2017 – Bologna and Modena – Sant’Agata & San Giovanni P

Rut Rhroo. I woke up this morning without a voice. At first, Ricardo was thrilled since I wouldn’t be able to talk much (LOL), then he realized what this meant, the cold had really taken root. Yeah, it wasn’t good. 

So a complaint – mostly because I don’t feel good – but really, doesn’t anyone use kleenex in Italy? I’ve been using a roll of toilet paper with this cold because I ran out of kleenex that I bought from the states and can’t find it here anywhere. I try to smash the toilet paper roll down so people can’t see what I’m using, but seriously people – get some kleenex in this country!

We are on our own today to roam about the countryside. Heaven help us! Internet not working most of the time at this location, couldn’t download maps, so we decided to stay close to our BNB. We first ventured to San Giovanni in Persiceto. We had heard it was a cute town. Well, it was, except everything was either closed or under construction. 

Trying to get into the town was a struggle because many streets were closed sending us in directions that led us in circles. We finally found some “white” parking spaces (white means free parking) with a 2-hour limit so Ricardo did the Italian parallel park – back and forth and back and forth to fit into the space. He did a good job fitting in the lines. But we forgot to set the parking dial on the windshield and hoped we wouldn’t get a ticket.

Explanation of the parking dial – this car came with a little “clock dial” on the windshield and when you park in a timed zone you set the dial to the time you arrived. We fudged our arrival time a little (who wouldn’t?) because we know that two hours would not be enough to look around the town and stop and have lunch. 

To our surprise nothing was open! It’s a Monday and about the only thing open was a tobacco store, the shoe repair shop, a pastry shop, and a gelateria. None of those places qualified for the lunch we were seeking.

Not much picture worthy today with all the construction, but saw these in front of someone’s house and thought they were pretty.

We tried to find a tourist information office but don’t think there was one in this city. We walked into an international assistance office and behind the desk was an old, old lady who didn’t speak English and had a hard time speaking Italian. She only spoke dialect so our conversation was frustrating for her and entertaining for us. She said there wasn’t such an office but to go to down the street to the left (she had to correct herself several times to use the Italian left “sinistra”) and vai, vai, vai (go, go, go) and then go to the right (destra). No street names, just go left for awhile and then turn right. You gotta love it!

We had no idea where she was sending us. And then a young man walked by (school started today in this town and the school kids were just getting out) and she asked him for directions and even he didn’t know what she was talking about. This poor woman really tried hard to get us to this “place” whatever it was. We thanked her many times and she seemed satisfied that she had helped us. And just before we started walking, she went through the whole thing again, just to make sure we got it. She was precious!

Well, we followed her directions to a point and then abandoned the idea we would find anything as we were walking in a residential area and didn’t see anything noteworthy. We did find the main square (or what we thought was the main square) but again nothing was open. We were nearing our 2-hour parking limit so we wandered back to the car and decided to try another town Sant’Agata.

Sant’Agata is a quaint little town not far from San Giovanni and close to the Lamborghini factory, but we found the same thing – nothing was open. It was between one and two in the afternoon and we thought for sure we would find something. We ran into a lady from Nigeria walking to her home and she spoke English! We had an interesting conversation and she assured us nothing was open except the yogurt shop on the corner. Ice cream for lunch? Well, why not? Let me tell you, Italian yogurt leaves much to be desired. It is like a “flat flavored” soft serve with a topping squeezed over it. When there is so much good gelato in this country, this was a poor substitute.

We headed back to the BNB. The car swayed a bit when we drove past the Lamborghini factory – but we’re saving that tour when we hook back up with Antimo. A nap was in order for me and reading for Ricardo. 

Ricardo needed food, so we went downstairs in our BNB for dinner. Their specialty is pizza and we haven’t seen anyone order anything but pizza. Ricardo ordered spaghetti carbonara and then changed his mind to tortellini. Well, they don’t speak much English here either and didn’t understand he was canceling the spaghetti carbonara, so both dishes came out. I wasn’t hungry so I didn’t order dinner, and he ended up having to eat both meals!

We finished the day trying to watch a movie on Netflix and got about 1 hour into it before the internet quit. Oh well, it will give us something to look forward to – to try to finish the movie tonight.

p.s. the cover picture is a wall we found in Sant’Agata. I don’t know the significance of it, but thought it was unusual.