When in Rome: Moving into the eternal city

Follow my blog with Bloglovin Some of my favourite things about Rome so far include: the opportunity to use the phrase 'when in Rome' completely unnecessarily at least six times a day (see title), the fact it is still very much suncream and gelato weather in late October, and the way that almost whichever direction you walk in, you can't go more than a few minutes before coming across some huge famous attraction or other. Even though my first two days here have been taken up with my frantic search for a home, I've already passed many of the city's landmarks by accident, the Colosseum at nighttime being a fave.

The Colosseum by day...

...and night

The househunt itself has been enlightening, stressful and thus far fruitless. Having never had to deal with classified ads or landlords - once again, Oxford has left me woefully unprepared for the real world - the task is about a million times harder in a foreign language. I had no idea where to look, what questions I should ask, and I hate hate hate talking on the phone to strangers.

My first viewing brought me unwittingly into the heart of Rome's gay district. A tip: 'friendly', when said in English, can often mean 'gay friendly' in Italy - I hadn't realised this, so when people told me this was a friendly area, I'd just thought "that's nice! And it's pretty - look at all the rainbows." Apparently the specifically designated Gay Street di Roma is a recent development and was opened as an area where gays and lesbians can feel at ease, following protests over two men allegedly being arrested for kissing in public. That might sound incredibly backward for a democratic European country, but it must have been a massive milestone for Rome's gay community to finally be acknowledged and accepted in the Catholic-dominated city. And it's a great area, right by the Colosseum but not overwhelmed by it, bustling with bars, cafes and of course tourists.

The apartment however did not appeal; not only was the decor very, very pink, with a life size painting of two naked ladies in what would have been my room, but the flat was to be shared with a middle-aged man who spent the entire time chain-smoking and telling me I didn't need to worry about him because he wasn't even at home most nights if I knew what he meant. On to the next viewing then.

After two days of searching I was beginning to despair; one apartment was lovely but much too far from the centre, I arrived at another to be told it had already been taken, whilst the other three were shared with just men. This was made creepier in one case by the fact the advert had stipulated it was available specifically to female students, leading me to presume it was an all-female apartment and to get excited for girly bonding with my new flatmate besties - only to be greeted by two men in their thirties. Hmmmm.

But my final appointment today was the winner by far. The apartment isn't in the neighbourhood where I really wanted to live (Monti), but is less than a 10 minute walk away, shared with 4 other students, and generally looks lovely. I've got two or three final places to see tomorrow but have my fingers firmly crossed for this room. I'm hoping that in the next couple of days I'll be able to get my accommodation finalised, get fully settled in, and finally get down to some intensive sightseeing.

Bye bye Bologna

Today I arrived at Year Abroad Destination Two, Rome, equipped with half my bodyweight in luggage and expectations based almost entirely upon The Lizzie McGuire Movie. I'll let you know how that little pipe dream works out. It feels surreal that my first two months are already over, but I'm sure I'll be back in Bologna at some point.

As linguists we are told right from the start to avoid fellow English speakers like the plague; in practice this is impossible. Every so often you need someone who understands the importance of an orderly queue, a good cup of tea, and the occasional dose of sarcasm, and having English friends has been invaluable for situations when cobbling together a sentence in comprehensible Italian required a group effort. But as Bologna is such a small and friendly city, I ended up easily meeting far more Italians than internationals anyway, much to my surprise. My week began with a visit to Ravenna with one of them, Martina, who lives there and goes back home each weekend. I was introduced to her mum and boyfriend, and got to see some of the mosaics I'd missed the first time around, including those in the amazing Basilica of San Vitale, where Martina's cousin got married a few weeks ago - it must have been the most gorgeous wedding! She also took me me the beach at nearby Cervia. Like Rimini, this was practically deserted, but still beautiful, and we visited the huge port with rows and rows of yachts, big and small, before going to a Brazilian themed bar for apperitivo.

