Three Italian Cities in Three Nights

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With the last few weeks through France and Italy involving the consumption of numerous delectable delights, it only made sense to spend a night in Bologna to eat some bolognaise. Therefore, after I checked in, dropped off my backpack and had a shower (complete with a showerhead that consisted of lights that covered the entire spectrum of the rainbow, with a function that allowed you to either choose the colour of your choice, or let it continually change colours!), the first thing on the agenda was to find a restaurant. Being a Monday, many places were shut, but thankfully the receptionist where we were staying had told us of a place that would definitely be open on a Monday night. When we arrived, the staff were all sitting down together eating their dinner, so we decided to walk into the city centre to fill in the time before they opened for business.

Bologna is home to the oldest university in Europe and as we wandered through the streets we noticed that it has a lively student feel. It is also the gay and lesbian capital of Italy, in case you were wondering... but I digress. The most peculiar thing we noticed in the city was a fountain in Piazza del Netuno that depicted Neptune surrounded by four sirens riding dolphins, with each siren spouting multiple streams of water from their nipples! It was a rather bizarre design, to say the least. By this time our hunger was getting the better of us, so we decided to head back to the restaurant and sample some real bolognaise, which the locals call 'tagliatelle ragu´. The meal was superb and full of flavour. In fact, one thing we have noticed whilst in Italy is how much flavour the meals have with so few ingredients, as the vegetables, olive oil and every other ingredient are simply bursting with flavour. We're definitely doing something wrong with our produce in Australia (or maybe I should just stop buying all of my fruit and vegetables from large supermarket chains), as so much of what we eat is bland and almost completely devoid of flavour in camparison to the food in Italy.

After eating our fill in Bologna we headed to Venice. Venice is a city which is stunningly beautiful at night, particularly in a place like Piazza San Marco, complete with a light shining from each of the hundreds of arches that enclose the square. The ambience is completed with the strains of classical music being performed live by a band performing at one of the (rather expensive - too much so for our budget) restaurants. I also thoroughly enjoyed walking through the tiny streets and gazing down the various canals we crossed as we looked for a restaurant to sate our hunger. We settled upon a place that was situated down a small lane which ended at a quiet canal and for those of you who have been following this blog, it will come as no surprise that I chose to eat pizza at this establishment - and it was delicious (is it wrong that I also ate pizza for breakfast on the same day? Is it even more wrong that I also ate pizza for breakfast on the following day as well?). We decided to take a boat down the length of the Grand Canal to return to our accommodation, which was also a highlight of our time there. Seeing the beautiful buildings lit up at night, it is impossible to ignore the wealth that the Venetian empire once possessed. As we cruised towards our humble digs, I gazed across the water at the amazing hotels which line this canal, staring wide-eyed at the opulent foyers fronting onto their private piers and wondered how people can afford to spend what must be a small fortune to stay in such a location. I don't know if I could ever justify that type of expenditure, despite the romantic notions that I have about spending an evening in a plush hotel in Venice.

We comlpeted our time in Italy by visiting Trieste. We caught a train from Venice, which provided us with some splendid scenery of the Adriatic Sea for the last hour or so. I was intrigued to see what Trieste was like, for I had read that it is a city with a rather interesting history, for it was once part of Austria before being assigned to Italy after WWI. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this city, as I have not often taken a liking to the border towns that I have encountered in my travels (Poi Pet in Cambodia comes to mind...). The people were very friendly and we had a delightful dinner at sunset alongside the Canal Grande. The city itself is positioned along a narrow strip of coast and it was with eager anticipation that I awaited to board the bus which would take me across the hills which hem Trieste in and enter Slovenia for the very first time.

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