Il Cinema Ritrovato XXV. (Restored Films)

Bologna is alive and well, the main piazza, Maggiore has been transformed into a massive cinema complex, with seating for several hundred, and a 20 x 50 meter screen. Last Saturday night we went down with Mike Nicholls and family to see two of the greatest films ever. Seating is free ,but you have to get there early, l rushed down with the boys and found 2 separate seats, sitting Ewan and Hunter on them, l stood in between them to look for Jayne and the others, who strangely were taking their time to arrive. In the end they found some great seats at the nearby bar and watched from there, while Ewan and I shared a chair, and Jayne and Hunter.
The first film was Le Voyage dans la Luna, 1901. Perfect for the kids, all about some astronomers deciding to build a rocket and fly to the moon, where they discover moon people, get into a fight and escape with one moon man hanging on all the way back to earth. It was hand coloured and gloriously humorous. The second which sadly the others left as it started, except Hunter who stayed with me, was Nosferatu, 1921, a vampire film, with the lead looking alot like Peter Garrett. Both films were accompanied by a full orchestra, which heightened the atmosphere. The whole piazza was full of people, those seated on chairs, others at the bars, and hundreds more sitting on the ground, and it started at 10pm, finishing at 12.15am.
All over Bologna in cinemas and buildings are films being shown, some for free, others you pay. Made from early in the 1900 up to 1970, films by Howard Hawkes, Luigi Zampa, , Richard Oswald, Boris Barnet, Eric Rohmer, Martin Scorsese, French, German, Russian, Italian and American.
There are many film festivals in Bologna, and one of the most prized schools in film here. Not surprising how popular and well received photography is in the galleries.
I would suggest that anyone interested in coming to Bologna would be well advised to try to link it when a film festival is on.

Studio

View from my studio

Mike Frayne playing with planes

Home Sweet Home

Finally we have arrived in our new home, Santo Stefano Piazza.
Like all moves it was rather testing, we seem to have accumulated many more things in the past 2 months at Via Malvolta and so it took 4 taxi trips to move. We still are trying to sort out the new space, a kitchen that is 1/10th the size of the one at Teneriffe, the boys bedroom ceiling is just above my head, but their study area is below my head. The boys have great bunks that are lower than normal, so it saves a bit on space, though we think we will need to add another single bed. In their bedroom they also have a running machine and weight apparatus, we have great dreams of using it.
Our bedroom is quiet and dark, with lots of storage, the spare room is lighter, and we are turning it in to a tv room as well. The apartment has 3 bathrooms, 2 with showers and one bath, and the living area is spacious and leads to a small balcony. But the great thing is when you walk out the front gates of the palazzo, you are right in Santo Stefano Piazza, probably the best looking piazza, no cars, cobble stone with the amazing seven churches.
Our first house guest was Mike Nicholls, who flew in early saturday morning, we moved in on wednesday,  took him on a tour of the town, the boys were happy to have a familiar face. Mike is here in Italy near Siena for a couple of months. I took him to pick up his hire car on Sunday, but it was closed, he then realized it was Saturday he had to pick it up, which would have meant he would have been traveling for 2 days on a plane, then straight into a hire car on foreign roads on the wrong side and driven to Siena, would never have worked.
The next day Jayne took him back to the car hire place, but his car was no longer available, so she got him on a train to Siena where she had booked him a car, so in the end l think it was best. The idea of having to drive across and out of this town was too frightening, particularly l feel for Mike who just got here.
A few teasing problems with the apartment, just had the plumber leave with a leaky tap, l think he told me he would come back at midday, and l think he was the plumber. Got lots of keys for the place from the owner, its just that most of them dont actually work in the locks. He has said to be careful on the balcony until his person comes to fix it, the metal girder holding it up seems to have rusted, and a multiple of other small things, but nothing that is too bad. He has kindly offered for us to use his holiday house in Tuscany for free for a week over the holidays, so all is forgiven.
Even when you get a furnished apartment, it is amazing how many things you still have to get, mops, brush and pan, plates, KFS, pots and pans, towels etc. All we need to do soon is put some art on the walls and make it feel more like a home.
The internet is on, so l can get back into skypeing.

Boys with Frayne girls   Drama class   Th drama in drama class   Our first guest, Mike Nicholls

