Portico Restaurant in Bologna, Italy

Portico Restaurant in Bologna, Italy

One of the best things we loved about Bologna was the food.  The food was better in Bologna than Florence or Rome.  I thought it might be interesting for others to see a few dishes we enjoyed.

Bologna is known for a few things, this picture shows their famous balsamic vinegar, which was beyond amazing, and on a different plane than American versions!
A basket of bread is usually brought to the table upon sitting down and olive oil and balsamic vinegar is for dipping the bread.

The water buffalo balls (the white balls with olives and tomatoes) in Bologna were unbelievable.  They are similar to mozzarella but much, much better.  There is prosciutto (meat) on the plate, but Bologna is famous for their mortadella; which is like the caviar of bologna, and what our bologna in America was created after.

This dish is a pasta made with spinach, bacon, and cheese.  

This is Bologna's version of a spaghetti dinner; it is Bolognese sauce on some amazing noodles.  It might not look it, but the taste was great.

Up against Dd's left hand is one of the bottles of water we drank during the meal.  It is interesting how in Italy, though the water actually tastes good in our hotel, at restaurants only bottled water was served.  There were two options: gas/fizz or natural/no fizz.  The 'gas' is carbonation and 'no fizz' is no carbonation; plain water.

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Due Torri, the Two Towers, Bologna, Italy

Due Torri, the Two Towers, Bologna, Italy
In Process a.k.a. Asinelli and Garisenda towers, the Two Towers of Bologna are probably the most well-known items in Bologna.  They are medieval structures that have survived the years.  There use to be more than 100 towers around Bologna.  There are now only 20 of these structures still up, though these are the tallest of the remnants.  The Asinelli tower is the tallest, and it was completed between 1109 and 1119 and stands a height of 318 feet.  It leans 1.5 degrees.  The shorter is the Garisenda Tower which was built around the same time as the Asinelli, but leans more--3.97 degrees.

This is a close-up of the tower above.

The area around the Two Towers was always hopping; even at night.  As a popular tourist spot, there were some fancy shops in the square.  

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Sonlight Core H Week 11 (1500-1700's) March 20-25th, 2017 (First week of spring)

Sonlight Core H Week 11 (1500-1700's) 

March 20-25th, 2017 

(First week of spring)

This is the watercolor set Dd bought at JoAnne Fabrics, with the gift certificate my mom gave her for Christmas!  

"Before" Remember how cute and small they were, just a few weeks ago?

"After"This is how big the ducks are this week...compared to just a few weeks ago!

Hello, Friends!

Illness:

We had a much better week.  Dh's health scare has improved; which is a huge relief.  My bug is slowly improving, and Dd is better too.  Whatever bug we got has been very difficult to shake.

"Before"  Here are the same Isa Brown chicks, just a few weeks goes by and...

"After"  The Isa Browns are really changing a LOT!  Their brown feathers are coming in fast!

New chicks & Ducks:

The chickens and ducks have been a handful!  The ducks manage to spill water all over their brooder and I have to change the towels three times a day to keep the chickens dry.  The ducks have grown enormously!  My, they are such super fast growers!  They eat, drink and poop like nothing I've ever seen.  The worst part, my Dd was so determined to get these cute duckies, and yet she is very slow on keeping their brooder ship-shape.  If I had to do it over, I would not have gotten these ducks.  They are cute and all, but I am not set up for ducks and am fumbling with how to keep them.  I checked out a book from the library this week to give me some ideas.  I've put them in my bathtub twice this week to help them to clean out their noses, as they 'pant' with their beaks open due to the chicken dust.

Friends:

Thursday night, Hailee came over to help Dd on her violin playing--'her fourth finger' something or other.  And in return, Dd is helping teach her piano!  Hailee has a few years of violin under her belt and does a great job of helping with violin technique, but hasn't had piano lessons, so they are sharing technique skills.

Friday night Dd spent the night with her longest-known friend in Michigan.  It is now TWO years ago that this friend, and her mom, invited us to a movie and bible study; which was our first "Girl's Club."  So thankful for Dd having such a good, long-standing friendship that opened up so many doors.  It was through this friend that we learned about band!  Dd played her clarinet, another instrument that she has grown to like more and more.  