Sassy cherubs

The international theme continued throughout the week, as a group of us were beginning to grow weary of Italian cuisine. I feel almost blasphemous for saying it, but even the delicious diet of pizza and pasta can start to feel ever so slightly restrictive when eaten day in day out. So on Monday we organised an international dinner. The menu featured two types of pasta made by the two Italians (so so good), followed by shepherd's pie in an attempt to show them that British cuisine ain't all bad. The familiar comfort of a homey, English dish was very much appreciated - I'm still receiving the weekly menu emails from college, and though I never thought I'd get homesick for their mushroom-heavy dishes, there's a slight pang of nostalgia every time the word 'pie' or 'pudding' crops up, two concepts of which Italians seem completely unaware.

Where in any other European city you'd easily find food from any corner of the globe you fancied, in Italy you're spoiled for choice with pizzerias and osterias serving dishes 'just like nonna used to make', but anything that's even a touch more exotic is conspicuously absent. Opinionated at the best of times, food is one issue on which Italians will not budge - it's a matter of pride. They are the best, end of, and seeking out foreign cuisine is like searching for a needle in a pasta-stack. But search we did, and this week we discovered, tucked away down side streets, a Japanese/Chinese all-you-can-eat restaurant, a great Indian place complete with elaborate decor, and a Bavarian brewery-style pub, where we went for my last meal.

I got my fix of Italian fare on Thursday, when I went back to my lovely host family's house for dinner, which was tortellini in brodo (broth), a traditional Bolognese recipe. It had been freshly made by a local restaurateur; apparently he hadn't had any ready for sale, but after my host mum told him she had an English girl coming to dinner who 'needed to learn about proper food', he had agreed completely that this was a critical situation, and whipped some up just for me. I'm still unsure whether to be offended or flattered, but it was good pasta so I'm prepared to let it go. Apparently the tiny tortellini are known as the 'belly buttons of Venus' (mmm, appetising. To be fair it sounds a lot less gross in Italian) because they're so tasty. Literally the food of the gods.

So after a brilliant and delicious last week, it was onwards to Rome. So far I've only seen the two roads from the station to the B&B where I'm staying until I find a flat(/resign myself to life on the Roman streets/assume a new life impersonating Italy's best-loved pop star) but first impressions: everything is big. Everything. The whole centre of Bologna was walkable on foot, and thanks to my host family going out of their way to help me, everyone else I met there, and obviously the amazing food, I managed to settle in completely, and do everything I wanted to before I left. It was the perfect setting for the start of my year, and I'm now slightly overwhelmed by the idea of living in a new, massive city, but excited to get cracking with the next bit of my year abroad, Roman style.

Lessons learned from an internship in Italy

Somehow or other, I've stumbled through my two months in Bologna and am moving on to Rome on Saturday, so it's probably time for an update on the actual reason for me being here: the food my internship.

My tasks as an intern have ranged from the basic to the bizarre, and my success at coping with them has similarly varied. I'm finally getting the hang of foreign keyboards and feel much more confident with my spoken German and Italian, but the jury is out on whether this is due to a tangible improvement, or more just the fact I've given up caring about whatever horribly embarrassing mistakes I'm making and everyone else has given up trying to correct me. Unfortunately I can't rule out the latter. I did realise some way into an email exchange with a colleague that I'd been addressing him as a female.

But learning to swallow your pride and getting on with it is a rite of passage during year abroad, and you have to be able to stride confidently into any and all opportunities for practicing 'the language', whether this means chatting away to old ladies at the bus stop (check), burdening shopkeepers with your complaints about Italian bureaucracy (check) or jumping at the chance to answer the office phone and speak to clients, even when sometimes it turns out to be your colleague's bemused mother (check - oops).

It turns out there's no more effective way to learn a new bit of vocab than getting it completely, hilariously wrong the first time around. In a country where the inability to roll your 'r's can result in asking for minced dog rather than mincemeat, the occasional awkward conversation is inevitable. Two gems of wisdom I learnt the hard way: frozen food doesn't have preservativi in it, because that means condoms, not preservatives (if we're being picky, I think it can actually mean both, but from experience is best avoided), and if you fail to pronounce both the 'n's in the word penne, you'll find yourself referring to a certain part of the male anatomy which you probably don't want to be telling new Italian friends you love to eat.

