The Olympic Torch Runs Through Bologna

Okay, I will give 5 blogger bonus points if you can tell me who this is carrying the Olympic torch through Florence in December....Give up?

The person, of course, is Joe Torre, manager of the baseball team that I used to like, until they sold their soul to A-Rod. But that is a topic for another post....

The point of this post is that the Olympic Torch passed through Bologna today, on its way to Turin for the Winter Olympics at the end of February. It was very interesting. All I had to do was wander about 2 blocks from my apartment and there it was....The whole event only lasted about a minute, but within that minute I also saw the highest concentration of police cars since leaving Washington, DC. It was no Presidential motorcade, but for Bologna, it was quite the show.

It is interesting because this is the second time I have lived in a country/city (not including living in the States when it was hosting the Olympics in '84, '96, and '02) that was about to host the Olympic Games. During the first half of 2000, I was living in Sydney, Australia as it was gearing up for the Games. I never saw the torch there, but I came close many times. While Sri and I made our walk-about around the country in June and July, we always seemed to miss it by a day or two. Every little town seemed to have a flyer up announcing that the torch relay was coming or that it had just occurred....At least this time I got to see it up close!