*Modena*

Last Sunday I took a day trip to the nearby town of Modena. Luckily, my neighbor's brother (Rayme) lives there and offered to show me the highlights of the town. Modena is a small, typical northern Italian city. It's not very touristy, and on a Sunday afternoon it's very peaceful.
In the morning, we went to several churches, most of which were having Mass when we showed up. One of the churches had been converted into an art gallery. We went to the city hall, where there was a couple getting married. The city hall is incredibly old (one of the rooms has a plaque saying the building is from the year 500) and houses the bucket of Modena. The story behind the bucket isn't quite clear... but the city of Bologna stole it from Modena and few times, and now Modena has it, kept behind a security rope and under an alarmed glass case.
In the afternoon, my hosts took me out for lunch, then to the Ferrari factory.

Overall, it was a really relaxing day, and it was nice to chat with someone about home. Rayme (my host) grew up in Sidney as well, and it turned out that we knew a lot of the same people. It was nice to have a piece of home in a foreign land, while also enjoying the foreign land. Here are some photos from the day.

*my gracious hosts: rayme, claudia, claudia's dad*


*bucket of Modena*


*painting in the city building of the patron saint of Modena, Saint Geminianus, who covered the city with fog in order to save it from Attila the Hun's attack*


*duomo of Modena*


*outside the Ferrari factory*


*a Ferrari was outside the museum with the owner nowhere in sight*