Monday, December 7, 2009

It's Beginning To Look Alot Like Christmas!

This weekend marks a very important holiday here in Italy (and in Europe), the Immaculate Conception. Which leaves us with a very nice four day weekend to catch up on life and the Christmas Markets that are beginning to pop up all around Bologna.


Throughout Bologna, you'll find little Christmas markets filled with local goodies (pasta, cheeses, jams, meats). The only trick is to figure out how to get it past customs in the United States. Or better yet, just eat your way through the market (as Giancarlo and I often do). Next to the train station is one of the food markets where you can sip vin brulee, eat local delicacies and spend the afternoon ice skating (picture not shown). Yesterday, we took our day off and wandered through the rain down to walk around the market.

Food goodies from Trentino and Bologna

Doing some early Christmas shopping

We wandered back up to Piazza Maggiore to see the new "eco-friendly" Christmas tree. I'm still trying to figure out how exactly it's "eco-friendly" but a very interesting tree non-the-less. In the piazza is Palazzo Re Enzo which usually holds events inside the castle walls. This weekend was the Regali a Palazzo (Gifts at the Palazzo) with local handmade crafts, and gifts and of course, food from local farmers in and around Bologna. It smelled absolutely delicious inside, and as tempting as it was to eat our way through the Castle, we resisted (reluctantly).

The Bologna "eco-friendly" tree

Us inside the Christmas Market

2 comments:

mrs.mfc said...

Great pictures! The last one is just adorable!

littlemissellie said...

I lived in Bologna between February and June of this year, so never saw it at Christmas, keep the festive photos coming!

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