Occupy Bologna

This past weekend was fairly uneventful. Saturday was beautiful, sunny, windy, and in the 80's. La, Luca, and I went to a neighboring town called Lodi. Its about 20 min away from Cassano. Lodi is a small, sleepy, yet very wealthy town. The town square was well preserved  and as you can see from below I got a few great shots.

After our walk around town we all hopped in the car and drove back home so that I could go kayaking on the Adda river with La's neighbor Giorgia and her kayaking crew. It was a lotta fun as you can see and the weather was perfect! Though that river water was cold.

Sunday was a lazy day and I decided to go for a walk and explore my rural surroundings. After walking for about 20 min I climbed up a giant hill of dirt to observe my surroundings and I was rewarded by stumbling upon an old ruin of a farm. As you can see below it was huge and totally awesome!

I made a point to explore every room I could scramble up, on, over, or into and after a thorough examination I claimed it as mine. (I know typical American, right).

Once I finished admiring my conquest I headed back towards the dirt royal I came by only to find it occupied by 2 walkers and a police truck. Needless to say I jumped feet first into the first neck high ditch I could find, luckily there was one right in front of me. Thank god for those Italian farmers and their farming contraptions. After the police truck had escorted to two walkers past the ridge I made a speedy exit back over the dirt hill, through the field and back on to the dirt road from which I came. I meandered on home pretty pleased with my accomplishments and grabbed a shower.

 La got her neighbor to watch Luca and she and I went out to the castle on the river in which there is a heavenly pizza restaurant and peacocks! I'd say a pretty good cap to a lazy day.

Today, Monday, La and I decided to occupy Bologna. She had to work and I had to expand my horizons. I started by wandering away from the train with no direction at all. Which I didn't mind till I got bored of looking at what I can safely assume was the business district. I then asked a hotel person how to get to the good stuff. And when I got there it was pretty good! Bologna is a very old city with some of the original buildings still intact. And we're talking middle ages! There are actually 2 towers that actually survived from that time period, and they are huge. Some of the pix below are of the Piazza del Nettuno 1556,

and a bunch of other old buildings I though looked cool.

Tomorrow I leave Cassano and make my way to Milan, Como, then Menaggio. I will be staying in a youth hostel on the awesome lakeside town for two days for dirt cheap! 36 euro and food is included! (http://www.menaggiohostel.com/) from their I have no solid plans. I may decide to take the ferry to Bellagio and hike the 20 miles down to Como and catch the train home a day or two later. There are some cool little villages where hikers can stop for the night in the mountains. Or I might go to Varenna and do some hiking or just hang at the hostile for a few more nights.