30 August - Day in Bologna

Alastair had planned to get up early and do a work-out. I ended up waking him up at 9:30am. I guess he still had a bit of jet-lag. We’d all slept well. After a quickish breakfast we hit the sights at 10:30am. It was just a short walk to Piazza Maggiore, for the requisite stop for a coffee. The coffee in Italy has been stupendous. It seems unfailingly richer and is wonderful as an excuse for a tasty little pause during our touristy wanderings.

Bologna's famous towers

Piazza Maggiore, Bologna

We all really enjoyed just meandering among the various towers and grand buildings in the historic central core. Some of the little foodie streets were fabulous - befitting Italy's centre of food.

Via Pescherie Vecchie

Via Pescherie Vecchie

The highlight was perhaps ascending the makeshift lift attached to the cathedral, to the heady heights of the roof level. Workers were redoing the roof of the church, so the city was making the most of an opportunity to allow tourists to scan a great nearly-360 degree view of the city, for a small fee.

View of Bologna from the Cathedral terrace

Biblioteca dell'Archiginnasio

Lovely antique shops

Our accommodation was right in the centre so all it was easy to catch most of the major sights. Lunch was a magnificent gelato and not much more. The temperatures were so hot, in the high 30s, that we just weren't that hungry. Heading back to our accommodation we walked through a lovely garden so opted to sit down and just chat for an hour or so. It was really nice. The rest of the afternoon was spent chilling out, except for Alastair who opted to do a serious workout.

At about 5pm his Googling for 'things to do in Bologna' revealed that a major football match was to take place in another part of the city. Bologna was playing a Spanish team, in a stadium catering for 40,000 people, and it was going to be a BIG match, with the local team expected to win. Alastair was very keen to go, and we were keen to experience an impressive stadium. The first tack was to see if we could buy some tickets. We set off for the nearest ticket office. It was closed for the holiday season. Right, following the navigation apps we walked at a very fast pace for the next one. Nope, couldn't find it. In the end Alastair stopped a guy in the street who was wearing a football shirt (which turned out not to be for either the Bologna or Spanish teams). He was exceptionally helpful and pointed us in the direction of a nearby bus stop to take us. A bus was just pulling in when we'd nearly reached it. I set off at a sprint, with the two guys behind me. We wasn't quite as the right bus number, but not far off so we jumped on. I asked the bus driver questioningly 'Stade?' "Ah, stadio, si" was the reply. We didn't quite have enough small coins for the three of us to buy the self-service tickets but figured the police wouldn't be checking the 1000s of people jumping on buses to the stadium. We knew we'd be able to buy tickets at the stadium if there were any still for sale.

A very fast walk after the the lovely woman bus driver told us to get off, a dash to the ticket office, and all was looking very bright. Yes, we could buy three tickets in the Bologna section of the stadium, amongst all the noisy local fans. One problem. We needed to produce our passports. We had read on the website that we needed ID so all had our driver's licences. Nope. That wasn't enough. Even an electronic copy of our passports would not suffice. Bugger. Extreme disappointment, particularly for Alastair. There was no option but to find a bus back into the centre of town (5km) but we did find a little restaurant (Roberto's) closer to home that provided a very tasty meal, with exceptional Italian service. Alastair was determined to savour the local and genuine version of Bolognaise. It didn't disappoint. Having slept until 9:45am, Alastair was feeling fairly tired again. Just as well he was in bed by 10pm (rather than after midnight if we'd seen the match).