Arte Fiera

Living in Bologna makes it seem that Italy is obsessed with fairs, exhibitions and expos. All for good reason, it's the most aesthetic country through and through.
Every February Bologna holds one of the biggest modern art fairs in Europe featuring all types of contemporary works from classical paint-on-canvas to dynamic installations with ferrofluid.

The tickets are expensive but provide a weekend pass for every museum in town.

The exhibition has overwhelming numbers of artists, many of which are internationally renown, and a large number of Italian names. Some of the artists linger amidst the crowd hearing into the comments and feedback.

First installation in the lobby.

One of my favourite pieces.

 At first glance you don't even notice the minature projection, you are attracted by the whispering coming from the installation.

One of the most shocking pieces to catch the corner of your eye.

Creative.

I was invited to lunch by one of my Erasmus friends - Onyee. She did somehow forget to mention that it was a home-made lunch at her Chinese friends' apartment with another seven guests!
At first, I felt a little bit awkward amongst so many strangers, walking to the other side of town, not knowing who to start a conversation with and what about...
The awkwardness lasted until we arrived to this girl's house, then we saw this in the kitchen.

We are very hungry students.

Lucia was still making more and more of these beautiful, meat-stuffed breads (they didn't let me refer to them as dumplings, because "it's different dough"), she also kindly taught all the volunteers how to make them.

An explanation about stuffing types.

 All eight of us helped where we could.

After boisterously eating at least half of the contents on the table, getting a pepsi induced sugar rush and laughing ourselves to tears the group cleared the table and lunch turned into a crafting group.

Uncannily looking like a bunch of terrorists at work with Pepsi.

Melding thin wires to make puppet faces!

It turned out that most of the students there are studying illustration and comics and working on an online magazine. They invited me to participate the making of puppets for their upcoming stop motion animation. Based on a Chinese play called The Injustice to Dou E, or Snow in Midsummer. About a woman framed for murder by an evil man, who was originally seeking to marry her (logic). After the woman is executed there is heavy snowfall in the midst of a hot summer.

Their magazine and examples of some of their breathtaking work can be found here.
I'm proud to say I've contributed a puppet head to their noble cause before going home to work on some sketches of my own!

Milan Milano

I usually travel through Milano when going to Bergamo airport, but I have never explored the city. Mother and I arrived in the morning, and successfully got into a fight again because she thought I was getting us lost. After harassing a couple of stranger, mom once again admitted defeat and we found our bus.
After checking in at Timbucktu Inn (Just kidding! It was "Hotel Majorca" which is a bus ride away from the centre) we decided to check out the biggest Cathedral in Italy and have a cappuccino while doing so.
We took a bus back to the town centre and oh just so happened to stumble into Guess and try on half of their collection... Since we were planning on going Outlet Shopping the next day, we didn't buy anything. Neither me nor my mom had a sufficient meal that day so we started searching for a decent bar (local word for coffee bar) with fresh pasteries and cappuccinos without extraterrestrial prices.
It was harder than we imaged after we wasted another 40-something minutes on it and succumbed to one that turned out pretty decent. We ran into a similar problem when we were looking for breakfast around the main bus station. Hard to beat Bologna with that, really. More about that in the Bar post.

The great Milano Duomo

Eventually this glorious thing appeared. The pointy Gothic architecture is intricately decorated with lacy, marble statues of saints, angels and demons on every corner and protrusion.
Entrance is free (as it is most churches in Italy, but places like Pisa may charge), excluding a swift security scan. When we went in there was a service being preformed, since I'm from the Godless Communist State I know little about religions in general and less so about Catholicism. It wasn't Sunday mass because it was small and after lunch and it was not Sunday.

Smoke from a service that was happening at the time.

The most mesmerising thing about the building is the gigantic stained glass installation and white-marble sarcophagi built into the floor annotating every date and owner. This is common in many places in Italy.
The smell of myrrh and all the pretty glass had me distracted...

One of the many stained glass windows.

Until my mother pointed out this fella...

preserved archbishop 1

At first glance you don't even realise these are actual corpses. Italian Catholic love of the macabre sure send the point home when you see the withered skin on the statues' hands and loose, wisps of white hair on grey-brown skin under the silver death mask. As I was leaning in to take some photos I overheard some American tourist complaining that such things should not be displayed to the public and smiled to myself thinking they're new here.

preserved archbishop 2... See the hands?

Milan is a city well-balanced in it's Italian-ism and International-ism. It's very modern, but very aesthetic in it's Italian ways. Fashion models roam the streets like safari animals and business men argue over espressos during coffee breaks. It's an inspiring environment.

Verona

Oh Verona...
Some will recognise the name from Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet", "Taming of the Shrew" or "Two Gentlemen from VERONA", others might recall it thanks to that terribly sappy film Letters to Juliet, some might not remember where the hell they've heard the name before.

