Something smells like campfire... oh, wait, that's just the cutting board burning.

Hello all!  It's been an eventful few weeks (well, weekends at any rate).  First of all, I seem to have horrible luck with fire, as further evidenced by the black hole that looks like a cell membrane invagination (you know, like in phagocytosis) on the side of my cutting board.  Secondly, I've started all my classes and have a pretty full schedule up until the end of March.  See, here you can take a course for either the whole semester for the equivalent of 6 American credits or for half the semester for 3 credits.  I only have one class for the whole semester-- a contemporary literature class (that still ends before Easter) that I absolutely love.  I then have a Spanish-American literature class that focuses on the colonization period (at least I'll understand one class :P), a medieval literature class, and I also have to take grammar.  Ick.  I have a lot of reading to do.  I also have a job (sort of).  I babysit a little girl at the international school for an hour and a half on Wednesdays.  She's five, British, and likes to pretend she's a dragon.  I like this kid.  So... three weekends ago now, the group went to Ravenna.  The capital of the Western Roman Empire for less then a century, it was given another chance for glory several hundred years later when it became the Byzantine capital under Justinian.  It follows that there are some spectacular mosaics.  Another fun fact: Ravenna used to be a port city in its heyday.  Over the centuries, however, the Po river has deposited enough silt that the city is now inland.  So cool!  :)  Our first stop was the Basilica of Sant' Apollinare Nuovo, erected by the Osogoth king Theodoric in the 6th century and reconsecrated by Justinian some 60 years later.

The mosaics:  a line of martyrs...

 ...ending with Jesus:

 On the opposite wall, a line of virgins...

 ...ending with Mary (and baby Jesus... because he was probably a virgin then too)

 The whole thing:

 Justinian's little tile:

 Another view:

Sparkly windows!

On the very top are the stations of the cross:

 Theodric's palace (see the hands on the pillars?  Those were people who fell out of favor with the church...):

 Back when Ravenna was a port:

Next, we visited the Basilica of San Vitale.  This one was truly amazing.  I'll let the pictures do the talking:

 Check out the little door! =D

 An empty well...

 Justinian:

 Theodora:

Then, we continued on to the mausoleum of Galla Placidia (daughter of Roman emperor Theodosius I), which contains three sarcophagi-- those of Galla Placidia, her brother, and her husband.  Pictures:

We also saw Dante's tomb.  Here it is, all the way at the end:

ND pic in front:

Inside:

 Churchyard behind, and where the body is:

 Some more sights around the city:

While I was in the bathroom (of course), the rest of the ND bunch found this guy and took a picture with him.  All I got was his back and two disapproving Italian ladies.  Luck of the Irish indeed:

Back in Bologna, it was a beautiful day on Sun.  The sun was shining and it was warm enough to wear just a t-shirt, so I decided to go for a long walk around the city.  I ended up making my way south to the Giardini Margarita.  On the way, I found some frescos:

 Another beautiful church:

 And yet another (look at how blue that sky is!):

And just in case I missed home:

Can I just say that I love street musicians?   They make the world a happier place.  Here are some shots of the gardens:

 Newfies! =D

 Spring is coming (I hope):

I only wish I could walk my dogs in lime green shoes.

So funny thing: while I was passing Santo Stefano on my way back, I noticed some guys with tripods and cameras.  I thought, naturally, "oh, they must be filming something here", and continued walking toward them, not really paying attention.  Well, it apparently didn't occur to me that while the other cameras were being moved around, one was fixed on the street I was walking down.  I, in my bright pink oxford sweatshirt, decided that it was the perfect time to awkwardly itch my knee and continue flouncing down the street, looking exactly the opposite of any self-respecting Italian.  Realization dawned just as I approached the camera, which then panned to a guy with a microphone standing in front of the church who began a speech on the city.  So, I crashed a documentary and can only hope to be edited out.  Typical.  In other news, I bought some wall decorations at the market, so now my room looks tribal (and more normal for me, really):

 I also got some Tibetan prayer flags that I haven't hung up yet and this awesome hat that seems out of Chicago or Miller's Crossing or The Great Gatsby (or, heck, all three at once):

And speaking of the market:

Also, you know that show America's Got Talent?  Well, you knew this was coming (the contestants were making speeches):

Here's Sacro Cuore at sunset, just because I like it:

Also, I have been asked for directions so many times it's ridiculous.  And this started the first week.  I mean, I'm clearly not Italian!  Why the heck would I know where anything is?  Actually, I have been able to help a few times, but still.  I was especially surprised when I was wearing the oxford sweatshirt and in the midst of real Italians, and these two women went out of their way to ask me instead of one of them.  Huh.  Maybe I just look more approachable (read: not angry at the world and life)?  Anyways, the nice weather surprisingly held all week, and a group of us decided to hike up to San Luca.  A monastery on top of a small mountain, San Luca is connected to the city by the world's longest portico- 666 arches (rather ironic for a church)!  Back in the day, pilgrims used to make the trek on their knees.  Not being masochists, we decided to save our kneecaps and walk.  We went for pizza and commenced the hike, stopping to admire this guy's hijacker-be-gone baseball bat:

 and to take a picture by the porta:

We passed this mansion on the way, which was across from the shrine below:

I love Italy.  There are so many amazing things just waiting to be stumbled upon.  We ended up getting sidetracked for most of the afternoon by a park on the hillside:

 Just then, a barrow wight dragged Drew into an early grave:

I want to come back here and read one of these days:

Not pictured in these photos: the couple making out intensely on the other side of the hill.  I felt rather bad for interrupting.

 You can kind of see centro and piazza maggiore:

We lay on the hillside in the sun and talked for several hours, then decided to nix San Luca, as the sun was setting.  On the way back, we came across a garden filled with statues that looked like the setting of a victorian murder mystery:

 Don't blink, Ari:

 Seriously, can't you just see two party-goers in period costumes meeting up at night for a tryst when they encounter... Jack the Ripper?

Though everyone else headed back, Drew and I decided to head up to San Luca after all.  The walk really wasn't that bad. The portico:

 Check out this guy's gloves (they were hot pink and purple... I don't know if you can see that well):

The top ended up being blocked off, so we had to take the road around to the front.

This is where we would've come out:

Unfortunately, the church was closed too, so this was the highest arch we got to:

 Lime green is a popular color here:

This priest had an awesome granny cardigan that you can't really appreciate from this angle.  Just know it was amazing.

I want this keychain:

On the way back down:

This guy looks like he would've been more at home in Spain:

 On an unrelated note, I found out that the guy my street is named after, Sebastiano Serlio, was a famous Bolognese architect who invented the "serliana" window seen below (the ones in the center with 3 sections):