Puttering around Ferrara

A terrible photo of the statue in the center of Piazza Ariostea

We spent most of today just puttering around. I took the kids down to the park on the corner called Piazza Ariostea. It’s a large grassy oval with a cement track (for lack of a better word) surrounding it. In the center is a large statue. The most interesting thing about it was the bushes separating the track from the grass. They were teaming with lizards of assorted shapes and sizes. If you stopped to look, the tops of the bushes were kind of rustling – they way they would if a bunch of birds or butterflies were there. But on closer inspection, every movement was a lizard! The kids were also thrilled to find European money (like our pennies) on the ground. They were hoping to find enough to buy gelato…but no dice. At one point I over heard a conversation between Deep Thinker and Rosa about whether or not we were poor since we didn’t have money for gelato. They don’t quite grasp the exchange thing!

One of the lizards that were climbing all over the bushes.

The kids also enjoyed the courtyard of the hotel, while I was eaten by mosquitoes (tiger mosquitoes…they’re actually striped!) It’s a prettyish sort of wilderness and has a gigantic fruit tree, among others. Even looking at the fruit I’m not sure what kind it is…it looks a little like apricots…but might be some sort of pear. I guess Ferrara is famous for them. There are also huge tomato plants on the side of the garden. Of course The Net managed to find really big snails that he wanted to bring inside to observe. I convinced him to leave them in the garden.

After The Linguist came back from work, we walked down to Estense Castle that’s near the town center. It was built in 1385 to defend the Estes from a public revolt and then transformed into a castle. South of that is the Palazzo Municipale and the Cathedral, which my guide map says are the oldest parts of Ferrara. There were a lot of families out walking (and eating gelato) and shopping. We noticed a pair of tennis shoes that looked a bit like Toms. They cost 200 euro! Yikes! There were numerous clothing stores and even a fabric store, as well.

I thought people might stare at us since we are such a parade, but few of the Italians make eye contact. I’m not sure if it’s because they’re too polite or they just don’t care enough to stare. Someone told us today that for the last year or so all of the incoming Americans stay at our hotel, so basically everyone in town knows who we are and why we’re here. So much for blending in!