It's not just the language barrier to contend with; there's a whole host of tiny but suddenly vital details which are completely different in the Italian workplace, from the keyboards to which kind of coffee is acceptable to have on your coffee break. Apparently cappuccinos are strictly for breakfast only, and my colleagues didn't even try to suppress their horrified expressions the first (and last) time I had one at my desk. The Italian directness takes some getting used to as well, and they normally weren't shy to point out any mistakes I made, in my language, coffee choice or otherwise. I was asked to change one of my poster designs for the Institut, because the picture I used - a standard Clipart-style image of smiley children having the time of their lives in a classroom - had "too many different ethnicities, and Italians won't relate to it. We don't have political correctness in Italy." It makes sense from a marketing perspective of appealing to your target audience, but I can't imagine being told something like that in an English office.

Another unexpected hurdle came when I was asked to update the office accounts. Having given up both Maths and IT at the earliest possible moment in my school career, this isn't exactly my strong point, but I was willing to dust off my skills, and thought I could at least navigate the basics of Microsoft Excel. I thought wrong, and ended up spending a frustratingly long time failing to get a column of costs to add up automatically, hardly the most difficult of tasks. After around 30 minutes of self-doubt, wishing I'd spent Year 9 IT lessons doing something other than the Impossible Quiz, and eventual desperate googling with search terms along the lines of 'Excel sum not working why do Italian computers hate me waaahh', I realised that =SUM needs to become  =SOMMA in Italy. Turns out Cady Heron was wrong, math isn't the same in every language.

The majority of my time was spent assisting the Cultural Director, who organises events to promote Germany and German culture in Italy. I've helped to set up some of the art and photography exhibitions, concerts, readings and shows which have been going on at the Institut. Although the Bologna branch of the Goethe Institut is small, it was exciting to be involved in these events, which attracted far more interest than I'd expected - probably due to Bologna being so full of students.

The usual repertoire for sorting out these events is as follows; contact the performers, artists or whoever else is involved to finalise details, write and send out a press release, create a programme, done. But for a German chamber music concert last weekend, our boss decided to crank the workload up a notch, requesting that the song lyrics be put together into a booklet with translations in Italian alongside them. Fine, except that while some of these were easily googlable, others were less so, and I had to devote several mornings to honing my skills in translating Brahms lyrics into Italian. I didn't attend the concert to see how my efforts went down with the audience, but in the likely case of discrepancies/errors, I'm claiming poetic licence.

Overall, in true chaotic Italian style, my job's been a bit of a mixed bag, but I feel I've slotted into the Italian working world with ease...OK, maybe not. I still stick out like a sore thumb with an English accent, and the job's had its difficult, dull and downright embarrassing moments, but for the most part it's been interesting, and has taught me a lot; a few valuable lessons, and many more things I never thought I needed to know, and probably didn't. As a leaving present, my colleagues gave me a book about the history of the Goethe Zentrum, which will be a nice reminder of my first fumbled foray into Italian life, and my 2 months working for the association.

Bologna's Ice Cream Museum

If there's one thing that's guaranteed to make me go somewhere, it's the promise of ice cream. Hence the whole year abroad in Italy. And conveniently enough, I'm spending my year abroad in the city which is home to the world's first ice cream museum.

Stepping through the gates of the huge Carpigiani Gelato University, I felt very much like Charlie Bucket, but Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory this was not. From the outside it could be any industrial factory; large, modern, and a not particularly pleasant off-white colour. When we reached the door, we were greeted by a statue of an Italian Olympic hurdler, mid-hurdle. A peculiar choice of mascot; the inscription insisted he was a symbol of 'enthusiasm of the future', but it looks more like he's running away from the museum... Not the most inviting of entrances, but then the allure of gelato was invitation enough, so in we went.

