Bolognese Nights

Bologna - home of bolognese sauce and mortadella. I'm not sure where the deli meat bologna fits in but it's like bad mortadella/sliced oversized hotdog meat. The University of Bologna is home to over 100,000 students, and is the oldest continually running university in the world. It's pretty busy, all the sidewalks are covered in arches called porticos, and there are a lot of lights.

Like everywhere else in Italy, Bologna has its share of piazzas, squares. I'll get the name of this later but it's a pretty epic place, and people hang out there all night long.

Aside from jewelry and designer clothing, there are only three types of stores in Bologna: coffee and sweets, meats and cheeses, and cigarettes and alcohol. For the most part, this is heaven.

Time to get down to business. Everyone has their opinion about pizza and this was a good opportunity to go to the homeland and sample some authentic pizza. Pros: the toppings in Italy are unbeatable. The cheese is the best, the meats are the best, the vegetables are the best. Cons: the crust left something to be desired. My point of comparison was New Haven pizza, a derivation of the classic Neopolitan style, which is all about very thin, crispy, slightly (sometimes very) burnt crust that adds a whole flavor of its own. If you dropped Italian toppings on a New Haven crust, you would have the best pizza ever.

One last thing. Bologna is home to more hipsters than I have ever seen. I didn't photograph any because I was afraid my camera would break. I'm pretty sure if you had them hold hands, they could reach from Bologna to wherever in the world Akash is. If not, their dreadlocks could certainly reach. Thick rimmed glassses, pea coats, tight jeans tucked into high tops, scarves, faux hawks, those knit gloves with half fingers and the folding over mitten part, and bicycles were the norm. Talk about a scary neighborhood.

For more pictures of Bologna at night: https://picasaweb.google.com/118239697569233938659/BolognaNight1?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCLb50ODcxoyTpAE&feat=directlink