Instrument Fitting:
When we first decided that Dd would join the band we had to schedule an appointment with a music store to do an "instrument fitting."  The store brought out about ten different instruments-- Alto sax (not tenor, for some reason), clarinet, trumpet, french horn, flute, baritone, trombone, and tuba.  With no experience in playing any of these instruments before her goal was just to see if her mouth and will-power could work together to make a sound.  If I am remembering correctly, she sounded okay with the clarinet or the sax, and she just preferred the sax and chose it.  Since then, our band teacher has held a few instrument fittings, that we were allowed to attend. She has really enjoyed trying out other instruments and continues to want to branch out.

"Before"  This is "Hummer" or "Hummingbird" the lighter colored of the two Bantam chickens.

"After"  Can you believe how much she has grown!

Our Academics this week:

Bible:

Some difficulties this week with our book...ahem, there wouldn't have been trouble IF I hadn't lost our book!!!  I misplaced our book half way through the week and it took me two days to find it!  

Walking With Frodo by Sarah Arthur 

pg's 87-122

Bible Verse Copied in Cursive

God Is In Control (for Dd's Sunday School)

Math:

MUS Geometry

13 A-E

Science:

Apologia Exploring Creation in Physical Science

Module 4

Complete, but I'm struggling that we didn't get the experiments done.

I've started giving the ducks long swimming sessions in my bathtub until the weather is warmer and we can get them outside in a kiddy pool.

Poetry:

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

My Lost Youth

Snow-Flakes

The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls

History:

(RA) BiblioPlan Companion: Early Modern History

Ch. 10: More English Colonies: The Restoration of the Monarchy

(RA) SOTW: Story of the World: Early Modern History

Ch. 27: A Changing World Steam and Coal

Ch. 28: China and the rest of the World

Ch. 29: The Rise of Bonaparte

MOH: (AUDIO)Mystery of History Vol 3: Renaissance, Reformation, and Growth of Nations

Lesson 22: Suleiman and the Ottoman Turks- 1522

Lesson 23: Ulrich Zwingli Leads the Swiss Reformation

Lesson 24: The Anabaptist Movement and Menno Simons - 1525

Lesson 25: Babur Akbar, and the Mughal Dynasty of India - 1526

Lesson 26: Henry VIII and His Many Wives - 1529

Read Aloud:

The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope

Goodreads Review: Newly orphaned Peggy Grahame is caught off-guard when she first arrives at her family's ancestral estate. Her eccentric uncle Enos drives away her only new acquaintance, Pat, a handsome British scholar, then leaves Peggy to fend for herself. But she is not alone. The house is full of mysteries and ghosts. Soon Peggy becomes involved with the spirits of her own Colonial ancestors and witnesses the unfolding of a centuries-old romance against a backdrop of spies and intrigue and of battles plotted and foiled.

Reader 1:
George Washington's World by Foster

pg's 215-231

Reader 2:

The Kidnapped Prince: The Life of Olaudah Equiano by Ann Cameron (I've added back into this core, SL had taken it out, but I thought it would be a good add-in.)

Amazon review: Kidnapped at the age of 11 from his home in Benin, Africa, Olaudah Equiano spent the next 11 years as a slave in England, the U.S., and the West Indies, until he was able to buy his freedom. His autobiography, published in 1789, was a bestseller in its own time. Cameron has modernized and shortened it while remaining true to the spirit of the original. It's a gripping story of adventure, betrayal, cruelty, and courage. In searing scenes, Equiano describes the savagery of his capture, the appalling conditions on the slave ship, the auction, and the forced labor. . . . Kids will read this young man's story on their own; it will also enrich curriculum units on history and on writing.

Sonlight Timeline and Mapping assignments:

Weeks 8-11

Language Arts:

IEW SWI-B Continuation:

Lesson 2: COMPLETED

Word Roots

pg. 71-73

Physical Exercise:

Dd has been working at night, prep for Marching Band

10-15 minutes each evening

Art:

Drawing and Watercolors: 5 hours this week

Fun Reading:

Corsets and Conspiracies, The Finishing School, Book 2 by Gail Carriger: COMPLETED

Waistcoats and Weaponry, The Finishing School, Book 3 by Gail Carriger: In Process

Music:

Violin: 1:00 hour lesson

Beginning Band: Tenor Sax 1:30 hour class

Intermediate Band: Alto Sax 1:30 hour class

Piano lesson with Mrs. March: 30 minute lesson

Strings Group: at church: 1:15 hours (Ukelele)
Violin lesson: 45 minutes

Home Practicing:

