June 2013

Well it is hard to believe that after nearly 10 months in Bologna our time here has come to an end. It certainly is sad to leave a city that we have come to know so well, and we will miss many of the aspects of life here - especially food, wine, friends, bike riding, language, art, quick trips to towns, cities and countries.

This blog is about photos. We would like to thank all our international friends who have made us feel so welcome here and have made our time a most memorable experience.

Children's Friends and School

The children have made many friends especially at the International School.
Their friends are truly an international group. Swedish, Italian/American, American, Italian, English/Italian, Brazilian/American and Mexican/Italian.
The last week of school was a bit like the last weeks of school in Australia (without the need to buy Christmas presents). Some of the activities we had in the last few weeks were: school concert; shared birthday party for Gabi and Nat; catch up in the park; drinks on the terrace; final gelati in Piazza Cavour.

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One of the songs from the school concert.

Our Friends

Dan and I have also made some terrific international friends and we have enjoyed many social occasions together.

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Dowds

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Food and Coffee

Life in Bologna could not commence until we had enjoyed our coffee and brioche. This always took place after we had dropped the children at school. One of my favourite coffee places was Gamberini - the coffee and the brioches were fantastic and it was fortunate that I was riding my bike on a daily basis. My favourite was a brioche con crema - no asking for skim milk, soy cafes here! At the cost of about $3.00 Australian who could resist.

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Art and Italian

Many people have asked me what I would do all day once the children were at school. Well it is amazing how quickly the days can pass when one is not working. After 'prende un caffe' I would attend art class on Wednesday mornings - this class was run by Antonio a local Italian. The class was mostly Italians and there were some extremely talented artists in the group. The other activity I enjoyed was twice weekly private Italian lessons. One class was a group of four Katie - American, Jane - Australian and Perry - German. This class was conducted by the lovely Guilianna who was incredibly patient with our halting Italian. In addition to this weekly class Katie and I also meet with Marieangela who left Bologna for Australia when she was twenty and has now returned for a period of time to help her mother. Katie and I loved our conversation classes as there was always plenty of laughter.

Bologna Sights

After living in Bologna for nearly 10 months I realised that I hadn't been much of a tourist in my own city so I spent the last few weeks quickly taking a few tourist shots.

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Bike Rides

Finally one of the highlights was having bikes in Bologna. These were our cars. Every morning we could take the children to school and then pick them up in the afternoon. Although there are very few bike paths most people ride on the road or through the piazza. One of my favourite times was riding my bike through the piazza after the school drop. I was very sad to have to sell my bike when we left Bologna.