Bologna - Pretty Pictures!

As I mentioned, all the children's book fairs like this one are held in destination cities - places where people love to visit. That's part of how they bring in all the big name players! So, of course, I have to share some of the awesomeness that is Bologna on my last day...forget the order, these are going to come in all higgeldy piggeldy...
     Bologna is beautiful and ancient.

The main plaza or piazza in Bologna is the Piazza Maggiore, home to the Neptune Fountain. It's being restored right now, so is roped off, but Hannah Sanguinetti (Scottish illustrator friend), Pilar García de Leániz (we did our MFA together), Amy Dover (new Graduate Program Director of Illustration at the University of Edinburgh) and I had to have a photo anyhow... The Piazza is the heart of the city. It hosted a bus strike on Thursday morning.Only to be followed by lovely music and happy crowds later in the day. Off of Piazza Maggiore are a gazillion little alleyways that host little shops and restaurants.

There was also a fishmonger selling fish to locals (we were totally in the way).But how in the world would you even try to eat something like this eel - it was about the size of a tire! I did a whole post years ago about the covered walkways of Bologna, which are a UNESCO historical site. Along all those walkways are stores galore! I was so bummed this shop wasn't open when I went by it, I so would have bought this shirt!But I treat myself to some nice leather gloves. (I bought some red leather gloves in Florence when I was a teenager on a student trip and I still have them!) While this bike wasn't new, it was new to me. I saw several parents with their kids in the back on bikes like these. As chance would have it, I ran into Pilar again and we had lunch. (Bologna is a surprisingly small town.) (We split a pasta ragu of course, hand-made pasta made by the woman in the window!) Amy caught up with us again and the three of us nailed THE table overlooking the Piazza. Amy pulled out her drawing pencils that she always has with her...and well, it was a table of illustrators. What do you think happened? We drew all over the menus of course! After a day of shopping and eating pasta, gelato, etc., I met up with another friend who I was so happy to run into from Scotland, Miriam Johnson and her friend Polly Silk. Miriam and I met up with Blythe Robertson earlier during the fair (you may remember their names from several posts when Stan and I lived in Scotland) - another wonderful surprise! We wandered from pub to pub because restaurants in Bologna don't even open until 8:00pm. But we finally had an amazing dinner, although I was ready to POP by then!
This was Polly's dish.Happily, all I had left to do was to roll into bed and get up at an ungodly hour to get to the airport and begin the long, several-legged flight home.
     Home. Ahhhhh. It's good to be back, but WOW, what an adventure I had!

Bologna Children's Book Fair:
01: To Bologna!
02: More Bologna!
03: Bologna - pretty pictures!