Farewell Beautiful Bologna: You won me

My tristesse about leaving Italy is hitting me. I don’t want to go. But I am also looking forward to the UK which I love. A tearing asunder.
Eddy Cantor “How you gonna keep’em down on the farm after they’ve seen Paris”?

Our second last day in Bologna and Italy. We planned it to be light. It’s been a big month, and in a heatwave no less. A slow start at home, followed by la colazione at L’Incontro. Still the best coffees in Italy, we haven’t changed our minds.
We had pre-purchased tickets to the Basilica of San Luca high on the hills overlooking the city. You get up there by walking the longest portico in the world, 3.8km with 666 arches, the last half seriously uphill, or by a little toy train. We chose the train. The only other time I have ever been in a little tourist train was when I was a young man and I visited my brother in Proserpine. We all took a day trip to Hayman Island that was, back then, still in its resort phase. The boat docked at a jetty far our out off-shore where we were met by a little toy train. We all climbed on board and were taken through the centre of the resort with the fabulously rich lolling about by the various pools and looking at us in our toy carriages as though we were monkeys in a cage. Dreadful.

Thank Saint Luca we did not have to endure such derisory looks. The train journey began in the Piazza Maggiore in front of the Basilica San Petronio, wound its way through Bologna streets and parks, and up into the hills that overlook the city. The basilica on top houses a famous Byzantine portrait of the Madonna and Child that has been processed through the streets of Bologna and up to the basilica since 1433. The present basilica replaced an earlier version in the mid 1700s. We sat inside the basilica and just took it in. It is vast and cavernous with a number of cupolas. We saw the painting from a distance on the back wall of the sanctuary but did not join others who filed past to pray.

The views of the city were splendid, but we did not tarry. We were keen to get back down again, so we waited for our little train to arrive and took the trip back down the hill and into the city where we started. A small lunch in a local bar followed by a rest and nap at home. We took an early aperitivo today as we intended to go our for dinner. We bade our goodbyes to Manuel who has been so kind and helpful to us all week. Then a little walk around the Piazza Maggiore doing some people watching and having a small gelato.

Bologna, I am going to miss you.Read more