Bologna and beyond...the trip begins

After some very regretfully hurried farewells at the train station to my beloved Sienese host Mum and Dad, Luciana and Roberto, I jumped on the train to Bologna.

I had had a bit of trouble finding accomodation in Bologna but ended up booking a B&B which seem to very popular in Italy at the moment. The guy who I spoke to about it said he would meet me there to show me in and it ended up that I had a small two bed apartment to myself in the centre of Bologna. It had a small kitchen with fridge and cooktop, bathroom and 2 flat screen TVs (one in the living area and one in the bedroom).


Here is me preparing a much needed meal of NON-italian food on my second night there!!
In order to create this meal, on my second day I went to the food market and bought some fresh fruit and veg and calamari!! I made a calamari stirfry, already had some wine and had some fruit for dessert!! YUM YUM YUM!!

My fruit for dessert was a persimmon which I have fallen even more in love with since being in Siena (well eating raw cos Dad has for a long time made a pretty good persimmon pudding). But here they call them Cachi which I think is a pretty good name for them cos lots of people I know think they are "cacky"...haha

And one day I just HAD to try the gelati of Bologna, and I will tell you it was VERY nice!!! If my memory serves me correctly I had fig and honey and a caramelised nut flavour...

Overall I loved Bologna!! There is a lot happening and a lot of different things to see and do, and it is a university town so there are a lot of young people around. I went to a few really nice bars too and Bologna is where I discovered the joys of "aperitivo". In many cities in Italy, but more in the north, when you go for a pre-dinner drink or an aperitivo, they provide a free buffet of nibblies on the bar which can range from peanuts and chips, to pizza, olives, cheese and small pastries. It is quite easy to fill up on this and not want much for dinner and I think this is what a lot of young people do in these cities as all you pay for is your drinks!!

But Bologna was all lit up with Christmas lights and there was a lot of action in preparation for christmas too.



I did the usual of seeing the Cathedral of the city (always magnificent) and saw a few great museums and galleries too. The best for me though was spending half a day in a VERY good modern art museum. And the main piazza was very large and spectacular...

I also took a day trip to modena but wasnt very impressed by it as a city. I looked at a few things but a few of the museums that I wanted to see were closed. It wasnt a very exciting city...I had thought about staying there for 2 nights but am glad I didnt!!

Oh, one other thing which I love to do in every city is simply wander the small back streets to see what I find and this was particularly good in many parts of Bologna...I even found something that no one had ever told me about...

No one told me that my Gran had opened a bar here!! ;-) haha
Or is it a bar for Grans?!? haha

Ci vediamo
Jo xox