Bologna

We drove straight from Modena to Bologna where we got a fine for driving in the city centre, lost Emily at a toll and after booking a hotel, we couldn't find it. It seemed like a stressful start to this next adventure! I spotted a Best Western and asked where our hotel was, it had closed down.... But by some stroke of luck the Best Western now owned it, so had booked us into that hotel WITH underground parking 'if we didn't mind'. This was a relief to say the least, we unpacked and went straight to the city for a strong drink. 

It was breathtaking, medieval and busy. After ordering a bucket of wine each we discovered there was a week long jazz festival in town. There was a lot to explore so we decided to stay for 2 nights. 

 Jazz was humming through the streets and we decided to follow it. We had some delicious aperitivo snacks and prosecco at a bar called 'Roberto's' and made our way through the porticoed streets.  Our first evening meal was tasty, we of course tried their meat ragu which is the Italian bolognaise but the waiter did not like the fact we were English one bit. We decided to eat quickly and pay even faster... Not the best first meal. The walk home took us past even more beautiful streets and we concluded there must be more to this city. 

An italian friend of my dad's had emailed me with lots of information about Bologna so we had a vast itinerary to follow. We drank and ate in recommended cafes, enjoyed a whole morning in a museum and the afternoon was spent giggling a bit too much in an open top tour bus. We learnt a lot and saw even more beauty within this old city. 

It was almost time for my favourite time of the day... dinner. After a rather unsuccessful  dinner the evening before we wiggled our way through the streets once more. We passed the resturant where we ate the previous night and eventually ended up in the most beautifully candlelit setting.

We sat down and had a huge plate of bruschetta to share, Ems and mum had silky meat ragu pasta and I had the most succulent and velvety steak. It was a deliciously perfect evening. We were full and ready for Tuscany.