The inside looked much more like how you'd imagine a gelato museum, with brightly coloured decor (the round seats looked almost like scoops of ice cream), a video telling the story of the gelato (you can see it here if you're keen) and a gift shop selling ice cream-shaped everything. When you walk in, a glass wall allows you to watch the class of students hard at work perfecting their various ice cream concoctions while consulting complicated-looking ratios and equations scribbled on whiteboards around the room - apparently you really can get a degree in ice cream. Only in Italy.

Their courses are aimed at people who own a gelateria, but are open to anyone (I may need to consider a change of degree) and teach the art of ice cream-making in all its forms, from basic sorbets to artisan gelato, as well as the practicalities of running a business.

The actual museum is tacked on to the Gelato University. It's small, and a visit takes no more than an hour, during which our guide explained the yummy history of gelato. She focused mainly on how it is made; not only have recipes been refined somewhat since its humble beginnings as an Aztec treat made of snow and fruit juice, but the techniques used have become easier. Once upon a time, ice cream making required monstrous machines, 4-6 workers and constant stirring, but Carpigiani managed to scoop up profits with the invention of the electrical 'Autogelateria', soon becoming the world leader in ice cream machinery. Examples of their machines from past and present were on display, although some of the older ones looked better suited to illegal torture than creating gelato-y goodness.

It's well thought out in terms of display, with an array of photos, advertising campaigns and brightly coloured packaging from over the years alongside the tools of the trade to give you a taste of the dessert's history. It's a cute little museum, and entry is free, but to be honest in itself I'm not sure it would be worth the 40 minute bus ride from the centre.

Where it comes into its own however, and the real motivation for making the journey, is the variety of added experiences on offer, ranging from a simple ice cream tasting to a one-day crash course in making artisan ice cream. Having opted for the cheapest package - the tasting, at €5, we had expected to be given maybe a couple of spoonfuls of different ice creams. Instead, we were each treated to heaven in a cone; kingsize scoops of delicious freshly made gelato, in two flavours of our choice. Two months into living in Italy, and with the weather getting colder, you'd think I would have reached some kind of saturation point with gelato, but I never wanted that ice cream to end. It's official, Gelato University is the tastiest museum ever.

A pilgrimage of sorts: Visiting Bologna's Sanctuary of the Madonna of San Luca

Approximately 300 metres above Bologna's centro storico, the Sanctuary of the Madonna of San Luca sits atop the Monte di Guardia, and it's a must see for anyone visiting Bologna - as long as you're up for a bit of a walk.

The first time I made the journey was on one of my first days here, when I naively joined what I thought would be a pleasant Erasmus outing. What better way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon than a leisurely stroll and the chance to meet new people? Famous last words. The walk takes at least an hour, most of it uphill as you ascend the world's longest portico - 658 archways in all. Not ideal in searing heat and inappropriate footwear, and I soon fell to the back of the group along with a few others, although on the bright side we were able to bond over the inhumanity of it all.

Then there was a bit of an unfortunate moment when we were at the actual Sanctuary. Anxious to see if the church was worth the walk, we headed straight inside, and had somehow made it almost to the front when someone in distinctly priestlike attire started talking. "Nel nome del padre, del figlio e dello spirito santo..." Hang on, that sounds like - yep, we'd managed to gatecrash the Sunday service. Cue shifty exit from the church, and probable eternal damnation.

The church itself is huge and a bright orange colour, managing to be both beautiful and imposing. The reason it's a top destination for Catholic pilgrims is that it houses a Byzantine portrait of Madonna and child, supposedly painted by St Luke. The portico was built to shield the painting during its annual parade down to the city centre and then back up again - presumably this tradition is for the benefit of the lazier of the pilgrims.

The Sanctuary must have the world's most dedicated, not to mention fittest, congregation. But although I'm not religious, the views alone are worth the trek. You don't see much of the scenery until you reach the top as most views from the path are blocked by trees, plus I was slightly distracted by the searing September heat, and the aching of muscles I'd forgotten I had. So when you reach the summit and are greeted by miles of Emilia Romagna countryside spread out below, it certainly has an impact.

