Bologna; Saturday, 13 April, 2019

I’d stayed overnight at Heathrow as it was an early flight. It meant I was relatively well rested before the morning hike to the furthest possible gate at Terminal 5 – C61, by the time I finally reached my seat the app on my phone had just ticked over the 2Km mark for the day.

After an uneventful flight, a quick journey into town and a quick check-in at the hotel I headed out over to the bus stop for the open-top tour. The stop by the hotel was half way round the route, so I took the bus to the starting point in Piazza Maggiore and then did a full loop round the city.

Back by Piazza Maggiore I went for a long wander around the beautiful, and almost completely pedestrianised, streets of the historic city centre, taking in the many food shops and restaurants – stopping briefly for a very late lunch, before finally finding myself at the Due Torre – the two towers that are the symbol of the city.

By now it was early evening, so I headed back towards the Piazza Maggiore and stopped for a pre-dinner drink, though with the size of the free snack that came with the drink I could probably have skipped the dinner altogether.

I had a little bit more of a wander through the narrow paths of the old town before finding a nice looking pasta restaurant which, whilst busy, actually had tables that weren’t all reserved.

The restaurant specialised in the local pasta dishes so I had a very nice Tagliatelle Ragu, accompanied by a very nice local white wine.

Refreshed and just on the good side of full, I had a slow wander back up the main street from the centre of town back to my hotel and turned in for the night.