2023 Italy Day 03

By travelerdon on April 13, 2023

San Marino to Bologna, Thurs Mar 23

We wake today and have breakfast at the hotel. Getting used to Americano Coffee will take some doing, but it’s not bad. We pack up and walk our luggage to the car. Then we walk back into the top of San Marino and seek out the ramp and stairs to the first tower.

Quite interesting to climb into a tower that was started in the 11th century. Mountaintop views are always amazing and these views don’t disappoint. Who doesn’t love castles on a hill? Stone towers with stairs and ladders to get to the top take our breath away in more ways than one!

We also spy a church on the way to the top and it is open! So Our cameras snicker at us and drag us inside!

Then we head back down and get in the car with the plan to drive 2 hours to Bologna. The mountain roads zig and zag in switchbacks until we are finally down to the bottom. Then it is an uneventful drive on the toll roads to Bologna. It turns out that most all highways in Italy are toll roads. Thank goodness for GPS as locating our next hotel in the center of Bologna creates a bit of a challenge! But after a couple of wrong turns and GPS re-navigating the route, we finally locate it. But then there’s the challenge of getting someone to answer the door of the B&B we have reserved. A lovely lady comes along and seems to know how to contact our landlord and all is good.

We get settled into our B&B and get instructions for where to park our car, some 700 meters away. A mere 10 minute walk. This is standard in Italian cities, it seems. So now we head out and walk to the city center where all the thousand year old buildings are and we find the Plaza Di Maggiore Square and get an outdoor table to have a couple cocktails. A couple of musicians are playing guitar and keyboards and are drawing quite the crowds playing American Rock and Italian Ballads. We listen and rest while taking photos of city people scenes and decide it is time to walk on. I even catch a couple of lovers to add to my collection!

We go inside a cathedral in the square, The Basilica of San Petronio, and take our obligatory photos of yet another gorgeous Basilica.

Upon exiting we spot a cute little shuttle train and inquire and it is the San Luca Express and for a mere 12 Euros per person, it takes us up a steep hill to the San Luca Cathedral. It arrives at sunset and we get marvelous views of the sun illuminating the Cathedral’s already orange colored stone! Inside the Cathedral, it is yet another stunning interior and my cameras are entertained once again!

Back on the tram, we wind our way back down the hill alongside a famous Portico, aka a covered walkway, which Bologna is famous for! The City Center boasts over 38 (count them!) kilometers of Porticos! This one famous for leading up to San Luca, is 24 kilometers long and residents climb the last 2 every Easter Monday! Back in the Plaza Di Maggiore Square, we take some night photos of the buildings and then step one block off the Square to the Quadrilatico, the restaurant district.

We find seating at Osteria Quadrilatero and order dinner. Since we’re in Bologna, I order Lasagna Alla Bolognese and Elee orders a Tortellini dish. We enjoy the outdoor ambience of the restaurant seating in the street and the dinner is quite good! We also order wine varietals we have never heard of and are not disappointed! After dinner we walk the mile and a half back to our Air B&B to relax and get our blogs written and get a head start on editing the days photos!

So until tomorrow, we’ll bid you Adieu!