Pilgrimage number two took place whilst Jason was visiting, and the third was with some of my friends, including one from Bologna who had never done the trip. These visits were better timed, as we made it to the top just in time for the last of the sunlight, bathing the church in a warm glow. The 4km hike also felt noticeably easier the third time around, thankfully, though I'm a little way off using it as a running track like many of the nutty locals. Being overtaken by a lycra-clad pensioner zooming past has become a more common occurrence than I'd care to admit.

There's a superstition amongst Bologna students that walking up to the Sanctuary brings you good luck in exams, so if they're to be believed I must be on for a first... If nothing else, at this rate I'm going to have thighs of steel by the end of my time here, definitely justification for the amount of food I'm eating.

Lo sciopero: My first Italian strike

When I signed up for five months of Italian culture, I admit I was focusing on the pasta-eating, siesta-loving side of things, rather than the levels of bureaucracy and probable corruption that turn the simplest admin task into an obstacle course. And not a fun obstacle course like on 50:50 or Jungle Run. An obstacle course involving hours of queuing, being sent to a different person/building/city by everyone you meet, and, when you finally find the person who can supposedly help you, you discover they're on their 3-hour lunch break, or that their office is only open from 7:12-9:53 every second Tuesday of the month and only if there's a full moon. Another intregal part of the not-so-dolce vita is coping with the infamous Italian strikes, and this weekend I got to experience my very first sciopero, as a general strike descended over Italy.

The main problem for me was the public transport strike, as I live a 50 minute walk out of the city centre. This is usually no problem for me as having lived in a tiny Cheshire village miles from civilisation for all my life, I'm a bit of a public transport pro - should you ever need expert advice on the cheapest tickets, timetables, or life stories of assorted Warrington bus drivers, I'd be happy to oblige. And I'm proud to now add to this exciting repertoire of specialist subjects: Public Transport in Northern Italy.

Against all expectations and accepted stereotypes, I've hardly had any problems so far with Bologna's buses. My bus stop is nice and near and my bus is frequent, takes the quickest route to the centre, and runs until 1am. The trains are a different story. Although Bologna has one of the main stations in Italy and it is in theory easy to get around, delays are common and a favourite pastime of whichever jokers do the announcements is to change the platform of your train approximately one minute before its scheduled departure. Cue a mass exodus of everyone on what you had all foolishly presumed to be your train (based on the fact that, um, it said it was going to your destination), which is now heading somewhere entirely undesirable.

You then have to fight your way to the new platform - this can involve just standing in the midst of a crowd of seasoned Italian travellers and hoping you get swept along in the right direction. My worst experience so far was getting the train to Riccione for a day at the beach, which underwent a total of three platform changes.

Whilst running around the station (I'm 99% certain of all the station staff group together at this point watching the CCTV screens, cackling as they observe the chaos they have created), we were simultaneously trying to communicate each update to Tom, who, alongside a disturbing tendency to start all discussions about future plans with the phrase "When I run my own dictatorship..." had already taken on the role of 'the late friend'. We finally made it on to the right train in true dramatic fashion, just as the doors were about to close.

But back to the buses. As luck would have it, my bus to work was for some reason not taking part in the strike, arriving if anything more punctually than usual. I arrived at work only to find out the strike had sent the office into an even more chaotic state than usual as no one knew what was going on, and after an unproductive morning I resigned myself to the long walk home.

By law there has to be a creepy-sounding 'skeleton schedule' or reduced service during strikes, and for reasons best known to themselves, the strikers took a break from half 4 to half 7 anyway, when normal service was resumed so that people could get home from work without disruption. I'm not convinced the Italians have understood the general concept of a strike to be honest. But any and all buses going in the direction of my house were conspicuously absent, and none went by during my walk so I'm glad I didn't hang around waiting for it. My Italian friends were quick to point out the bright side of all this palava - "at least now you are experiencing real Italian life!", but somehow this wasn't a huge comfort. Why can't I just eat my bodyweight in gelato instead? Not fair.

Rimini and San Marino in photos

Anyone who knows me is probably familiar with my slight obsession with castles. I love visiting castles, I want to live in a castle, when I'm older I want to be a castle. As such, I took a few too many photos of San Marino's pièce de resistance, and thought they deserved their own blog post, along with Rimini's Roman ruins.

