Afternoon Trips!

Pizza before Bologna!

So, on the afternoons when we don't have meetings or visits, or practices for various things, we get free afternoons. On said afternoons, we can get groups together to go to various towns near by (Verona, Bologna, Modena, etc). I've used two of my free afternoons thus far to travel with my American friends! On Thursday of the first full week here (May 17th) a big group of us went to Bologna. It's a little less than an hour train ride away from Carpi. So, my host mom Marcella took me after school to one of the middle schools (Focherini) to pick up Katie, Camden, and Ashleigh. Then she took the four of us to the trains station! We grabbed a quick lunch of pizza and coke right outside of the train station because we had a little time to kill.

Our first train experience was interesting. Luckily, one of the moms was there and told the man where we needed to go. He spoke a little english and helped us figure out where we needed to switch trains and what platform we would be on. Before you get on the train you have to punch your ticket. Us Americans really struggled with how to works the machine that was in all Italian. A nice man came over, grabbed a ticket and showed us how to use it. Then we waited for the train!

We recieved two tickets that were exactly the same. It was hard to figure out which to use! 

 

 

 

 

Fountain of Neptune

After switching trains in Modena and getting into Bologna, we asked a man sitting outside of the train station where we needed to go. He gave us the wrong directions and probably thought we were silly Americans. When someone finally gave us the correct directions, we walked through the old city of Bologna. It has the oldest university in Europe and one of the biggest (If i remember that correctly.) My host mom took the train to go to that university a long time ago. Our main goal was to find the shopping area as well as the Fountain of Neptune and the Two Towers. After a lot of walking and searching we finally found it! Neptunes Fountain was really neat. Behind it, there were dozens of signs explaining the fountain and the area around it. There was a piazza in front of it that had a church that was being rebuilt. In this piazza, Katie, Lauren and I ate gelato and dodged creepy men selling sunglasses.

<---This church was being rebuilt, but the walls hiding the construction has a picture of what the church would look like when it was finished. It was so neat!






<----The Piazza in Bologna!

<--- Delicious gelato. Pistachio and chocolate! YUM!


After we spent time in the piazza, we walked around and did a little shopping. By then, it was almost time to leave (We have to be in Carpi before dinner.). We met up with two others at our designated meeting place, waited 15 minutes for the others who never showed and then made our way to the train station. We wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to get to the train so that way we wouldnt miss it. When we got there, we checked the depatures and realized we told everyone the wrong platform to meet at. A few of us were worried that the others were on the wrong platform or they were lost and wouldnt make it back. However, once we got off the train in Modena, we found them! Thank goodness!

Emily, Lauren, and I at the park in Parma.

This past Tuesday, a group of twelve of us went to Parma. When we got to Modena to switch trains, we were getting off of the first train as our second train was pulling away. We were lucky enough to catch the next train at 3:25. So we waited around for a bit just talking to each other. A few of us were sitting on a ledge around the stairs when a single train car came barreling through and almost knocked us off the ledge! Ten minutes later and entire train did the same thing! Id never seen a train going so fast, especially though a place where there were people standing out in the open! Because we missed the second train, we only had about two hours in Parma. Our first stop was to get gelato. I had chocolate cake and mint chocolate chip. I think it was the best decision i've ever made! It was delicious! After that, we walked around a grassy piazza and looked at the buildings. We meandered around Parma, looking at the scenery. It always amazes me how old building in Italy still seem to look beautiful. A few of us walked around and ended up walking through what I liken to a big garage sale where people were selling trinkets, antiques, you name it, they sold it. Then we stumbled upon a public park that was beautiful. There was so much grass and so many trees as well as an big old house. Luckily, the train ride home was harmless and by the time we reached Carpi, we were all exhausted.

Gelato in Parma

Lauren, myself, and Katie in Bologna!

Me by the Fountain of Neptune!