spezzata cuore

// broken heart

This is my final week in Bologna (for now) and already I am starting to miss the city! I feel as though I am still discovering the characteristics that make Bologna unique and it seems a shame to leave so soon.

It's been interesting to watch my impressions of the city change and rearrange; when I first arrived, I found myself in a large, open, empty piazza which is ugly and bare. Since then, the city has revealed herself to me layer upon layer. I've discovered that behind my favourite portico lies the most beautiful church I've ever been in, that the whole city smells of dog poo and dog pee, that there are no trees and there is no grass except around the edges of the centre. I've chosen my favourite gelateria, my favourite street, my favourite door knockers, my favourite pizza, my favourite coffee shop. I've become a regular at four different bars and made friends with three different shop keepers and two waiters. But soon, I have to leave it all behind. I will be missing the jazz festival, the summer festival, the wine festival. It was really surprising to settle so quickly into a new place and a new life, and now I have to uproot myself from it, not for the last time.

I have decided while living here is that I want to travel slowly, taste places properly. Where other people might stay for a day, I will stay for two or three. I'll choose places to remain for a week or two, to peel back the layers the way I have in Bologna. The upside of this is that I'll save money; the downside is that I won't see so many places, but I would prefer to know fewer places better. Hopefully I won't grow to love them all the way I do Bologna, because it will break my heart!

Everybody warns you about the Italian men, but nobody mentions that you will find cities so charming that even the smell of dog pee will give you a feeling of nostalgia.