View from Ponte di Tiberio, Rimini

Arco di Augusto, Rimini

Ponte di Tiberio, Rimini

A street in Rimini with Balamory-style pastel-coloured houses, all covered in amazing chalk(?) art

 

The main government building in San Marino

View from the climb to the top of San Marino city

Entrance to the tower

The first tower

At the top of the tower

View of the second tower from the first

I like the Narnia-style lamppost in the last picture because in some ways San Marino reminded me of a real life Narnia (which was actually named after an Italian town). It's difficult to reach, with the lack of train station meaning you either have to drive or get a bus from an Italian city, usually Rimini, and once you get past the touristy restaurants and gift shops and arrive at the towers, it feels like you've stepped out of Italy and arrived in a different world. 

Obviously it is a country unto itself, but that's not it. San Marino is by no means backward, with one of the most stable economies and highest GDP per capita in the world today, a university, football team, and unusually high life expectancy for its population. All the same, it's hard to reconcile its status as a modern European state with the fairytale images of the castle and sprawling postcard perfect landscapes, which help it retain something of a peaceful, medieval atmosphere.

Rimini and San Marino

Almost none of the locals stay in Bologna during the summer, instead choosing to flee the heat and humidity and head to the coast at August. Rimini is a popular choice with nearly everyone I've met here; it's Italy's answer to Ibiza with sandy beaches and nightlife galore, and last Saturday we arrived at this same beachfront, one of Europe's longest, lined with identikit hotels and bars. What with it being October and freezing cold, these were all closed, and the marina had become a ghost town - save for one mental Italian woman enjoying a sub-zero swim. Instead, we headed towards the lesser-frequented city centre. It's home to several Roman monuments, the most famous being the Arco di Augusto and the Ponte di Tiberio, both of which were suitably impressive if you're into that sort of thing, but out of season it's not the most exciting of visits.

The main reason we went was actually as a stop en route to the nearby country of San Marino, and after a couple of hours wandering round Rimini, we hopped back into the coach to continue the journey. Although geographically slap bang in the middle of Italy, The Most Serene Republic of San Marino isn't part of the EU and has its own government - not to mention a fairly sizeable army, made up of 1 in every 60 of its population.

There was one slight glitch; despite San Marino's USP being its status as a microstate, all three of us Brits on the coach had managed to forget our passports. Our fears were confirmed when the guy leading the trip made an announcement, reminding us that San Marino was a separate state, and you need ID documents to enter...  he added cheerfully that it had all been written in the email, but that every year several students forget so we wouldn't be alone if we were left to wait on the bus. Err, brilliant. We consoled ourselves with the thought that getting refused entry to a country was a 'great story', but the prospect of going all that way just to sit forlornly on the coach all afternoon was just a bit too tragic.

As it turned out, all was OK. The Erasmus guy casually informed us ten minutes later that the announcement about ID was a 'scherzo', casting a little smirk in our flustered, and now rather embarrassed, direction. And who said the Italians can't do banter. Still, I was less than impressed that he made me doubt my email reading skills.

It was a good job we were allowed into San Marino though, as it was a much more memorable visit than Rimini. The third smallest state in Europe and, so it claims, the world's oldest republic, San Marino is made up of several towns, with its hilltop capital, City (and they're using that word in its broadest, or rather tiniest, sense) of San Marino as its crowning glory.

The highlight is the castle, made up of three tower fortresses perched atop Mount Titano. Each tower clings to the cliffedge, looking impressive and mystical surrounded by clouds as they overlook the rest of Italy.

San Marino seemed very tourist orientated, and gift shop after gift shop lined the steep walk up to the towers, selling everything from San Marino snow globes to phallic bottles of limoncello. It also boasts a fair few museums for its tiny size; we passed the Museum of Modern Weapons, Museum of Ancient Weapons, Museum of Torture, Museum of Instruments of Torture...you can see a bit of a theme developing here.

