Florence to Bologna

By Eva Babauta

June 28, 2012

On our last day in Florence we woke early and walked to The Diner where we enjoyed American style breakfast before getting on a train that would take us to Bologna. We had French toast pancakes and hash browns. It was nice to have something other than cappuccino and croissants.

Before going back to our apartment we walked to Piazza Michaelangelo. This place has some of the best views of Florence. The road that led up to the piazza was steep and at one point there were lots of stairs. We thought that it would be fun to run up the stairs and so we did! We were all breathing hard at the top and sat for a couple of minutes to catch our breath before walking over to the lookout point. After taking some pictures and admiring the view we made our way back to the apartment to check out.

The train ride to Bologna wasn't too bad. We stayed at the Paridise Hotel. The hotel was not luxurious but we enjoyed it very much. It was a nice cozy little spot close to the city center. The women there were very friendly and always so happy to greet us. Being in the hot sun and walking/running earlier in the day made us very tired so we decided to have an afternoon nap before we went to dinner.

We had dinner at Trattoria Del Rosso which claims to be the oldest restaurant in Bologna. We arrived there early (around 6:30) and dinner was not being served until 7.  There were about three things on the menu that we (the vegetarians) could eat so it wasn't hard to figure out what we wanted to order. While we waited we talked about what we would do the next couple of days in Bologna. Dinner was good. It didn't take them long to prepare and the waiters were friendly.

After dinner we walked to the university area where there were lots of students. We sat for a bit and did some people watching before getting some dessert. Instead of gellato we had crepes from Bombocrepes.

Later in the evening we watched the Euro cup semifinals between Italy and Germany. It was cool seeing the Italy fans jumping around and hugging each other after Italy scored their first goal. At halftime Maia and I took the babies home and Leo and the boys stayed behind to watch the rest of the match.