Tomorrow, you go see the madonna.

I went to Milan to meet up with the new Mr. and Mrs. Alan and Lauren Bronfeld on Valentine’s day weekend. Tovah came with me. We flew Ryanair to Bergamo for under 100 euro round trip. We then took a bus from the airport to the train station in Milan for 8 euro. It came with a free return trip for one of us but we didn’t use it. We went directly to Bologna on the train which I think was about 30 euro.
Bologna is great. It’s very small for being a internationally known Italian city. The main tourist attractions are a pair of towers in the center, one of which is leaning. St. Stephen’s Basilica is also pretty awesome. Supposedly it’s where Pontius Pilate came to absolve himself of the sin of having Jesus executed. Overall Bologna is just a beautiful city. You can walk around the whole center very easily. There aren’t so many standout sights, but every plaza is cool, and the majority of the sidewalks are covered by collonades. It was an awesome place to just wander without even using the map and just check out the architecture and storefronts, as lame as that sounds.
The food in Italy is totally amazing and cheap. We got pizza twice in bologna, two different styles, both cheap and crispy and delicious. The dinner we got included steak, handmade raviolis and a bottle caraffe of wine and cost around 30 euro which was or course balling out for us but totally worth it. I mean it’s Italy fer chrissakes. Tovah was drawn in by pretty much every window display we saw. We got gelato at this place Tovah’s friend recommended and it was awesome. The pistachio was possibly as good as Nauset Ice Cream. The owner had us try almost every flavor. He spoke pretty much perfect English. It is amazing in Italy how many people speak English well. Pretty much every time we were lost or confused we would ask for directions in Spanish, trying to make it sound a little more Italian. Any Italian under 30 would reply in great English. Even the bartender at the pub we went to in miniscule Azargo. Soooo unlike Spain. That was also not my experience in France. The coolest part was how many people asked if we were Spanish. We were psyched.
Also ended having a English-Italian-Spanish conversation with a guy who worked in a shop that specialized in ancient stringed instruments. They had old guitars and violins, but were more into lutes and other crazy things. He gave me a brochure for my nono.
We stayed in the most hilarious place. It was about 10 km outside of the center, a 10 euro cab ride or a one euro ride on this shuttle that went right to it. The bus schedule was not so clear however, so we missed the last shuttle the first night. It was mainly a camping facility. The receptionist told us he would show us to our chalet. Apparently chalet is the Italian word for “double wide”. It was pretty awesome though. The heat cranked and there was a towel warmer, for some reason.
Nightlife was surprisingly fun. Ended up at a club that actually played hip-hop. That never happens in Seville, it’s always house or some shit. There are a ton of students. We ended up going back relatively early, like 1 or 2 but the streets were starting to fill up.
The next day we went to meet Alan, Lauren and Alan’s friend from his study abroad days at San Siro stadium in Milan. We saw Inter play against another Italian team I don’t remember which one. The Inter faithful were crazy; jumping up and down and chanting that anyone who doesn’t jump is a fan of the other team. I love that. Pointing and repeating “amici” was a surprisingly successful way to get security to let us go down to the first level were the friends were. They put in Luis Figo for the last 10 minutes or so. Everyone went nuts. Guy is a legend.
Alan’s buddy was in a fishing tournament, so they went to a participants’ dinner. With the help of the navigational system (awesome) we made it to Azargo, the tiny town outside of Bergamo where Alan’s friend lives. Tovah and Lauren and I got pizza again there, so good. Then on to JJ’s Irish Pub. Hilarious cast of locals. Alan made best friends with one without actually communicating at all. We played darts and hung out until the wee hours when Lauren, the only sober one got to drive us all drunk to the airport in Bergamo. I passed out in the back while Lauren was trying to figure her way around a road block and Alan was arguing with the British woman whose recorded voice accompanied the GPS.