Bologna for settlers

While Woody Allen is spending his summer in Italy shooting new film 'The Bop Decameron' and I am postponing my return to the lands of the great Romans, here grow more and more people who are just about to find their ways to Italy and always are hungry for a piece of advice.

This year along P. Cruz Woody also brings J. Eisenberg 

Welly welly well, some time ago I've been settled in Bologna, Italy and I could be useful no more than that.

There are differences on the purposes of your visit, period and your personal characteristic features. All in all, those next some of the advices would be the most of value for an exchange students at Universita di Bologna. While for Johns Hopkins university there might be an absolutely different story.

So what's the plan? First of all, University of Bologna has 5 campuses: Bologna, Cesena, Forli, Ravenna, Rimini and as I got to know one more in Buenos Aires <?>  If you've been selected to any than Bologna campuses you should still try to manage to get to Bologna - city of students and Neptune.

Fontana del Nettuno at the Piazza Maggiore 

Bene, benvenuto in Italia, benvenuto a Bologna!

1st Step - Home

If you have a scarce knowledge of Italian, don't want to spend time on checking the apartments and taking the whole week on decision and furthermore would prefer to live around other students? Then one of the best options might be dormitory which is located around 15 minutes away from the city center, costs not more than 300 euros monthly and is actually a spacious apartments sometimes with huge balconies perfect for late summer's parties. Here's the link for this sort of accommodation.

One of those balcony parties

Other than that options: Google the flat rental offers on the Internet in both English and Italian languages or come to Bologna approximately a week beforehand, take a cheap hostel and contact the advertisers from the streets in Bologna (majority of them are at Via Zamboni) - recommended for at least skilled Italian speakers.

Ads for accommodation rentals in Via Zamboni, Bologna

2nd Step - Transportation

Public transport (mainly buses) - Info. (for students monthly it comes to around 24 euros)

Taxi (not that expensive comparatively to Western Europe)

And my favorite - bicycles. 

There are few ways to get a bicycle:

1. Buy a new one (cost could reach 300 euros)

2. Re-buy from ex-student (around 20-30 euros but you need to know people in advance)

3. Buy it from the auction (0-30 euros but you need to follow the time of the auction and sometimes be a clown)

4. Buy it from stolen bikes dealers at Via Zamboni (it's fixed cost - 20 euros but you will have to invest next 20 for the huge chain that no-one would steal it again)

5. Steal it (requires skills and particular conditions of childhood).

My first introduction to a Fixie bike

Any way you choose, have in mind, that in Italy there's always Guardia di Finanza which any time could ask you to prove any of your purchases - for instance, a bike. More likely it would never happen but each and  every of us are responsible of the actions we take. 

  They are more real than God

Basically that's it. There's a place to live at and there's an instrument to get around with. Keeping yourself alive and dizzy those are the refinements which come with time and age. 

And yet there are so many things about Bologna left behind which will eventually be disclosed in later posts or answered personally. Buona Fortuna!