Days of May

Well all the bookshops in town seem to have displays of books about May '68 -- this was a celebrated time here in Europe. The best we could do in Canada was to follow along with Woodstock, it seemed. Somehow I don't think my italian is up to these books in reputable bookshops, but I might be able to manage a gialla. Gialla used to be a romance fiction book, usually printed with yellow covers (see above) hence the word gialla. Now gialla is used for all novels, but not all are printed with yellow covers. These are a display at my local outdoor kiosk paper seller.

Here is an evening view from our window of the shopping mall nearby, and the torch of MacDonald's. We are never too far from the shopping reality, eh.

May day, the workers holiday, should be big in Bologna. We heard there were big celebrations and anti-racist events in Rome and in Milan. But Bologna's was rather tame. A military parade (with no tanks or armaments, damn), some older soldiers who fought with the Parisans in the '40s with wonderful plumed hats, and of course speeches. Somehow gender equity never tipped its hat in this place. Not one woman spoke. The women on the platform, were first aid officers (I suppose if people fainted from the boredom of listening to speeches for long periods of time).

Left above you see the city hall, decked out in the traditional red. Here are more photos.

We live in a mixed neighbourhood. To the east is an immigrant area filled with wonderful sights, sounds, people from the middle east and Africa mainly-- peppered with the gelato places (sometimes two in a block) and the traditional Italian bakeries and pizza places. Near the railway tracks in back of us are these sumptious car lots and Omri and Larry like window shopping there.

Judy and Larry at a rare friendly lunch

Sometimes we discover places we have read about but have yet to see. This is San Domenico's which has a startling number of paintings and even a sculpture by Michelangelo inside. Here is Omri, a cutout figure in the courtyard.