san luca

on wednesday my friend nikolas came up from florence to visit me here in bologna. bologna is pretty small so we mostly just walked around and then we decided to take the hike up to the basilica della madonna di san luca, or.. just san luca for short. when i took italian last fall, i did a report on bologna so i've known about this walk for a while and wanted to walk up when i visited in february but didn't have enough time.

the trail up to the church is a 30-40 minutes walk through 666 porticos, uphill and with many steps. it was quite the work out just walking but once in a while we'd get passed by someone who was actually working out (running, speed walking, etc). i think they were pretty dedicated to the bella figura to be running up the porticos in 89 degree heat.

the porticos felt endless. every time we thought we saw the end of the porticos, we'd turn the corner and see another long stretch of porticos before us. but, we FINALLY made it. the little church was lonely and beautiful, and we felt triumphant.

too much

i usually don't watch soccer (or sports in general, minus the oakland a's) so the world cup has been really interesting for me to follow while i've been here in europe. everyone is so interested in this event that it's really interesting to see how this sport seems to have united an entire globe. in a lot of ways i think it's really wonderful: athletes playing for more than just money-- playing for the pride of their countries. i love that before each match, both teams' national anthems are played. when the camera makes it's way down the line of players you can see how struck they are by the mere fact that they are representing their nation. so much honor and patriotism.

at the same time, the weight of representing your country seems to make any loss a much heavier burden to carry. it breaks my heart seeing grown men with tears in their eyes and expressions of utter defeat when they lose a game. it's amazing and also very frightening how much a single match can bring so much elation to one country, yet so much devastation to another. is it a good thing that we allow ourselves to feel this much for a game? and could it be too much pressure for an entire nation's hope to rely on a few guys whose childhood games turned into their careers?

i don't know. i don't think that there is a right or wrong answer, i just couldn't resist thinking about the depth of these emotions from an outsider's perspective.

{my photo from the united states v. ghana match}

home for the holidays

being abroad has been a life-changing experience but every time a holiday happens while i'm 6000+ miles away from home i get a little sad. this weekend, however, i found that home isn't as far as i'd once thought: just an hour train ride to florence.

when i signed up for latin summer school in bologna, i already knew that i had to make a trip back to florence to visit my host family and the stanford in florence program staff. i just didn't realize i'd be making the trip my first weekend in bologna :). after arriving in florence, i stopped by the stanford center for a visit, bought some wine for the family back home, then made my way over to my host family's house in the santa maria novella neighborhood.

in this picture, you can see some striped curtains. turns out there's a tiny, beautiful, covered terrace! my two and a half months in florence and i never knew! luciano (my host dad) and i had a paella and gelato dinner together and enjoyed the summer evening.

the next day, i went to the mercato san lorenzo to bring some florentine souvenirs back to the states then came home to watch the world cup. holiday weekends are always better with a little family.

bologna, first things first

when i visited bologna in february, i posted about the city here, here and here. now that i've done most of the touristy things, i'm not sure what else to say. but i think my first bologna gelato and proof of centro lame behind our apartment are good places to start.

your thoughts on books

just a little while ago, david and i were talking about this summer (no, it's not summer for us yet. we still have classes for our study abroad programs and won't be home until july 24th). we both agreed that we wanted to read a lot so we're hoping to make lots of trips to the library once we get back.

what are your absolute favorite books?

or, just some books you read recently and really liked?
we need some literary inspiration (:

{my photo of the corpus christi library in oxford}