Bologna, Italy, Day 13

9am til 12pm Today was a slow day.  Breakfast followed by checking of mail.  Lauren had a headache this morning and had a short nap while I was on the laptop.  I looked up the Bologna tourism website and picked Ristorante Ciacco to visit for lunch.

12pm Started our walk from the hotel on to Via della Liberazione then on to Via Stalingrado.  The following are photos taken along the long walk (about 3kms).

A new type of input device

That vine looks like it's going to eat the neighbour's balcony

1:30pm After a bit of meandering around we found the restaurant.  Our map wasn't very detailed so it took a bit of time to find it.  And we don't have GPS.

Lunch was pretty good.  As you can see.

Breeaad

Fish tartar (Tuna) with apple pieces (Starter)

Smoked breast of duck with Jamaican pepper ice cream and horns of plenty mushrooms (Starter)

Fusilli with marinated mushrooms and asparagus

Tortellini in broth

Selection of Parmigiano Reggiano( 24, 30 months vacche rosse 40 months)

Complimentary dessert

The restaurant's lower floor where we sat

3pm ish Walked to Piazza Maggiore and bought a few things.  I bought more truffle stuff, truffle oil and some spice mix for pasta.  Also took photos of more food shops.

Even little girls can make pasta

Eating pasta here has made me realise how it should really be made.  Not too cooked.  Also spaghetti bolognese does not exist in Italy, the real deal is called tagliatelle al ragu.

After shopping for food we went to the bookstore to get somethings to read for tomorrow's 7 hour train ride to Munich.  I bought a book called Gomorrah which is about the italian mafia.  Should make for an interesting read.  We followed up with coffee at a nearby cafe.

Even the coffee loves Italian food

6pm Time to walk back to the hotel.  The streets of bologna were filled with people.  It seems like every man and his dog were out.  Reminds me of Singapore.  We took the Via Dell'Indipendenza route back.

So many things to buy!

The last thing to do was to visit the supermarket to get food for our trip on the train.  That was what we did, we bought bread, cheese, nuts, anchovies and vegetable frittata.  If I lived in Italy I would buy the entire shop down.  There's so much variety there and the food just looks so good.  The boozers would love it too since it's cheap here and readily available.

I also went to get a pair of sandals from the sports shop within the same shopping centre that the supermarket is in.  I didn't know shopping centres existed in Italy until Bologna.  It just seemed like they don't exist elsewhere other than Bologna.

8pm Dinner at the hotel restaurant.  We're too lazy to go out somewhere tonight.

Sunset outside our room window

Black cuttlefish thin Tagliatelle with shrimps, dill and tomatoes 

Grilled tuna fish with onion jam and soya sprouts and ginger

Rabbit bites with artichokes, black truffle, olives and polenta

Breead, balsamic vinegar and olive oil

Steps taken today about 12K.  Spent the rest of the night packing and blogging.  Fingers crossed tomorrow we'll be on time to catch the train which is at 11:45am.  It's almost time to say Arrivederci Italia.