Bologna by Night

I've had a lot of free time lately. I only have one class which meets 6 hours a week. I babysit for another 6 hours a week, which leaves about 156 hours for doing whatever I feel like doing. Of course, since the weather's been pretty dreary lately, what I feel like doing usually consists of sitting in my bed sipping hot tea while reading or watching a movie. As great as this sounds, I've been feeling really lazy and unproductive. Tonight, after dinner, I was overcome by the need to get out. I didn't leave the house all day so I decided that a little fresh air would be good for me. I bundled up in more layers than would ever be necessary in California, and went for a long walk around Bologna.

There was hardly anyone out tonight, probably because it was 11pm and freezing, but I appreciated the quiet (very, very rare in this city). It gave me a chance to think, take a few pictures and just enjoy being alone for a little while.

I figured I'd use this as an opportunity to show everyone around a little... so, here's a very brief photo tour of Bologna at 11pm on a Sunday night. Enjoy :)

This is Piazza Santo Stefano. It's usually filled with students, but not tonight. During the day it's a great place to meet up with friends and have lunch, and at night it's often filled with people drinking/smoking/dancing/singing.

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This is the piazza and fountain of Neptune, which is one of my favorite places to people-watch. It's right at the edge of Piazza Maggiore, so there's almost always something interesting going on. It was a great spot to rest during the summer because there was always a cool mist from the fountain. Now, as you can see, there's a huge Christmas tree in the piazza!

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Via Rizzoli is one of the major streets in the city center - at the end you can see Torre Asinelli, one of the two main towers of Bologna. Torre Garisenda is the other, which can't be seen in the photo. Asinelli is open to the public, and I'm sure the view is amazing - but legend has it that climbing the tower before graduating brings extremely bad luck. Italians are very superstitious and I think it's rubbed off because I certainly won't be going up there...

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Some of Bologna's Christmas decorations! Just about the entire city is decorated with Christmas lights right now. It's really beautiful but I can't help but wonder how much energy that take... or how much it costs! They do shut all the lights off at 1 or 2am though, so that's something.

The last photo is of my street! I actually took it while standing on the doorstep of my apartment building. Home sweet home. :)