Piano: 2:00 hour

Alto 2:30 hours

Tenor 1:00 hours

Violin: 2:50 hours

Ukelele: 2:05 hours

Flute: 0
Clarinet: 10 minutes at friends house

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Museo Di Palazzo Poggi - Jan 31st, 2017

Museo Di Palazzo Poggi - 15th thru 17th Century Collections
Bologna, Italy
Visited on Jan 31st, 2017

In Process

Our family made a trip to Italy this winter because Dh had to go for his job.  This day Dh had to be working and Dd and explored Bologna, Italy without him. We decided to go to the Poggi Museum, our travel books described these interesting wax anatomy specimens so interestingly that I really wanted to see what these anatomical pieces really looked like.  It was quite a feat just finding the museum in the middle of a university in Bologna!  Just walking around and finding this small museum in the midst of all the college buildings was difficult and quite an adventure!

(For some reason, some of the pictures in the post are sideways.  There were NOT sideways on my computer, but somehow in the process of putting them in this post, the computer decided to enter them on their side.  I have no idea why!)

A website for further info on this museum, if you are interested:
http://www.museopalazzopoggi.unibo.it/141/thepalace.html

This museum was an odd collection of various topics.  You would never think you'd have a museum of wax anatomy models, battle seige plans, cannons, replica's of various old ships, portraits of scientists like Newton, fossils, woodcuts, globes and maps, and sea life ALL in the same small museum.  The first few rooms were of old aquatic things..fish, fossils, woodcuts of aquatic specimens and oddities.  "Oddities" defines this museum nicely!

This room, and the glass cases was beyond interesting! It had so many species of water creatures, from blowfish to a whole hammerhead shark!  So interesting!

They had HUNDREDS of these woodcuts, to make prints of many nature specimens. There were a few glass cabinets full of the woodcuts.

This is an actual NARWHAL tusk!  I don't think I've ever seen one before.  The picture doesn't show it well enough, but it was there.

I just LOVED these specimens! I think this museum was a Science Institute for a while, after being a rich family's palace, and before being a museum, therefore all the science stuff.  This building has such a rich history unto itself.

Pregnancy/Delivery Room
Every piece is made of wax, to teach medical students how to deliver babies.

Dd was NOT a fan of this room!  I couldn't help but be fascinated by how wrong things can go when delivering a baby.  Each baby is an example of a situation where the delivery has gone wrong.

The lighting in this building was difficult to take pictures in.

Anatomy Rooms
The second section was of wax models of anatomy.  This was the biggest area, the most rooms, and items.  The purpose was to educate future doctors, and the models were very detailed.  They had ears, the anatomy of the inner ear, hands, legs, organs...
Keep in mind that all these works were made of WAX!



Wax replica's of every bone in the human body displayed in these glass cases.  They had models of skeletons, models of muscles, and each organ in the human body.






This wax body of a pregnant woman was just amazing.  Remember these pieces were made hundreds of years ago.

If you look on the left side of this picture you can see the organs, bones, and muscles that removed to show this view of her body.  

Wall Paintings
Understandably it was hard to focus on the exhibits when the buildings and rooms that housed them were beyond spectacular.  Each ceiling and wall had exceptional artwork on them that equaled or surpassed the items we were to be looking at!  I took a lot of pictures of the murals and moldings on the walls and ceilings.

Above each mural were very detailed wood moldings that held either wooden designs or that had been painted.  This ceiling was painted but it was so old that the paint was faded.  

This picture flipped when I put it in this post, but you can see the wood detailing and molding that was the ceiling.  The geometric wood molding ceilings were amazing in person.  The pictures of the ceilings and murals really do not do them justice. 

Scientists and Science Room

This was a room dedicated to all the scientists that were influential hundreds of years ago, many that I didn't know who they were.

Apologies that some of these pictures are sideways.  I had them placed correctly in my computer, but for some reason they flipped when I pasted them onto my blog and I have no idea why!

I wish you could see this picture, it is the scientist room. This picture shows the room well--the fantastic ceiling with the decorative geometric pattern, the beautifully painted mural, and then the features of the exhibit.

Battle and Siege Room

The third area was dedicated to battle.  They had all these wood diagram models of 'sieges.'   They had quite a few big model ships, maps, globes...  They had lots of cannons and other war things, room after room of various things.  The wooden framed siege diagrams were my favorite; works of art on their own. 

A room of ships

A room of siege models

Courtyard

The building (old palace) that houses the Poggi museum has a courtyard in the middle of the building, that has a centrally placed sculpture--see above.

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