Travels to Italy

The final part of my birthday celebrations took place this weekend - we went on a four day trip to Bologna with friends.  I didn't know too much about the area before we left, other than the fact that their ragu sauce is famous (although the bolognese people will never eat it with spaghetti, that's for the southern Italians, in Bologna it is always served with tagliatelle).  

I can tell you that you will never go hungry in Bologna.  I had the best lasagne that I have ever tasted there and will be completely re thinking how I make it at home, less meat, more pasta and double the cheese!  The local wine is Sangiovese so a litre of house wine costs about 8 euros and is absolutely superb.  The Italians do simple food, but oh so deliciously.  One lunchtime, not feeling particularly hungry, we decided to share a meat and cheese platter that should have been for 2 between the 4 of us, with a small bruschetta to go with it.  This is what turned up

After a long day walking around town on Saturday, we stopped at about 6pm for a small prosecco to revive us for the walk back to the hotel.  We did not order food, but with our drinks came a 'small' complimentary plate of appetisers, a bowl of crisps, olives and nuts.

But it wasn't all eating and drinking (honest) we also did a lot of sightseeing.  We got a taxi up to the sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca.  It is high up and has one of the longest covered porticos in the world leading from the town to the church.  We had been advised to drive up and then walk back, not the other way round which was good advice as the walk back into town is a steep two and a half miles!

Something a little different - we also went to the Teatro Anatomico where corpses were first dissected for scientific study

A couple of little gruesome wooden carvings of skinless figurines are beside the chair where a priest would keep an eye on the proceedings to ensure nothing became 'spiritually compromised'.  Hard to believe that this was the first place where they realised that you could learn so much about the human body that way.

On a much lighter note - no wonder the Italians have a reputation for being stylish, there is no lack of high quality clothes, Gucci, Prada, Fendi, Armani ... my husband seemed keen to rush me through that shopping area!

We had a fab weekend, it's just hard to get back into work mode now!