From Venice to Rome (2/4)

Bologna. January 2020. 6 degrees and cloudy.

We quickly find the accommodation. Paulina, our houst, a Romanian established in Italy for many years, welcomes us. She tells us that the entire floor of the building is hers and leases the apartments on Airbnb.

In the morning we cross the bridge to the city and walk downtown. Across a park we see that some concert is being prepared. Only on our way back home we saw the crowd that gathered there, most of them, were holding in their hands a banner with marine hints or they were dressed in fish. A google search helps us realize that they support “sardines move” which is a political movement in Italy.

We see the statue of Neptune and the two iconic towers, one inclined (and no, we are not in Pisa)

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Bodega portici – the making of the pasta dough can be seen from the shop windows. As it is somehow centraly located we return here from time to time to we check the status of the pasta.

We also visit Gelateria Giani where 2 globes of gelato cost us 2.7 euros. Not a day has passed without eating ice cream although the temperature was not the friendliest.

Piazza Maggiore is one of the objectives on our list. It can be seen beautifully from the Palazzo d’accursio where you can freely go to the 2nd floor, and the windows lead directly to the market.

We climb the church tower for 3 euros. The opening hours can be seen inside the church.

We start to get hungry and we take a break at Italian Breakpast (actual name) where a serving of pasta is 7 euros and a glass of wine is 3. Pretty good prices considering it’s close to the city center. The good part is that you can personalize your food, choose the type of pasta, the sauce, the topping. Of course we are again outside on the terrace, it is very pleasant.

After this well-deserved break, we let ourself get lost on the streets, we visit the souvenir kiosks, and then we start our walk home. We buy a few things from the supermarket, something that cooks quickly. As we stay in front of the wine aisle we realize that at the accommodation we do not have a bottle opener. As we do not want to paint the walls in red with the help of YouTube, we buy a sparkling one wine.

We fall asleep early. We have a strange bed with 2 single person mattresses that kept moving away from each other and a single blacket that wasn’t stretchy enough.

In the morning we start packing and receive a message that the flixbus is an hour late. We take advantage of this and on the way we stop for a cappuccino. Italians come to the bar, ask for espresso, give it a shot and leave, without even sitting down. What a way to start the day :))

We check again and it seems that the program has returned to normal. Although I do not know why I left home with the idea that this will be my favorite city, it wasn’t so.

We take the bus without reservation, but this time it is more difficult to find 2 seats next to each other.