Tom plans a month-long trip to study Italian in Bologna before traveling around England with his friends Ben and Robin. He stays at the B&B Cristina Rossi in the heart of Bologna, which receives positive reviews for its welcoming host, central location, and comfortable rooms. Tom attends language classes at ARCA, taking his proficiency from an intermediate to advanced level. In his free time, he explores Bologna with Ben and Robin, visiting landmarks, cafes, and taking an excursion to Ferrara. At the end of the month, difficulties arise at the airport as they depart for London to continue their travels around England.

1. From Bologna to Edinburgh with stops in
London, Bath, the Cotswolds, Oxford, Nottingham, & the
Lake District
Part I: Italy

2. Plans for a trip to Europe
 With Ben studying in England for his junior year,
Robin and Tom had decided to fly over to travel
around England with him in June. Tom then learned
that classes in Nottingham ended about a month later
than those at LSU, so he decided to fly over as soon as
his exams were finished in order to study Italian in
Italy for a month. In November he began looking for
schools and decided on one in Bologna – ARCA. He
then began to look for lodging and found it at the B&B
Cristina Rossi, in the heart of the city. Since he was
staying an entire month, the owner gave him the low-
season rate, which turned out to be a bargain!

3. B & B Cristina Rossi
 Ben D
 Athens, Georgia, United States
 “Amazing Value In City Center”
 Reviewed June 16, 2013
 First off- please disregard all old reviews, most of the poor ratings are not current (at least two years
old). My family stayed here for five weeks and we absolutely loved everything: Cristina is such a
welcoming and generous person, the location is right in the center of town, and the rooms (we stayed
in three different rooms over the course of the five weeks) are all clean and comfortable. The
charming atmosphere really made the b&b stand out for us- this is literally the home of Cristina, her
husband, and two daughters, and while you might not see them much, they all were friendly and
hospitable.
Most of the complaints from old reviews seem to be about the same things, namely breakfast, family
mementos on the walls, and her two cats, but we found the breakfast was very substantial and
varied, the family pictures really made the b&b cozy and homelike, and the cats were rarely around
(they were often confined to her private room).
Basically, the location could not be better and Cristina was the perfect hostess, always willing to help
us feel at home (in her home!). If you're in Bologna for any amount of time, you'll not be disappointed
if you choose to stay here!
 Stayed June 2013, traveled with family

4. Ben’s Arrival
 Ben arrived from England on June 1st , having left Nottingham late at night by bus in
order to make it to the airport for an early morning departure. Once in Bologna, he
walked from the train station to the B&B where we’d be staying until Robin’s arrival a
week later on June 9th.

5. Tom’s single, Tom & Ben’s double, & Tom, Ben, & Robin’s “suite”:
with Ben & Robin’s arrival the circle was complete!

6. View from Tom’s Room

7. Staircases leading from rooms to
breakfast area & out to the street

8. “The Suite”

10. ARCA
 Arca was one of the first schools in Bologna to teach Italian to foreigners
and is now well-established in its field. Courses started every Monday and
included cultural and social activities. This meant that from one week to
the next, the make-up of the classes changed, depending on who’d left the
previous Friday and who started that Monday. One week Tom and
Robert(0), a retired educator from Scotland, were the only two students in
class. Classes were four hours a day, five days a week. They ran from 9-11,
from 11-12 at a nearby café, then again from 12-1 at the school.
 The other three weeks Tom ‘s class normally had between 6-8 students,
who came from all over the world: Sweden, Argentina, Holland, Norway,
Korea, China, Japan, Germany, Scotland, England, Australia, and the
United States. One student from the US had in fact graduated from
Providence College and was teaching English in Bologna.

11. ARCA’s location and Tom’s routine
 The school was located about a 15 minute walk from the b&b. Tom would have breakfast at 8 and leave
around 8:35-8:40 for the school. Classes started at 9 and ran for 2 hours, before the entire school took
an hour break, during which most of the students and instructors walked down to a small café in
Piazza St. Stafano, about 5 minutes away for coffee & conversation. Everyone would return to the
school to resume class from noon to 1 o’clock, after which Tom would go to lunch followed usually by a
nap.

12. ARCA: Staff

13. Tom’s Teacher: Andrea Bernardoni

14. Mid-Morning Break at the Café

15. Vicola Posterla:
ARCA’s Home,
on the left hand
side by the
motor
scooters
By the end of the
month, Tom had
gone from B2
‘intermediate” to C1
“advanced” and felt
he could now order
pizza & chianti any-
where in Italy with
near-native
authority. 

16. Tom’s Certificate 

17. Piazza San Stefano

19. Tom, Ben, & Robin in & around
town

21. Robin in Piazza Maggiore

22. Trattoria Anna Maria

23. Dinner at Anna Maria’s

25. Anna Maria: Running the Show!

26. Arca Excursion to Ferrara
 Ferrara is only about half an hour from Bologna. About
a dozen students went along for the day, including Ben
and Tom. The cathedral was magnificent, lunch in one
of Italy’s oldest bars, Al Brindisi*, even better! The
pasta they tried was similar to tortelloni filled with
pumpkin – a specialty of the region. * “Al brindisi” is
also used as a informal toast.

27. The Cathedral

28. Al Brindisi
Ferrara is a city of wine bars, beginning with this one—allegedly Europe's oldest—which opened in 1435. Copernicus drank
here while a student in the late 1400s, and the place still has a somewhat undergraduate aura. Most of the staff and clientele
are twenty-somethings. Dusty wine bottles line the walls, and there are wooden booths in another small room for those
who want to eat while they drink. A young staff pours terrific wines by the glass, and offers three different sauces (butter-
and-sage, tomato, or ragu) with its cappellacci di zucca. Tom & Ben’s waiter told them he was originally from Naples and
when Tom told him his name, the man
was so pleased to hear it, that he jokingly said
he was probably a distant cousin! He then just
left the bottle of wine on the table to have as
much as we wished, charging us only for the
original two glasses we’d
ordered!

29. Tom & Ben at “Al Brindisi”, having
ordered the “cappellacci di zucca”

30. Something fishy in Bologna

32. Flowers,
flowers
everywhere!

39. One of the oldest
porticos in
medieval Bologna

40. Bologna street scene
with one of its two
famous towers in the
background

41. Frescoes in Palazzo dell’Aarchiginnasio

43. Frescoed ceiling of
one of Bologna’s
many porticoed
streets

46. Departure
Tom, Robin, & Ben took a taxi at about 5
a.m. to the airport. Things went downhill
from there! 1st: our 2 previously checked
bags on Ryan Air were over the wt. limit
& so we had to pay roughly $80 more to
ship them; 2nd: at the departure gate
Robin’s carry-on was too big, so that cost
us some more money; 3rd a fight almost
broke out between a very big English
speaking guy and a smallish Italian
speaker. Both were cussing in their
respective languages and airport security
was nearly called before things settled
down. (Tom, who after a month in
Bologna felt more confident than ever
about his Italian, was even about to offer
to translate!  – though, as it turns
out, that wasn’t at all necessary, seeing
that both men seemed to understand
one another perfectly despite the
differences in language). Customs in
England went fairly smoothly and before
we knew it we were off on the train into
London.

47. Stansted Airport into London and beyond (>Part 2)