19 Sept 2021 | Bologna> 8 @ Bemabò (★★★★), way out west of Bologna, again as an xcuse 4 a long walk in the hood north of Quartiere Saragozza (or maybe it's considered northern Saragozza?), not much intresting out that direction, maybe why the pizzeria is so highly rated (4.6), it's the only restraunt around > it also had a nice patio, where we were visited by what we thought was a tiny humming bird (we asked the waiter + he even thought it was a colibrì) that buzzed inches from us, but ends up it's a type of moth, a «hummingbird hawk moth» (video is slowed down 5x)

21 Sept> 1st brush-up Italian session in a few weeks (dropped the last course cuz 2 many other students @ lower levels w/ unknown vaccination status... now it's just us + our bedder-½ w/ a private tutor, mostly just conversational, 3x a week) > bisogna cominciare a pensare in italiano > 8 @ La Fastuchera (★★★★½), a Sicilian wine bar, had tuna tartare, an eggplant dish + a fried egg w/ bottarga on top which was unique

free art randomly displayed throughout Bologna instead of ads

also Patrizia Vicinelli

22 Sept> Joe Strummer invited us 2 dinner > we volunteered 2 cook but all he had were cans of beans + flavored chili meat > his place was a mess w/ ½-eaten bowls of chili that we couldn't decide whether to just mix in2 the new pot we were making, but didn't know how long they had been sitting out > by this point he'd turned in2 Gordon Lish + was out back drinking whiskey w/our bedder-½ + sum other ppl while we cooked

> later in the night we were up this ledge that was like 10 feet below the top of Mt Everest (tho it was a narrow rocky ledge like the top of a fair weather rock climb) > our mom was there + holding onto us since we were in a precarious position unroped > we'd been this far b4 w/ our faceless climbing partner but didn't summit + we were telling this partner it was crazy 2 come back all this way + not climb the last 10 feet 2 the top, but our partner said «no way» even tho these last moves weren't that difficult, just very exposed, up this narrow pinnacle > we told our partner 2 tie us in so they tied a rope around our waist > we were contemplating these last moves thinking we could almost just lean + reach the top so we started 2 lean + the pinnacle of rock we were on started slowly tipping til it rested against the pinnacle that was the summit + we touched the top > other climbers were watching + saying this was cheating, not 2 mention irresponsible of us, but we didn't know the pinnacle was gonna tip like that > we let go + the pinnacle tipped back + almost tipped 2 far in the other direction + kept tipping precariously back + 4th like a pendulum til we told our partner 2 grab hold of it 2 steady it + finally it stopped rocking

23 Sept> read the 1st 2 pieces in Essays and Fictions by Brad Phillips... we were sort of in2 it @ 1st, but his shtick gets old... maybe we wd of read the whole book if it was when we were working on Textiloma, but we've since burnt out on drug-fueled books from jaded artist types, specially in the wake of Gian's death b/c seems the most visible person Gian partied w/ was Phillips

> 8 @ Taverna la Postiglione (★★★★½), had pasta w/ pesto + bottarga, delicious except the can of super-salty anchovies (2 go w/ burrata) trigged our vertigo

entrance 2 our new digs

24 Sept> super dizzy all day > watched Hedwig + the Angry Inch (★★★★) for the 2nd or 3rd time then started to watch the Agnelli (★★★★) doc on HBO which was a fascinating look in2 why Italy is the way it is, our ex-landlord's (in Trastevere) brother (Jas Gawronski) was interviewed quite a bit > then we were going thru sum sort of subway stn + there were all these pelicans + we felt bad making them all move out of the way > they ran off in front of us + when we rounded the corner couldn't figure out where they went cuz there was nowhere 2 fly off 2, then discovered they'd packed their bodies like sardines in2 the small overhanging spaces beneath the steps

> then we were in this tall cement bldg + there were 8 tombs + these monkish guys praying over them... evidently they were like their Viking ancestors that had died protecting the north (sorta like the north wall guards in GoT) > we were on this ride that would take us straight up in2 the rafters + we were thinking if the souls of these ancestors were in this bldg then we'd be getting a good dose of them up high in the rafters, even if we weren't part of this Viking culture > the ride kept going up + then letting us go in almost freefall + was starting 2 make us sick + we couldn't figure out why we had 2 keep doing it over + over, as if once wasn't enough

25 Sept> above «dreams» were just sum of the snippets from us just laying there all night w/ our eyes closed 2 keep our head from spinning > vertigo's even worse 2day + now we feel nauseous on top of it (yesterday just really dizzy w/o nausea) + that general feeling of malaise like your hungover (sure the bottle of prosecco last night didn't help, tho it cured our dizziness while we were drinking it) > haven't had any Ménière's symptom's for last 6 months + now that 1 little tin of salty anchovies put us over the edge, this is perhaps the worse we've felt, @ least since the spring of 2019

> went 4 a run 2 try to flush sum of the salt out of our system + then perambulated the porticos of the 11th slice, Porta Lame, wherein «Lame» means swampy, cuz guess these were low-lying areas, but now it's now a more contemporary part of town that houses the modern art museum (MAMbo), the Cineteca Bologna (a cinema museum complex including Cinema Lumière) + a lively farmer's market where more ppl where drinking beer + wine than buying produce + the Cassero LGBTI+ Center, amongst other things > there's also a park strangely named 11 Settembre 2001 > we 8 lunch @ Il Veliero (★★★★), had sum sorta squid pasta dish + ½ of our bedder-½'s pizza, here's the route

... tried our best to form a pizza slice tho looks like we cheated a bit twards the end (it was surprisingly hot out)(after X-ing the wall 4 a bit) + missed the «PalaDozza» which is a basketball stadium (they like b-ball here) named for Bologna's longtime commie mayor, tho we can catch that street on next walk when we do San Felice > we did however see sum p/u b-ball in another park w/ players from diverse backgrounds, sum had decent game > hear's sum other stuff we saw along the way

Giardino del Cavaticcio w/ remnants of navigable canals
+ surrounding this park is MAMbo, Cinema Lumière + LGBTI+ center

waterworks 4 controlling channels flow

along via Lame

Santuario di Santa Maria della Visitazione

Umberto Eco (Bologna's own)

+ finally, the Lame Port