Lesson of the Day: Soup is Stupid Easy to Make, even if you're not in a kitchen.

After I arrived in Bologna, Ali and I went out for dinner and explored the neighbourhood.
There is a temporary Book Fair Book Store set up at the Piazza Maggiore for the duration of the fair, featuring books in Italian that have been translated from various languages. It's been hopping with activity every time I've walked by it.

Hanging with Lego Harry Potter, checking out the bookstore.

We went back to the restaurant that I went to several times last year. The staff is so friendly and the food is awesome. They'd renovated the place so we almost didn't recognize it. But there was no mistaking the owners!

Note: Ali wouldn't let me take any pictures of her b/c she wasn't feeling gorgeous or some fool thing. I'll get her next time!

On my first full day in Bologna, I set out good and early to set up our booth in the Canada Stand. I forgot to print out that particular email so I wasn't sure what time I was supposed to be set up by. I figured better early than late (For the record, F & W was finished first! Whoo hoo!).

Projected walk to bus stop

According to the map our hostess gave us, the bus stop for #28 to Bologna Fiere was at the corner at the end of our street. Well, there were half a dozen bus stops at the end of our street, but none of them was labeled # 28 (there are specific stops for specific bus routes here). I must have walked around for half an hour lugging bags of material till I thought my arms were going to fall off. Finally, I saw a bus labelled # 28 and I started running to the nearest stop - which, of course,wasn't for #28 so it didn't stop. I saw it stop about 50 yards farther along the road...and then leave before I could get there. Since it was Sunday, there wouldn't be another bus for an hour.

My ACTUAL walk to bus stop

Note: by this point, I wasn't anywhere remotely near the corner where I thought the bus stop would be.
(Upside: I racked up a few more kms in my quest to cover 2012 kms in 2012!)
Gave in. Took a cab.
I finally got to the booth and was relieved to learn that (a) I was plenty early and (b) all our boxes seemed to have arrived. Within a few minutes, after carefully disposing of enough packing peanuts to feed a Styrofoam elephant for a week, I had this splendiferous booth all set up:

Splendiferous booth of splendiferous books!

Because I can be smart sometimes, I had made note of the departure time for the next bus from the fairgrounds and managed to hop that one home. I also made a careful note of where the bus let me off - sure enough, it was across the street from the corner where I'd been looking for the stop earlier that day. So, logically, all I'd have to do is find the corresponding stop across the street in the other direction the next day. Always with the thinking, I am.

With the rest of the day ahead of me, I thought I'd go for a walk, get the obligatory gelato (a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!), soak up the sun, buy some band-aids and disinfectant for the angry-looking knee, and then head back to the room.

That's when I made my poor sick hubby some homemade chicken soup - via Skype via Kate. We had fun, actually. She set up the laptop in the kitchen and I directed her. Apparently, it turned out just great, so good for Kate :) And good for what ails you, too.

I love my pressure cooker!

Stupid Easy Chicken Skype Soup
Chicken (two quarters will do), 
3 carrots,
3 stalks celery,
 1 green pepper, 
1 large onion(peeled). 
Scrub veggies - don't even bother chopping - throw all in pressure cooker with 1 tbsp garlic, 3 tbsp salt, poultry seasoning and enough water to cover.
Boil and let the rocker go nuts for about 15 min. and strain out broth.
Add noodles, rice or whatever.
 Done.