La Rossa, La Grassa e La Dotta

Hello All!

This post is officially the beginning of my blogging career, we'll see how we go!

I am writing from the Hotel Holiday in Bologna, Italy, where we've been housed for the last few days. There are around thirty kids in the program I'm in from all over the states and plenty of different Universities.

Bologna is gorgeous. It's set up like a typical medieval city with the Viali or ring road (which used to be protective walls) surrounding the center. The city is about half a million people - 100,000 of which are University students, so it's really a University town. Bologna has three nicknames - La Rossa (for all the red buildings and the leftist communist tendencies), La Grassa (for the food - much recognized as the best in all of Italy - I must say, so far, three or four days in, I concur) and La Dotta (which means 'learned' for the University of Bologna, which is the oldest in Italy and one of the oldest in Europe - I mean Dante Alighieri went here!)

All in all - I'm very much looking forward to exploring this city! I start my pre-session Italian grammar and speaking class (before real University classes start) this Monday, which will be nice.

I've had gelatto, tons of wine, and pumpkin filled tortelloni with butter and sage sauce, fresh tiramisu, a piece of pizza everyday so far... I would say I'm in Italy.

More later,

Anna