Dinner in a private medieval tower

So let me speed you up on the happenings of Bologna. 

I officially know who all of my house mates are!

One is Danny. He's the one who is from Valencia, Spain. He speaks Spanish, is learning Italian, and can read a little bit of English. He's an engineering student. 

Next is Camila. She's from a town near Milan. She's Italian. Speaks a little English, and knows French. She's my grammar/Italian coach. She's studying psychology. 

And the last house mate is Stefano. He's Italian. Speaks English, a little bit of German, and Spanish. He's studying business/economics. 

And of course my roommate Nathaly. Who -- just to add -- speaks Spanish, English, and German (fluently) and knows a little bit of Portuguese, and is learning Italian. 

I know... I'm lagging on the whole language thing. Everyone is so sweet and nice! It's such a great mix of people and I love it.

As I said in my last post, this was the last week of my ILP class. Today I had my final oral exam, and kicked booty! 

Basically we picked three topics from a pile of folded topics, and talked about all 3 for 15 minutes, and then we were done! She said "benissimo!" and that I had proved tremendously. My teacher is one of the sweetiest people I've met. (And it's also really weird, because she could easily pass for one of my cousins in the Jensen family) 

The night before the exam, however, we had our "end of ILP dinner" at the top of a medieval tower. The towers in Italy were all built for families to show how much power/money they had. 

All of the towers that were originally built don't exist today (for varying reasons), but there is still a great amount of towers. In the 1700's the tower became a prison, and today it is a bed and breakfast that a couple can stay in for 300 euro a night (kitchen, dining room, comfty bed, and beautiful view included). 

There are 12 stories in the tower, with little tiny stairs you have to climb up. After every flight of stairs there's a floor you can stop on. Some of the stairs are so steep or don't have railings so you have to hold onto a rope that hangs from the ceiling to keep your balance. 

When we got to the top the "golden hour" (as we like to call it Bologna) was just beginning. This is when the sun is starting to set and all of the red/pink/orange buildings in Bologna take on this incredible glow. Well... so did we as the sun was shining in our faces while we were at the top of the tower. 

Everyone took pictures for awhile, and then the owner brought us food. We stayed up there for a couple of hours. Talkin, eating, drinking champagne, wine, and juice. 

It got windy, but no one really cared. It felt great. Some day, I would love to stay there for a night. I think it would be so cool. 

The first floor up is the bedroom, then there is a spiral staircase that takes you to the kitchen, then to the dining room. Then begin the wooden stairs. 

There is one room where the prisoners were held, and the prisoners used the coloring from the bricks in the room to paint pictures on the wall -- or they would carve into the wall. There were pictures of houses, or carvings of dashes -- signifying how many days they had been there. 

SO COOL.

Afterward, it was nearly impossible to focus on studying, but luckily this class was great and had completely prepared us for the final exam. Plus before we went to the tours, a few us went back to the cafe where I had those amazing meatballs, and we studied for a bit.

All in all. Great end to a week. :)