Day 19

Venice!!
Cooper, Orrie, and Jenna took the train from Bologna to San Lucia Station in Venicia. Five hours and one hundred and seventy nine pictures later they boarded the train and returned to Bologna. Every picture tells a story. And these pictures tell a story of a happy, warm day, a story of a boat ride the length of the Grand Canal, of finding an alleyway narrow enough for Cooper to span it from wall to wall, of a fabulous lunch in which both boys ate gnocchi, of birds eating their lunch off Orrie'shead, a story of the wind in everyone's hair and the sun at everyone's back, and finally, a story of the sea out the train window and a tired trio heading to see papa.

My day consisted of preparations for a four hour class that fell fifteen minutes short. I also managed some last minute shopping despite a credit card machine malfunction that necessitated finding an ATM.

At the end of the class, after I drove home one last time the difference between uncertainty and complexity, the students applauded loudly and then, as they exited, one by one thanked me for the class. Packages that come with bows are the best of all.

I hurried across town to meet the travelers in the piazza. I was twenty minutes early so had some time to sip a coke and listen to a woman channeling Enya fill the entire piazza with eerie wondrous music.

As always, few tourists in the piazza. Bologna is not Venice. Yet, as Cooper said, this was his favorite place -- besting Rome, Florence, and Venice -- because it was calm and peaceful here. And just maybe because the Roxy Bar across the street serves a fair vaniglia gelato. This same establishment, by the way, was made famous by Red Ronnie (Rossi Vasco) a couple of decades ago in a song called The Roxy Bar.

We finished the evening and our stay at Cantina Bentivoglio, the jazz club we visited the family's first night. This time, though, we were feted by Daniela, Carlo, and Trudy from the University of Bologna. The company was splendid. Everyone here has been so wonderful.

For dinner, Jenna and I both had tagliatelle with bolognese.

When in Rome (as they say).

Day 18

Jenna and the boys spent their last full day in Bologna. Tomorrow the traveling trio heads off to Venice by early morning train. I'll be here teaching a four hour class. No regrets. Only joy that the boys whirlwind tour includes Rome, Florence, Venice, and fourteen gelatos.

We slept in after last night's feast then bought ham, fruit, and bread for lunch from the locals. There is no Cosco here. Then we went out for a walk. Sadly, the public library has been closed due to some emergency, but the boys did get to climb the tower, all 498 steps. For those keeping score at home, the Duomo in Florence was a mere 460 steps

Earlier in the week, one of my students asked if we needed a babysitter. Jenna and I jumped at the opportunity. We first went to a trendy wine bar located in five hundred year old building with a thirty foot arched frescoed ceiling (where I got a British beer - oops) and then to Marco Fadiga Bristrot, a place that Jenna had read about in the New York Times. Jenna, as many of you know, has been featured eating in that very same paper, so even though all of the locals said we should go someplace else (Scacco Matto - a sicilian place), we followed Jenna's whim.

Reason #27 to be married to Jenna: her subtle adventurousness.

The chef, Marco, the son of a local judge and a professor, proved happy, wacky, and brilliant. With each dish, we had to look, smell, and taste small bits to identify the parts. We got to meet Marco and he proclaimed that his was the finest restaurant on the street. (It's located off the beaten path on a narrow alley.)

Here's a sampling of what we had:

- A warm green tomato bisque which came with a deep fried shrimp roll on a stick and some instructions to swirl the soup with the swizzle, to eat the wet roll and to drink the soup (which came in a teacup).

- A lobster and bacon burger on a mini sesame seed bun that dripped special sauce with each bite.

- Bread crumb pasta swimming in pumpkin soup.

- Sea bass tartare shaped like a rice cake covered in rocket with hidden bits of pistachio to add crunch and a sprinkling of poppy all around.

- Mussels and salmon covered in foam (finally foam!!!) served with a red pepper and tomato dipping sauce with a swirl of unidentifiable green paste.

- Fish risotto with bundles of fresh spices -- basil and marjoram mostly -- that tasted like juniper.

- Fresh creme inside wafers topped with roasted hazelnuts accompanied by a marvelous carmel tobacco (yep tobacco) sauce.

This was perhaps the most unusual and surprising meal, I've ever had. Jenna thought it far better and fun then say, Charlie Trotter's. What was really great was not knowing what in the heck we'd find inside each offering.

As we left, we got to meet Marco's sister who too proclaimed him a genius. The love between family members here is something special.

Last night Cooper came into our room with mournful eyes and a bowed head and stated that he wasn't ready to go back to Ann Arbor, that he liked it here in Italy. He's really had fun. He's thrown himself into picking up bits and pieces of the language. He's much like his mother in that respect. Orrie's been more interested in the food (hmm... interesting behavior).

We're a day from packing up, and as is always the case when ending a sabbatical, a little part of you starts walking away from the novelties of the respite and back into the mundanities and urgencies of your real life.

As April comes to a close, I can think of little more to add than a poignant shot of Orrie leaving Bologna followed by an amuse courtesy of Simon and Garfunkel

April come she will
When streams are ripe and swelled with rain;
May, she will stay,
Resting in my arms again