Really solid sleep, waking just before 6. My washing from yesterday is finally dry – drying wet clothes always seems a bit of a problem. Shower, shave, etc as this is a day in civilisation. Decide to keep my washing up to date and wash yesterday's T shirt.
Oh wondrous joy! The wardrobe contains normal coat hangers that may be hung other than on their anointed rail.
Go down for breakfast at our appointed time of 08.00. No sign of the girls, who are running late. I was able to keep Simon under much closer supervision, I can see this is going to be a different proposition. They arrive eventually and we have a very jolly breakfast. Our plan for the day is:
While Anita and Chris explore the Giardini Margherita I will check out the start of tomorrow’s route, especially the availability of picnic provisions at the start of the San Luca climb
We will then rendezvous at Welcome Bologna, the first to arrive to buy tickets to climb the Torre Asinelli
Having climbed the tower we will go to the medieval museum and an art gallery
Anita also wants to buy a small rucksack
The first section of my route is alongside an unpleasantly busy main road. Don't like this.
There is then a long section of colonnade, with fruit shops, snack shops, cake shops. Picnic sorted. Note the bedding and cardboard sheets to the bottom left of the picture. Homelessness clearly exists in Bologna, even if it's much neater.
The girls are at the RVP 15 minutes before me, but when I meet them they have failed to get the tower tickets. Nor have they been to the gardens. Non problemo, we are in vacanze.
Tickets bought we have time for a coffee before the ascent.
View of the Asenelli tower from our coffee shop. We climb up the 97m tower on a wooden stair. There is no evidence of anyone coming down, which is puzzling. How does this work?
The views from the top are worth the climb. We can see the 3km colonnaded walkway up to the San Luca basilica. It looks fabulous. It will be a shame if it's not raining while we do this bit of the walk. We descend, finding no-one coming up. Clearly groups go up, then there is a break until everyone from that group is down before the next group goes up.
Apparently the two 900 year old towers in Bologna were the inspiration for architect Minoru Yamasaki in the design of the World Trade Centre.
We the pop into the Osteria del Sole, est 1465 the oldest bar in the city, for a cheeky pre-lunch glass of wine.
We then spend quite a long time plodding the streets looking for the right lunch venue, with the right menu, in the right location, with the right price bracket. We are nearly going back to the Osteria del Sole when we suddenly find a nice table at a cafe.
We order far too much food, but it is very good and very leisurely. We suddenly notice that time is moving on, so we make a move to the medieval museum. The highlight for me were bronze sculptures by Giambologna. He was the sculptor responsible for the Fountain of Neptune water feature pictured yesterday
After this museum we decided that art would be a gallery too far. So we set off back to our hotel with the idea of a cool beer if the right bar in the right location with the right ambience presented itself. So we arrive back at our hotel, and I spend an hour or so in the beautiful Jasmine scented garden writing my blog while Romeo, a large white cat, torments a grasshopper.
Out for evening meal.
It was interesting to see bike lanes are not full of parked cars. Had a much delayed beer in a rather young, busy, and bohemian bar. Then grabbed some pasta and a bottle of San Giovese. All looking forward to starting our walk tomorrow, if a little sad to be leaving Bologna so soon
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