Although the city holds Italy's third largest amphitheatre and is generally an absolutely gorgeous place Verona somehow generally rides on the attention it got from Shakespeare's description and adopts a romantic façade to all its landmarks. In contrast to Bologna's medieval red brick structures she flaunts one of the biggest white marble piazzas in the country and sports beautiful white arches.

My mother and I arrived at our Bed and Breakfast after squabbling at the train station about which bus to take. The Bed and Breakfast was very easy to find (had my topographically handicapped mother initially accepted to follow my lead) sitting right next to Piazza Bra. We headed upstairs to find a lovely lady who didn't speak any English introduce us to our room. We left our bags in the room and I immediately went to enquire about a restaurant the hostess could suggest for us to attend for lunch. I made a strong emphasis on how it shouldn't be too touristy and perhaps know their wine.

Tourist restaurants are the worst. They count on one time visits so they don't try to impress anyone with quality of food. The staff is generally friendly and welcoming, but ingredients are terrible and the dishes are generally over-priced.

She nodded understandingly and went to fetch a map for us. She then pointed out Osteria Casa Vino
which is situated across the road from the Castelvecchio. After a beautiful lunch and great wine we were so impressed we reserved a table for dinner and headed out to the castle!

Gold in Castelvecchio's museum

We then went on to look for Juliet's alleged house. Apparently, it was once an inn that the Italian's have turned into a museum. The balcony of the museum is the famous balcony Romeo climbs to steal a kiss and ladies from all over the world crowd to pay for a photo on it. I don't understand the appeal, since the characters are not only fictional, but reach a very tragic end. Nonetheless... My mom and I went into the courtyard and I had her pose with the Juliet statue. Apparently groping her breast is supposed to bring you all sorts of love and luck.

My mommy looking like a psychopath. <3

We then walked around Verona some more, browsing Piazza delle Erbe, Piazza Signori, but soon it started to rain so I had to stop taking photos and find shelter because mom is still recovering from a virus and sinusitis. Mom insisted we find refuge in the shops and try on all possible clothes. It was then that we realised eating all that pasta didn't do us much good. So when returning back to dinner I got experimental and ordered the seasonal Italian dish of zucchini flowers.

Stuffed with ricotta.

We head to Milan next morning.

My Mother's arrival...

If you are receiving guests - expect bad weather.
After living in Bologna for almost 8 months on an Erasmus exchange program, my mother calls me up and announces she has booked Ryanair tickets to come visit me. For the 7 of the 8 months that I have been here it had rained, snowed, hailed and the the wind had given me rashes and breakouts on dried skin. Until a few weeks ago when the skies turned blue and beautiful and the sun allowed the cold-whipped trees to dress up in green again. I am overwhelmed to receive my guest in the new lovely city who's beauty I'm discovering in a new light, so when it starts pouring buckets from the sky, I get pretty disappointed.

Most of the city's pedestrian paths are large marble walkways built into the buildings, harbouring cafés, bars and shops, therefore you're mostly avoiding rain under these arcs and window-shopping as you do so. But to see the architecture and appreciate the city you have to emerge and look up and all around you which can prove difficult in certain weather for technical reasons. This doesn't apply to every city but I feel this way about Bologna.

Mother arrives at Bologna Centrale at a little past midnight, which means she gets to witness the homeless and the drunk students camping out around the station in all their glory, her first impression is a little hazy because she's tired and confused by hitting up three locations in one day.
We take her to her hotel and check her in. The one star Pansione Marconi for a wooping €50 per person a night, breakfast not included. The man at the night reception desk is reluctant to greet us and doesn't bother speaking English until we check her in, then he warns me in perfect English that I'm only allowed fifteen minutes up in the room. That is how you learn Italian. The room is tiny, minimally clean with two single beds and an ashtray by each, the bathroom is closet-sized with no soap.
Fair enough. It's only for one night.
The next morning I come to check my mother out and I'm greeted by a much more cheerful and polite individual who calls to her room and is generally more excited to help out with the check out. The morning is sunny and we decide to head to the next destination, leave my mother's luggage and find a cosy café for the classic Italian breakfast consisting of a cappuccino and brioche. My mother's next lodgings are located in a much more central part of town next to one of Bologna's best gelaterias "Gelateriagianni".
I have discovered this particular Bed and Breakfast in a serendipitous occasion of arriving to the city months earlier with very heavy bags, subsequently having the wheels break off and not knowing where to stay. I then walked into a random travel agency (literally the first door I saw) to find an English speaking lady with a cousin who owned a B&B. Cristina Rossi is one of the most pleasant hostesses I have ever encountered, with well priced, clean and antique stacked rooms she proved to be very helpful then and now. My mother being a hard-to-impress Russian lady was very pleased with Cristina's hospitality. She charged €40 per night in high season, breakfast included, free wifi, bathroom necessities and central location.
Unfortunately the room is available for only two days and it just doesn't seem fair wasting so much money on Bologna when there is so much to see in North Italy.
Thus my Cross-Italy-Adventuring begins...