During my first weekend off, I traveled all the way to Bologna to meet my Italian best friend, Alessandra.
It was a 10 hours bus ride from Napoli to Bologna. I took the night bus which was rather miserable but at least economically doable.
That was my first time taking FlixBus. I reached Napoli Centrale Station, but I couldn’t find the bus stop. I saw an old man and a young lady who seem to be father and daughter waiting for someone by their car. As the bus was about to leave in 15 minutes, I ran up to them and asked if they know where the bus stop is. They had no idea where it is but they did not just brush me off. In fact, the old man ran across the street and helped me to ask around the other Neapolitans in Italian. After getting directions from other pedestrians, his daughter walked me all the way to the bus station and I was able to catch the bus just in time. I couldn’t thank them enough for their kindness.
I picked a window seat and laid my backpack under my seat. I loved how electric sockets were provided on the bus as I could charge my phone whenever I need to.
After dozing off for a couple of hours, I woke up to an incredible view. It was 5AM and we were on the countryside driving along the Adriatic coast. The sun was rising, the sky was polished in red purple, and the colours were reflected on the calm sea. The cute houses that scattered around the wide green field seemed like they were about to be awoken after a long night. It looked like a grand opening scene of a romantic movie.
When the bus made a stop in Rimini, a man from Nigeria sat beside me. He needed to charge his phone and his charger didn’t seem to be working so I lent mine to him. He thanked me and I was totally cool with it.
And then he started to ask a lot of questions about where I got it and he told me how ‘powerful’ he thought it was.
I frowned when he said, “it will be very nice if you, my friend, can give it to me as a gift for free.”
“No, this is the only charger I have and I need it to travel,” I answered with a cold tone. Just because somebody is kind to you, doesn’t mean that it’s okay for you to ask for more.
“I know, I know, I’m kidding,” he said.
I let it go, put my headphones back on and continued listening to Avicii. It was the day after he passed away. What a shock.
He said one day you’ll leave this world behind, so live a life you will remember…
As soon as I arrived at Bologna station, Amber, Alessandra’s roommate, came to pick me up. She moved to Bologna from Rome for university. It was very kind and sweet of her to show me around and bring me back to their apartment to settle down as Alessandra was busy volunteering repainting vandalized walls around the city at that time.
I stayed at one of their roommates’ room as the girl was out of town at that time and she agreed so. It was a very nice apartment located around the city centre. I took a nice hot shower and rested for awhile while waiting for Alessandra to come back.
Words can’t tell you how excited I was to meet her.
Alessandra is a very special friend to me. She came to Malaysia from Italy 3 years ago as a foreign exchange student. We were in the same class during her exchange year. My teacher arranged her to sit beside me and since then we became best friends in school. We talked a lot about cultures in class (even when we were supposed to be learning about Chemistry…) and it sparked my passion to explore other parts of the world. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have known about high school exchange program and later on became an exchange student myself. With all my heart, I am forever grateful for the life-changing and eye-opening experience. I had always been telling her that one day I’ll visit her country and I was very glad that I made my way there.
When Alessandra came back from volunteering, she ran into my room and we hugged each other so tightly. It felt truly magical to see her again 3 years later.
Alessandra told me that her parents mailed something from Sardinia to Bologna as they knew I couldn’t make it there and they wanted me to try some local Sardinian food. There were Sardinian bread, Sardinian apples and more. It was very sweet of them to do this and show me the Sardinian hospitality even though I was not in their region!
We headed out to explore the area after having gnocchi for lunch. The city centre of Bologna was rather small. There were many street performers playing music, dancing or doing magic tricks. It was not as crowded as in Naples, but it was rather comfortable to walk around. The architecture of the buildings was beautiful. One of the most important landmarks in Bologna is the Two Towers. The Two Towers were both leaning, located at one of the most crowded intersections in Bologna. Piazza Maggiore and the Fountain of Neptune were my favourites too!
Bologna was also home to the oldest university in the world – University of Bologna. I was very proud of Alessandra because I was told that it was difficult to be accepted to the university and yet she made it! When she told me that the university was located right in the city centre, I was expecting a gated campus with security guard watching the gates, just like how universities are in Malaysia. It turned out that many of the schools of University of Bologna were run inside the historical buildings located in the city centre. Now I could finally understand why Bologna was known as a city full of young people.
That night, we went to have dinner together with her other friends. I’m sure you have heard of Pasta Bolognese. And yes, Bologna was the origin of the Bolognese sauce. However, they don’t call it Bolognese there. It was called ragù instead, which was basically the meat-based sauce. I had Tagliatelle al Ragù (a type of long flat pasta served with the Bolognese sauce, kinda like Asia’s Pan Mee haha) and it was one of the most delicious meals I have ever had in my entire life.
On the next day, we headed out for breakfast and a walk to a park.
At noon, Amber, representing Rome, made us Spaghetti alla Carbonara. It was crazy how the real original Roman Carbonara was so different from what most other people have in the rest of the world! It was nothing creamy at all and in fact, they didn’t add mushrooms in it!
Here’s the simple recipe for 1-2 person:
Ingredients:
- Pasta
- Egg
- Cheese, preferably Pecorino Romano, a type of sheep’s milk cheese. However, I usually use Parmesan cheese as it’s easier to get here.
- Pancetta, Italian diced bacon salted and spiced with black pepper. Since it is not easy to get it here in Malaysia, I usually just cut slices of regular bacons and season them with a little bit of salt and pepper.
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Black pepper
Instructions:
- Boil a pot of water. Once it is boiled, put the pasta in it and add some salt. Cook as long as the time recommended on the package of the pasta.
- In a bowl, crack an egg and grate some cheese in it. Can’t tell you the exact amount of cheese to add but I usually put a lot, enough to cover the whole egg. Mix and beat them all together.
- Drain the pasta once it’s cooked.
- Fry the bacon for about 2 to 3 minutes on a pan. Add the pasta and some olive oil so that the pasta will not get dried up.
- Spread the mixture of egg and cheese slowly and all over the pasta.
- Stir well and wait until the egg is cooked. You will see tiny bits of yellowish egg and cheese all over the pasta.
- Serve it hot. Add more cheese if you wish, hah!
In the evening, Alessandra and I walked Portico di San Luca which led us to Sanctuary of San Luca from the city centre of Bologna. Bologna has a network of porticoes that extends for almost 40 kilometres. Out of all, Portico di San Luca was the longest portico (3.8 kilometres) not only in Bologna but also in the world. It leads you up to the Sanctuary of San Luca that is located 300 meters above the city on the Colle della Guardia hill. It was definitely not an easy walk. I felt like it was never going to end. However, once you reach the top, the view was definitely worth all the sweat!
We rushed back to her house and picked up all my luggage and ran to the bus stop. We were 5 minutes late but thank goodness it was Italy and the bus waited for me. We hugged goodbyes, hoping to meet again in the future.
And off I went traveling back to Napoli.
The Dancing Wildfire 