Sadly, there wasn't time to broaden our knowledge of weapons and/or torture, as we spent our time there walking up to the first tower, which you can go inside and climb to the top of. It offers some of the best, most fairytale-esque views I've ever seen, both of the landscapes below and of its sister tower.

Day trips from Bologna: Ferrara, Modena, Ravenna

Usually my days here are filled with a combination of work at the Goethe Zentrum, inflicting my shockingly bad accent on new Italian besties in the hopes of one day becoming fluent, and being a bit of a tourist with fellow year abroaders. But while Jason was visiting, the first two activities were off the agenda as he doesn't speak Italian. So after I'd shown him round Bologna, introduced him to my other English friends and initiated him into the art of the apperitivo (my main tips being to sit near the food table so as to get first pickings when a new tray of treats is served, and not feel any shame in refilling your plate over and over), we decided to venture further afield. Bologna is well placed for getting around the rest of Italy, and Ferrara was our first port of call, followed by Ravenna, and finally a rainy Monday in Modena.

Ferrara was our favourite of the three, largely down to the impressive d'Este castle, which comes complete with moat, drawbridge and dungeons where you can still see the graffiti carved by 16th century prisoners. We also saw the synagogue and former Jewish ghetto; the city has always had a strong Jewish presence and is the setting for one of the books I'm studying at the moment, Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini. The garden itself is fictional, but it was interesting to see some of the other locations from the novel, although these represent a more sombre part of Ferrara's history. Today, the pace of life there seems quite chilled out; known as the 'city of bicycles', the sound of their wheels over the cobblestone streets made a welcome change from the whirring motorbikes which terrify me in Bologna.

Ravenna is famous for the mosaics which adorn its churches. They are so intricately detailed that it's hard to imagine the effort and time that must have gone into creating them, but on a less intellectual note, I liked how brightly coloured and shiny they were, barely having faded over the thousands of years. One of the chapels is decorated with hundreds of mosaic birds, a nice contrast to the depressing frescoes of Judgement Day which you normally see in churches. We were also able to visit the tomb of Dante, meaning I can definitely justify the trip as 'educational'. He died in Ravenna where he had sought political refuge, though apparently the Florentines are still trying to gain custody of his remains, which I think is a bit rich having exiled him in the first place.

Meanwhile in Modena, the compact city centre was just the right size for an afternoon trip. The Ghirlandina tower and cathedral in the central square are its most notable sights, and were impressive even in the pouring rain. In fact, the whole town is very picturesque; like Bologna, its streets are full of pretty red and orange buildings and grand palazzos. One of these is now a training academy for the Italian military, and as we sheltered from the rain we could see them begin their drills.

Every time I visit a new city, I can't help imagining what my year abroad might have been like if I'd gone there instead. Ferrara, Modena and Ravenna all made good day trip destinations, but for me Bologna is the clear winner. They probably all have more to offer the longer you stay there, and the rain may have had something to do with it, but none of them quite matched Bologna's atmosphere or activity, and it was always comforting to return to its busy city centre in the evening - scary motorcyclists and all.

Le Due Torri: Climbing the towers of Bologna

Pisa's Leaning Tower has got nothing on Bologna's twin towers - that's right, we've got two of them.

Although Bologna can seem like a town where time has stood still whenever you walk through the porticoes or along the Roman roads, a few hundred years ago its landscape was completely different. Its horizon was peppered with over 100 towers like a medieval Manhattan, which must have crowded the tiny centre. No one knows why quite so many towers were necessary, but the more convincing hypotheses suggest the richer families of the region built them for a combination of defensive reasons, spying on enemy families, or just to show off their own wealth and power (feel free to insert your own joke about Italian men and their preoccupation with size).

Of the few which are still standing, Asinelli and its little sister Garisenda are the most famous and have become the main symbols of the city. The latter even gets a cheeky mention in Dante's Commedia, where he likens it to the leaning Antaeus. I don't know what it is with Italians and wonky construction, but the Bologna towers are at a significant slant in opposite directions, as though they could collapse into each other at any moment. Garisenda leans at a three degree angle, which is more impressive than it sounds; today it is unsafe for entry, and it had to have several metres chopped off it in the 14th century to stop it toppling over, all of which makes Pisa look positively vertical.

