The Beauty of Modena

Hi everyone, this is the first post of the "Europe behind the lens" blog, and I've decided to start writing about the last important trip that I took. It was a trip to Italy with my friends. The cities we visited were Modena, Bologna, Verona and Bergamo. In addition, we also went to the coast and saw Cinque Terre, which I've already describe and published previously as an experience.

Modena is the city in which one of my friends did her Erasmus. She was the first to participate in the Erasmus programme. This kind of program was foreign to us, we'd heard about it, and of course many of us want and are going to participate, but she was the first to brave it. We all decided to go visit her during Easter.

Travel and arrival

All of us are from Zaragoza and we were lucky to be able to take a flight from Zaragoza to Milan, our friend had given us a lot of advice concerned what we should do once we arrived in Milan. We caught the plane after lunch but it wasn't too late, then we left our city and country behind.

When the plane began its descent it was getting dark and there were many clouds, we were still in a mountainous area and the effect of the clouds made it seem like the mountains were floating, it was a rare sight. Finally, we landed in Milan, we didn't have to wait at baggage claim as we had everything we needed in our hand luggage.

The first thing we had to do was catch a bus that would take us to the city centre, we'd booked it before coming to Italy. We got on and set off, the sun was already setting and the horizon was tinted with pink lights and reddish tones. We arrived in Milan and looked for the train station where we'd get the train to Modena. While we waited for our train, we made use of the time and had dinner. When it arrived we got on, it was quite cold inside, we wrapped up with whatever we could find and tried to rest a bit, whilst the train was travelling across Italy in the middle of the night.

When we arrived at the station we stopped for a moment to see where we had to go, our friend was waiting for us a little later. The phone GPS was right, we had to get across the whole city until we reached the flat where our friend was staying with some other students. The truth is that Modena is not that big, and it may not have looked like it, but we were exhausted. Also in my particular case, I had an addittional problem: my suitcase broke during the trip and there was no way to get the handle out so I had to crouch down a lot to grab it.

After crossing the city, passing right through the centre, where we could admire the "Duomo" at night, we arrived at our friend's flat. She and her roommates helped us to carry all our luggage, we must have looked very tired.

After settling in, we all chatted for a while, we played Monopoly and then they gave us a lot of advice on where to go, what to eat... because the next day we'd be visiting the city that they'd been living in for many months.

The city of Modena

Our friend was excited to educate us all about her Erasmus life, the places where she usually goes, her friends and of course, the most beautiful and iconic places in the city. The first place she took us was a small cafe near the Duomo. There we had some pastries and she taught us to how ask for orange juice, which is called "spremute" here. In Spanish we'd say "exprimido" (freshly-squeezed).

After having a good breakfast and having recovered from the previous day, we calmly strolled along the streets of Modena and went to the Duomo. In Italy it seems that all cities have a Duomo. We were in the square admiring the magnificent cathedral, of Romanesque style. There were quite a few people in the square, some of my friends ordered a take-away pizza there. We walked on until we reached a market selling local products, right in the centre there was a fountain and it was made up of many stalls in which the traders displayed their produce.

These streets in the city centre, on which we were walking, are cobbled and the pavements are too narrow, so I'd recommend wearing comfortable shoes and not heels (as I was). We spent the rest of the morning looking at the colorful buildings of Modena, with warm tones and the occasional flowers that adorned the facades, since it was Spring. We took some pictures in which you can see the Duomo towering in the background of the streets. We also saw many bicycles and the city seemed full of life wherever we went.

Our group was not complete, we were missing one of us, who was travelling from another city, and we went to look for her at the station. We walked through the streets that we'd traversed the previous night. As soon as she arrived we went to a restaurant to eat pizza and when we finished there, we found ourselves in a square eating delicious gelato, before moving on. We saw some more areas of the city and then we went to buy food at a supermarket for the next few days. We went back home and started preparing dinner.

The party in Modena

In the house there was only one bathroom, and we all wanted to take a shower, as we had been touring the city all day. There was seven of us, I was one of the first to shower and, together with another friend, we set about preparing dinner. Spaghetti seemed the most appropriate, what else would we want to eat? We boiled the water and we put in the spaghetti, we were both in the kitchen and our friend's flatmates had given a bowl to the other girl to leave the drained spaghetti, we put it next to the pot in which it was cooking. Suddenly it started to smell strange, and we saw that half te bowl had melted. It was plastic! We quickly pushed it away, but the damage had been done, they had lost their bowl.

After having dinner, we got dressed to party and they took us for a drink, in my case I had an ice-cream, then we walked to a park where many Erasmus students had gathered. I think it was Saturday and there was a decent atmosphere, we even witnessed a fight with lightsabers in true Star Wars style.

From there we went as to a club in Modena called Baluardo, highly recommended. There we met more Erasmus students from other countries and any Italian friends who accompanied them.

I walked the streets of Modena again, in this case I also walked home wearing heels, I kept stumbling and could not wait to get back, it was terrible. Nevertheless, I have great memories of this wonderful city. I think that the atmosphere there is different from any other city, as it is neither too big nor too small, it's the perfect size. Sometimes, when we returned from the excursions, we saw how other Erasmus students who knew our friend used to ride their bicycles, when going to meet more people. Without doubt, it is essential to have a good bike in the beautiful Modena.

Click here to see more photos of the trip.

Photo gallery