*** The next time we must go on a search for gnomes! Oh, such a great way to explore the city.
*** Standing in a long queue to gate is not pleasant. It's better to wait until the queue is reduced. Anyway, we will have a seat.
*** The problem can be where to put the luggage. It happens that people take bags exceeding the specified dimensions. Then we must look for a place for it in another hatch. Due to lack of space, I put the bag under the seat - I do not know whether this can be, and whether it is safe, but the steward did not pay any attention.

Happy New Year

We wish you all the best in new year 2014

health, wealth and happines

amazing trips and travels

new dishes and tastes

only good ideas

and success!

Magda and Tengo