Thumbs Down on Alessandrini

With our next apartment showing scheduled for later in the day, we spent the morning at home.

One of the things we needed to do was to either extend our stay at the current AirBNB or find another property for the last 10 days of our stay in Bologna. Turns out that the property manager could give us until 6 November … which we accepted. And then we browsed the AirBNB website to find ourselves another place for the remainder of our time here. Good to know we won’t be sleeping on the street!

Today’s apartment showing was for the place Mui found a while back that is available as of 1 November. Our impression of the neighborhood didn’t change from when we first checked it out a few days ago. Basically, not ideal. The apartment itself proved clean and well-maintained … newly repainted after the last tenant moved out. But the place was cramped … very cramped. When we learned that the building overlooking the narrow balcony was a university dormitory … well, it sealed our decision … a BIG NO!

After that disappointing showing, it was time for some fun.

We walked to Piazza Maggiore under a misting of rain. At the Biblioteca Salaborsa, we headed inside to check out the archaeological dig … hidden under the glass-tiled floor of the library. I had to laugh when we got home later and I read an article warning women visiting the library about wearing short skirts since looking up into the library from the ruins, people could be looking straight up their skirt. Actually, I doubt one would see much … the glass is thick and it has become quite badly scratched up over the years.

The ruins in question are from the period of the ancient Roman city of Bononia … around 189 BC. We followed the catwalk that goes through the ruins, reading the signage explaining what we were looking at … parts of the remains of the civil basilica of Bononia, foundations of medieval houses, sewer lines, cisterns and wells. I understand that one can take a tour led by a librarian, which might go into areas that are not open to the public. Something to look into later.

Leaving the ruins, we decided to get a bite to eat. Pizza sounded good since we have not yet had any on this trip. Mui found a hole-in-the-wall place called Pizzeria Nettuno on Via Fossalta … a small place with five tiny two-top tables and a bistro table that can accommodate six. I scored one of the two remaining tables while Mui ordered us a medium, thin crust pizza with mushrooms … shaped like a heart. Very good … and comparatively inexpensive.

We had a quiet afternoon at the apartment. I did some writing and photo processing. Mui took a nap and then cooked the eggplant he bought yesterday so we’re all set with dinner for a night or two.Læs mere