A sign with the relevant passage from Inferno

Meanwhile, the title of Italy's tallest leaning tower goes to Asinelli, which is open to the public. Local superstitions claim that those who climb it will either break up with their boyfriend/girlfriend or never graduate from university, but whilst Jason was here we threw caution to the wind, paid our 3 euros and began the ascent. Little plaques in the wall let you know when you reach milestones such as the height of Garisenda and the Leaning Tower of Pisa, both of which stand at around half the height of Asinelli. I hadn't quite appreciated just how high the tower was; when you think you've nearly reached the top, you realise you're not even halfway, and the climb is made more challenging by the rickety staircases which are scarily narrow at times and considerably eroded by centuries' worth of footsteps.

It's worth persevering though, and 498 steps and just shy of 100 metres later, we emerged triumphant. The uppermost floors of Asinelli were used as a prison hundreds of years ago, but to be honest I can imagine worse places to be locked up; the views are breathtaking. The terracotta patchwork of rooves that make up the centro storico are enclosed by rolling hills, with the 10 main streets cutting through the city like spokes of a wheel. You can also spot the other remaining towers, which have somehow blended seamlessly into the modern landscape, to the point that you barely notice them when walking around town.

Jason in Bologna

I've been really spoilt with visitors over the past few weeks, with Jason arriving on my parents' last day in Bologna. I spent the morning at work worrying that something would go horribly wrong and he'd end up miles away - a fear not entirely unjustified as our last trip to France involved a ticket mix-up, pleading with Eurostar staff on both sides of the channel and very nearly being refused re-entry to England, so I was relieved to see him get off the airport shuttle bus, and even more relieved to find out he'd brought me a stash of Cadbury's. Milka, you're OK, but it's just not the same.

I was able to introduce him to a few of my friends here, as well as to all our favourite gelaterias, restaurants and apperitivo spots - visitors are the perfect excuse for over-indulgence in the local cuisine - and naturally I took him on the obligatory tour of Bologna's sights. First port of call was the Sala Borsa, the public library just off Piazza Maggiore, which was built on top of some of the earliest remains of the original Roman city, Bononia. You can see these remains through glass panels in the floor of the library's entrance hall, and if you go downstairs you can walk round them too; the foundations of the Roman basilica, an ancient street and some of the city's first water wells, some of it dating back to the 1st century BC.

Jason was also lucky enough to experience an Italian clubnight, Kinki; an interesting experience as the Italians are several years behind the rest of the world when it comes to music (and several other things actually - public transport and payment by card being two of the most tedious, but I'll save those rants for another, no doubt scintillating, blog post). There were none of the awkward head-bobbing feet-shuffling dance moves that dominate English dancefloors; Italians aren't afraid to bring out classic routines such as the sprinkler and running man. This makes for a few personal space issues, in that you have none, but is entertaining nonetheless.

One added bonus of Jason being here was that I felt really good at Italian by comparison. Not quite a fair test, seeing as he's never actually learnt it, but it makes a nice change to be the translator rather than the translatee, and to feel like I might be getting somewhere with this language-learning thing. Not that he didn't make a valiant effort to converse with the natives, but his first attempt at ordering food came out in a strong Geordie accent, which is odd, as he's from Cornwall. Having said that, he blended in a lot better than my parents (not a difficult task) and my landlord even asked if he was Italian!

But the week was over all too soon and after goodbyes at the airport it was back to the real world - the one in which I think all couples are gross (they're not hard to spot here, the Italians invented PDA) and accept that my Italian still needs a fair bit of work. I went back to visit my host family the day Jason went home, only to be greeted with a cheery 'Ma saiiii Cat, il tuo italiano è veramente peggiorato! Come hai regredito! ('But you know Cat, your Italian's actually got worse! You've regressed so much!) and ordered not to speak to any more English people, least of all Jason, who got the blame for this deterioration, until my use of the imperfect subjunctive becomes second nature. So that will be never, then.