Torre dei Prendiparte

The tour guide had recommended a place called Ragu for lunch. It was a mostly take out place, but we ate our food out of the boxes inside the restaurant. I learned that Kasia worked for a European airline and that she travels often. The guy was on his first trip to Italy and was heading to Florence the next day.

After lunch, we ended up wandering around together. We grabbed a coffee so that we could use the bathroom. I told them about the "Margaret Rule." We went to the big church, San Petronio. There is a fresco that depicts Muhammed being thrust into hell. Apparently, Islamic groups have threatened to blow up the church because of this fresco. You have to pay 5€ to get close, but you can see it from the main nave.

We stopped again for food and drinks at the big Mercato in the center. It is full of different food stalls, just prepared food, not groceries. I had an octopus and potato salad and a spritz. We wandered about some more, stopping for another coffee. Finally, we tried to go to the old university bookstore museum, but it was closed. We ended up going to the Anatomical Theater, which was cool. The tour guide told us that they usually cut up women (prostitutes) because they didn't think they had a soul. Luckily, the brothels were all across the street!

At this point, we said ciao to Kasia. She had to find a bus to the airport. I went with the San Francisco guy to the Archeology Museum, but it was closed. Then we went to the Sala Borsa library, which was huge. At this point, I actually asked the guy his name. Rory. Anyway, we looked around and finally had a drink IN THE LIBRARY. Seriously...this is how you get kids into books. 😀

After the library, Rory knew of a cocktail bar that had a special drink. He had the special drinks, some sort of sour, with egg whites. I had their house spritz, which used lambrusco instead of wine. It was good but tasted like Coke! Rory had dinner reservations at 8 pm, so we left and said goodbye.

I was figuring out my next step and decided to go back into Aurum and have the sour drink! The people in the bar were very nice and they let me speak Italian! They were closing, so I said "ci vediamo" and headed towards the hotel.Read more