Berkelogna
Today I took a day trip to Bologna. It has two nicknames, La Rosso - "The Red", and La Grassa - "The Fat". Red because of it's brick architecture in the historic town center and also because of it's role as the historic home of the Italian Communist party and the Italian Socialist Party. Fat because of it's rich cooking. Well, the brick buildings were pretty, the people walking the streets could have come straight from Berkeley, and even though I only had a couple pieces of pizza, I agree with the bit about the cooking. I climbed the Torre degli Assinelli, which is the twelfth century version of a skyscraper and got some great pictures of the neighboring Torre delle Garisende leaning in the opposite direction to the tower I was in. It's an impressive view. At 97.6 meters and 498 steps to the top, it had better be. Italy is the only country in the world that could charge people money to climb that many steps while not watching tv.