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Train Spotting

Before we left to Italy we had about a year of lessons, and one of these lessons was how to catch a train and what to look for and ask for. Obviously as you will see l paid no attention in that class.
A few days ago mum and dad left to Milan by train from Bologna heading back to Australia. I went down to the station to help them with their bags, as they had 3 large ones, that were heavy. I straight away identified their train number , its arrival time and platform. We chatted and waited for it to arrive on platform 1, normally they put the carriage numbers up on the platform so you can get in place, but the train before was still there and so we waited. Finally it arrived and we figured we were right at the front, l pulled two enormous bags along the platform, boarded the train, and put them away safely in the baggage area, l looked up and the platform was moving, l was going to Milan!!!!
One hour later l helped mum and dad off with their bags and to the taxi rank, dad helped buy me a return ticket, as l had not bothered to bring my wallet, just a few coins for the bus. I got an express ticket to Bologna, as it was a miserable day, and l thought l'll look around Milan properly later on our adventure. Mum said to me the train was departing from platform 21, so l said goodbye and rushed off as it was leaving in 5 minutes. I boarded the train, and as l sat down l thought this is not a express train, but l checked the sign said Bologna, l asked someone near me, he said Bologna, so l stayed seated and we left the station. Three hours later ( should have been 50 minutes) l arrived in Bologna on a regional train. I saw Parma, Moderna, and a host of other quaint little railway stations, l looked out at a landscape through stain marked windows from the spray paint, and had the pleasure of odd smells and a humid environment, along with a incredibly large collection of toe nail clippings at my feet.
Lesson, always listen in class, and never listen to your mother.

Another thought regarding Bologna, a friend last week was sitting in a bar having a coffee when she saw a women hit to the road by a bus that continued on its way (you have to admire their German attention to timetables)
She rushed out of the bar to help the women,  quickly asking if she needed an ambulance, a doctor, some water!!
The women stared up at her as she climbed to her feet and said, caffe?

Starting to get excited we move into our new apartment on wed, and we are all getting bikes to help get around, l must remember if l am hit by a bus while riding to ask for a caffe before collapsing.

Siena and Torino

Now were was l, we were on the way to Siena, well firstly l helped put a mirror up a few days earlier, and got a text as we approached the train station in Bologna, saying the l had seven years bad luck, well it did not take long to kick in. We missed the train we were meant to be on, then the next was booked, the following only had one seat and the third was booked. Trains are like moving home, it only leads to domestic collapse. Thankfully Jayne saved the day, and went up to the ticket office and found a domestic train leaving in 20 minutes that was going to take only 30 minutes longer than the express, sounds awefully like Melbourne very very fast train. So we boarded and arrived in Siena all happy and a family again.
Siena is beautiful ,though everyone knows that, my feeling was that it is a bit touristy for me, l actually got sick of hearing the english language everywhere, every store keeper spoke it, and there were tour groups scampering along , following a microphone junkie with some flag to identify their species. Sure the Duome is priceless, and l will need to visit it again, mum was on the ball and lined up half an hour early so we could be the first in, to see it in all its beauty without the interuption of floral shirts and clicking cameras. The library there is not to be missed,l actually liked the floor pieces that they called pavements or grafitti.
The main piazza is well designed and works well with crowds, it slopes down to a single point. the art gallery was terrific, lots of Jesus pictures. The first hospital in Europe is there, now it is the Archaelogical museum, hugh vaults underground, and a vaulted area upstairs with paintings to die for on the walls and ceiling.
We went to the best osteria we have been to, "Gatto e Cane", if you have to do anything in Siena go there, Paola runs it with his wife, and it is absolutely extraordinary, you have about five plates antipasta, soup, rissotto, meats, desert, all accompanied with wines. He is a wonderful host and nothing is too much, he even went out and got me some chinotto to drink.
So Siena was a place that you need to wear earphones playing opera and enjoy the sites without the voices

Now onto Torino, we just got back, spent two nights in the city, a big city, maybe a bit too big for me now, but might cope better in a year, like Siena a bit too much English everywhere.
The best modern art gallery l have come across yet, had 2 Kiefer's, massive Kiefer's, and a group of other masterpieces, the old Fiat factory out at Lingotto is worth going to , just to see the seven Matisse's on the roof gallery and 2 Picasso's, and there were also seven pictures of Venice that bored me. On the roof is where they used to test the Fiats it has a curved track around the roof, like a veladrome, and the building is super cool. Next to this building is another that houses Eataly, a organic style foodstore, where you can have lunch and buy lots of goodies.
So we went to the second best Egyptian museum outside Cairo, we have been to the Cairo one, and l agree, but well worth the trip, nothing better than a mummy and a well made box.
There is the museum of Italian warfare, which you would presume is a small janitors room, but somehow they have made it bigger than what America might have.
Basically the town is full of museums and we will need to go back a few times to see them all, some are on cinema, armory, royal family, science.
Best hot chocolate we have had, and a great hotel, the Grand Hotel, Sedia. The food was good, and better price than Bologna, but that is no surprise now.
The boys have been terrific at traveling, and are getting better, they even seemed interested as l went up a hugh staircase , just to look at a staircase.
Back in Bologna , it is raining, and will rain all week, it rained in Torino.

Might shoot off to Venice this week, and infact a few times, as the Venice Biennale is on. Saw a priest wearing Nikes. Find myself not ordering more than one coffee at a bar, but leaving and getting another at another bar, as it is rude to have more than one coffee, reminds me of the days when l drank.
Saw a copy of the boys poor maths test they had last week, and had to ask the teacher what something meant and what the answer was to 3 questions, it amazes me how l got here!!!!!

Mitchello

Sculptures, Duomo

Duomo, Siena