Leaving Lucca, Bologna and Verona

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August 12th 2014

Published: August 12th 2014

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Bike tour around Lucca

It feels like its been forever since l last blogged, crazy how time flies here. I ended up feeling exactly as I thought I would when I left Lucca, like I wasn't ready and could stay at least another day... or forever 😉 We woke up Monday morning in Lucca and went for a run on the path above the city walls. Altogether I've worked out about 4 times since I arrived here, which is around what I expected. But as I struggled after about only a mile, I still felt the need to blame in on the heat and humidity... so that's my story and Im sticking to it. After the workout, we did a bit of shopping and I purchased my first Italian leather item. All of the leather here is gorgeous, but this specific wallet was extra special (see below in the pictures 😊 .... don't judge me mama! haha. We had a great lunch in Lucca then chose to walk to the train station. It was only about 1 mile away from our hostel, but with our luggage and the weather, we arrived at the train station sweating profusely. It seems like we should be better adjusted

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Sea bass with caper sauce and tomatoes

to the weather at this point, but we aren't. It is just hot, all the time. Since it was our second time taking the train, we felt a little more comfortable. We had a regional train back to Florence, then changed trains and took the Italo or high speed train to Bologna. Italo is quite a bit nicer than the regional trains and is a bit like being on an airplane. It's much faster, has tv screens, a beverage service, and air conditioning. We arrived in Bologna around 5pm and headed to our hotel. Just from our first short taxi ride there, we could tell that Bologna was not going compare to Florence and Lucca. Granted there was some beautiful architecture and our meals were great, there was so much graffiti and construction everywhere. I would compare it to the not so nice areas of LA. Thankfully while we were in Bologna we were able to ship some items home. We have accumulated a decent amount at this point, and the jackets/pants we brought have been completely useless to us. Before we left for the train station, we picked up some wine and snacks to enjoy on the train. Drinking

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in public is completely legal, so we have been taking full advantage. Around 4 pm we made it to our home for the next two nights. A bed and breakfast about 3 miles outside the city center of Verona. It is absolutely adorable, and our host here is one of the sweetest ladies we've met since arriving. She speaks basically no english, so the english barrier is pretty significant, but we seem to be figuring it out. Once we settled in, we took a quick nap to refresh, then went to a restaurant down the street that Rosanna (our host) had recommended. We had a bottle of their house white wine since it was still so hot outside and their antipasti cheese and meat platter. Altogether our bill was 16 euro, which was literally the cheapest since we arrived in Italy, but the food and wine was some of the best. After our apperetivo and antipasti, we headed to Veronas city center. The arena (where many of the famous operas like Romeo and Juliet, Aida, Carmen etc are held) happened to be one of the first places we saw, so that set the tone for Veronas city center. On top

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Canal in Lucca

of the architecture here, they have countless restaurants, shops and gelaterias. For dinner tonight I had a vegetable and grain soup with a creamy cheese that i wasn't familiar with along with a balsamic chicken. The meal was very simple, but I'm learning that the majority of my favorite meals here are that way. We did a bit of exploring after dinner to walk off the meal, stopped at a wine shop to pick up some local wines, then headed back to our bed and breakfast. Time for bed, buonotte!

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