When we arrived off our flight from Chicago, we planned to take a short train ride and spend the night in nearby Modena. We bought train tickets from a machine in the Bologna station but we couldn’t find the right departure track because it wasn’t posted on the electronic board, so I asked a station attendant where to find it and she told us the train was cancelled due a strike. Argh! A strike, but we could still buy (now unusable) tickets? I mean, did we accidently switch flights and end up in France?

There was a bus station just next door, so I used my caveman Italian to buy bus tickets to Modena. We go bus Modena? What time we go bus Modena? How much cost bus Modena? Thank you for bus we go Modena, bye bye.

We had a couple of hours before the bus left, so we used that time wisely: eating pizza. Yeah maybe I can’t remember what I did last week, but I had total confidence in finding that one pizza al taglio place we ate at over a decade ago.

The bus station had a pizza vending machine, which normally wouldn’t sound appetizing but the food is so good in Bologna they could probably even make delicious vending machine pizza.

The bus wasn’t as fast as a train would be, and we were already a couple of hours behind schedule. My only agenda in Modena was to see the cathedral and buy balsamic vinegar, though even those modest plans seems more dubiously achievable as the day got later. But that bus ride—I forgot how fun a bus ride can be, tooling through small towns decked out in spring flowers, peaking into backyards strung with laundry. I figured we’d still have at least an hour inside the church before it closed, so why not enjoy the ride?

Oops, the bus station in Modena was actually 5K outside of Modena, so we trekked as fast as we could, considering HOB has Parkinson’s, I have a vestibular disorder, and we were hitting the jet lag hard. I started bargaining with myself—maybe we don’t really need an hour inside the church.

We made it with 15 minutes to spare. No pics of the inside, since it was forbidden, but we do know how to look at a Romanesque church and we enjoyed our hasty tour of the red brick interior.

The exterior wasn’t going to close, of course, but we were still racing the sun. Fortunately, I’d read about the church in advance. It was designed by the architect Lanfranco from 1099 through 1319.

The rose window was added later, when it was a Gothic-era trend.

We planted ourselves in front of this carving by Wiligelmo. On the left, God in his mandorla is propped up by angels. Then God creates Adam (why so chonky, Adam?) and then makes Eve from Adam’s rib. Eve takes an apple from a snake and Adam chomps on it.

You’re gonna need a close up of the famous first couple and their fig leaves. I love love love love depictions of Adam and Eve and this one did not disappoint.

Angel with mullet blowing a flame trumpet next to a pelican—what else did you expect?

Siamese twin antelopes?

Naked dude whipping a sea monster horse?

GAH!

In fact, this archivolt is said to be one of the earliest depictions of the King Arthur legend.

The lions outside the entry are probably scavenged from a Roman tomb. These pillars seem manueline to me.

After two long flights, a day walking around in our backpacks and not much to eat, this is what we looked like as the sun set over the Cathedral of Modena.

The room we booked was close by and we dropped our bags, feeling desperate for a shower. We didn’t have energy to search for food so we bought the first take out pizza we found, even though it didn’t look particularly tasty. We brought the pizzas out to a bench in front of the cathedral. As we ate these mediocre pizzas, some locals hung out next to us with their dogs, giving us a friendly buona sera and going on to gossip in Italian about tourists who don’t know good pizza.

The stores were closed so we gave up on the dream of buying balsamic vinegar, but a shopkeeper saw our sad faces and reopened to sell us a bottle.

The astute reader will note that was the second time of the day we’d eaten pizza. In fact, we ate pizza a third time: the leftover pizza for breakfast the next morning, on our way to catch a 7:30am train to Mantua.

How we got to Modena: flight from Chicago to Bologna, bus from Bologna to Modena.

Where we slept: La Casa del Centro.  Price: €112 for a double. Recommended: yes.