Happy Trails For Us: My Reluctant Blog

Porticoes

From there we take the porticoed walk a few blocks north to the mercato, have mid-morning drinks at Eataly, a gelato at Vinche, just a lazy morning in the city.After our rest stop, we walk to find the Museo Ebraico, just a few blocks north of the mercato.It is a small, but charming museo, with relatively few artifacts but an excellent selection of small movies, chronicling Jewish life in Emiliga-Romagna from centuries back until now. And we are admitted free, I think because of David's 'handicap'.

After we leave the museum. David wants to watch the Holland-Denmark match, and we walk to one of the pizzerias from a few nights earlier, where once again we are the crazy Americans alone in a room with Sky international satellite feed. The pizzas are good, there is a liter of the local white frizzante. All this leads to a very long afternoon nap.

Gelato di Venchi

Pizza di Mare

I barely wake in time for dinner, or so it seems. It is a bigger night for the Italians; their team has it's first World Cup match, it is on the local channel we get in our room. David wants to watch at least part of it, so dinner is really late by our standards, we don't leave the room until after 9, Italy is down a goal.

One of the restaurants on the 'lists', one a cut above the excellent casual ones we have been visiting all week, the Camminetto d'Oro, is a mere block from our hotel. There are full tables outside, but we dine inside tonight, one of only three couples in the place, but it is a Monday night and Italy soccer is on tv. The menu is small too, but has a tasting menu of Emilia-Romagna dishes, and several a la carte choices. It is late, and I am still pretty full from the lunch pizza. We share a salad of julienned zucchini, apple slices and goat cheese, then David has a pasta with lemon zest, and I have a grilled branzino, both excellent. We share a dolci; it's called the chocolate box and turns out to be a quartet of small glasses with different chocolate treats. I taste nutella in one.

Chocolate box

And that is our last day in Bologna. In the morning we will pack, and pick up a car for the rest of our trip, heading to Alba, with a stop back in Parma - someone left a pair of shoes, large black ones, at the Ag. Leoni. There is a forecast for rain as well. We have really enjoyed Bologna; our stay at the Hotel Paradise, while not luxurious, has been very comfortable - the staff gets great marks for service. But it is time to go.