Our second trip to Italy took us to Bologna, Florence, Pisa and Venice (again, yay!)
First stop Bologna!
Bologna was way better than I gave it credit for. We had such an amazing, and interesting time there. There was so much to do and it felt like we were there for more than 2 days because we crammed so much in. It’s definatly a place in Italy I would recommend.
We went to a museum all about Bologna and Italian medieval history, climbed the tallest tower in Bologna, went for a walk round the park, had a walking tour which was awesome, looked round the shops AND looked round the food markets, the food was phenomenal!
The towers in Bologna. We climbed the tallest one. Over 400 steps!! We were knackered.
The Bologna food markets, the food was out of this world. Me and Tim got our lunch from there on our last day in Bologna, we got fresh rolls, mozzarella and parma ham (See below)
Whilst in Bologna we had ‘au ragu’ which is their tomato sauce for pasta! Bologna is the home of Bolognese and it’s so authentic and super delicious. Its a must have if you are in Bologna, teamed with some tortellini your on to a winner.
Next stop, Florence! We spent 3 days here and one of them was the best day of my life so far…
We had a walking tour in Florence too which took up one of our afternoon/evenings and we went to the Natural History Museum of Florence as well as relaxing, eating ice cream (note: always check the price) and looking round the shops.
The hotel weย stayed in had the coolest pancake machine, so you can guess what I had for breakfast whilst we were there!
On the Saturday we spent in Florence we went to Pisa for half a day!
It was really cool to see the famous leaning tower of Pisa. We went up it and of course did the obligitory touristy pictures with it.
I have to say it’s a lot smaller than you think it’s going to be but they really aren’t exaggerated when they say leaning, walking up the stairs to get to the top is very disorientating.
On the morning of Sunday 19th August, our last day in florence before we headed off to Venice,ย me and Tim decided to go back to the Ponte Vecchio bridge, the gold bridge, named so because it is lined with little jewellry shops.
On the corner of the street, after we’d looked around, Tim turned to me and said ‘Do you want to go back to the shop and get the ring you liked?’
‘Why?’ I responded, ‘because I might need it’ again I responded ‘why?’ And Tim said…
Will you marry me?
After a little bit of shock I of course said
YES!
We went back into the shop to get the ring I liked and the one in the window fitted perfectly!
So you can see why this was the best day of my life so far โก
In the afternoon we got the train to Venice, our last stop! I was desperate to come here again after loving it last time.
Here are some pictures of the amazing Venice!
The Rialto Bridge.
Venetian masks.
Our view from breakfast.
Venice by night.
St Marks Square.
Whilst we were there we did a tour of Venice that started at St Marks Square and walked you around the back canals of Venice, telling you the history. This was really interesting as we hadn’t done this before.
We spent of lot of time enjoying the view of the Grand Canal from our hotels balcony. As you’ll know from my previous Italy blog, we like to stay at Canal Grande hotel in Venice and we did this time too.
I found a gorgeous hand decorated notebook that had a sketch of Venice on it, in a shop next to the Rialto Bridge. I did a lot of my own sketches of Venice and places we had been during the earlier stages of the holiday.
I really enjoyed being creative and capturing the beautiful city in my own way.
I hope you enjoyed my blog about our second jaunt to Italy. Feel free to leave your comments below!
Where’s your favourite place to visit?
Until next time,
Roseanne ๐
Roseanne Byford 