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Porta Galliera @ 12 o'clock: gate of the hostile fortress

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927

17 Sept 2021 | Bologna> took a break from Italian 2 eat sushi @ Yoshi... not bad, but far off in the periphery, but gave us an excuse 2 check out hood far east (nothing 2 write home about)

18 Sept> switched Airbnbs... this 1's actually not an Airbnb but a sorta long-term «residence», smack in the center of town (across the street from the towers), not a top floor + smaller than the last place, but more functional + clean > it's right above the largest bookstore in Bologna, Feltrinelli, u essentially walk thru the bookstore in2 this «galeria» + navigate a series of convoluted passages (accessible by secret code) + stairwells > of course like our last place it also comes w/ it's own assortment of randum decorations like this big (6 ft) plastic piece of candy that will make a good backdrop for our bedder-½'s nutrition calls:

> set off on our 1st porticoed perambulation, for gate #12, Porte Galliera > now our starting pt = ground zero, the middle of the clock face > stepped in2 the thick of Saturday morning foot traffic — they close off the downtown streets 2 cars on the weekends which is nice > zig-zagged thru every street + alley we could find, using Independenzia as our main thread, in wider arcs, trying to form a pie piece shape > not a lot of rhyme or reason 2 the streets + lots of overlap, just exploring every nook + cranny we cd > 8 @ Donatello (★★★★), classic old Bologna establishment, then continued north past the train stn in the Bolognina hood, a hip area 2 the north where most of the Africans + other ethnicities live, like Bologna's Bklyn or Pigneto > things are far more integrated here as compared to Rome, Africans actually have normal jobs, not selling knock-off handbags + running from cops + living under bridges like in Rome + u see lots of mixed couples + black + white + other shades hanging out together > wouldn't be a bad hood 2 live in but it's cut off from the rest of Bologna, but we'll likely be going up there 2 get things like cilantro or hot chilis > our bedder-½' «map my walk» thing kept stopping, so unfortunately our route got mapped out in 3 pieces (about 10 miles in all):


step out door 2 ground zero








typical Bolognese shades, of heavy cloth, on the outside + they have 2 be this color red (city ordinance)


chiesa Maria di Galliera


another tower (there used to be 100s, less than 20 survive)


the bases of the tower + the inner ancient walls are made from crystally selenite




another tower (Azzoguidi)



the calamari street artist strikes again


Prendiparte tower


ppl actually live in sum of these towers


brick, wood, metal + selenite



cannabis vending machines all over Bologna (granted no THC, just CBD)



calamari ever creeping from the drains



towers galore


guess every 1 of these posts shd include a portico



pomegranate tree + canal


Donatello restraunt



lots of bookstores + a bookfair in a tent right near Porta Galliera (shown are Abscondita Libri)


deckled-edged books




wall remnant


statue in Parco della Montagnola

> Parco della Montagnola is 2 the very north, build under Napoleon's orders + it shows, Baroque + gaudy + now in a state of neglect > it's just north of Piazza VIII Agosto which is like Bologna's Tiananmen square > on weekends it turns in2 a crappy street market selling cheap clothes > @ other times it serves as a place where ppl protest or are massacred (during WWII) > when we were visiting in 2012 it was full of tractors > as u get closer 2 the train station things get sketchier, riff-raff loitering + squares of foil w/ burnt heroin strewn about

ruins of fortress as scene from Montagnolo

> popes or cardinals kept trying to build the above fortress but Bolognese residents kept destroying it (5 times) b/c of their dislike of the papacy... + finally we get to the Porta Galleria (across the street from the fortress ruins, thus sum call it gate of the hostile fortress) > it's 1 of the best preserved/restored of the ports > besides being the gateway to the north (leading to Ferrara), it also had an important function 2 line up + join the main water streams of Bologna alongside the road 2 the Po > u can see sum of the canal thru the break in the pipes essentially where a moat wd be

Porta Galliera


looking north across the drawbridge


X-ing the tracks 2 Bolognina

> the train stn is the site of worst act of terrorism in Italian history, when in 1980 neo-Fascists bombed the station killing 85 + wounding many others

church that looks like it used to be synagogue (Chiesa del Sacro Cuore di Gesù )


strange apartments in Bolognina



X-ing back 2 Bologna

> stopped @ mercato delle erbe on the way back to get fixing 4 fettuccine w/ porcini (fresh... tis the season!) + rewatched Victor Victoria (for maybe 5-6th time—★★★★★) + then rewatched Grosse Pointe Blank (★★★), not as good as we remembered but still classic Cusack

926 <(current)> 928 > Tributary #14: «Red Nile»
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