My Bologna has a first name.

This weekend we caught a train to the city of Bologna.  I made sure to whistle the Oscar Meyer Weiner song while strolling the streets.  Although it was a rainy, cloudy day, we still saw a few amazing churches as well as many shops.  There wasn't anything too extraordinary about the city, but it was nice to get out and about for awhile.  I think the most interesting thing happened on the way home while riding the train.  Katie and I were talking when all of sudden we broke out laughing.  Nothing too loud or obnoxious, but that did not save us from the death glare we received from the lady across the way.  She scowled at us with the worst evil eye (which is saying a lot since my mother is Cindy Gastreich, haha just kidding) I have ever seen and followed it up with swiftly moving to another train car.  Another train car?!  I guess this should not have surprised me after being called a lazy bitch in Italian at one of the markets after supposedly not putting a pair of sandals back properly in the box.  We're just making Italian friends left and right, aren't we?  We realized that people don't really laugh out loud here.  They truly are uptight and unemotional.  Thank goodness we work with and have met people from other parts of Europe who are much kinder.  Whoever said Americans are assholes surely never met a Northern Italian.  They perfect the term tight ass with glowing success.  We have heard that further South people are much friendlier in Italy.  This weekend we plan to travel to Florence and Sienna in the Tuscany region so we'll see if this theory proves true.  God, I hope so because if I receive one more rude sneer I might just open a can of American whoop ass on these stuffy Northern Italians and give them a real reason to hate us!  Don't get me wrong.  I'm having a great time, but I just can't get over how rude the Italians are.  The other day when I finally did receive a returning smile I nearly fell of my bike.  Either way, I'm choosing to look at the train event positively.  Not everyone has the chance to travel abroad and piss off a foreigner.  It's a pretty good trade off considering I've had my fair share of crazy moments with foreigners while working at Noah's Ark in the Dells.  Oh the stories I could tell you.  Perhaps another day.