The Travels of Eric and Lorna

 Lorna and I recently had our 30th wedding anniversary, and to celebrate we planned a big trip. We had planned to go to Peru, but recent political unrest caused us to cancel Peru, and instead we returned to our old favorite, Rome. It was our first time there in 12 years and our first overseas trip since COVID. Instead of the old format, let's pivot to video. Here's one showing how insane Trevi Fountain was on an early May evening in 2023.

Just a quick note on some of the food we had in Venice.  If you read guidebooks, you will hear that it is easy to find bad, or at least mediocre, food in Venice.  I have no doubt that this is true, as the number of tourists that visit there makes this likely.  We were very lucky, however.  Aside from some mediocre pizza we had the first day, the food we had was very good. As a quick aside, here are some general rules to follow to find good food on vacation.  These apply particularly to Italy, but I'm guessing they work about anywhere.   The rules are as follows: Avoid any restaurant that... 1. is next to or very close to a major monument, the largest square in town, etc. 2. has someone outside asking you to come in. If the restaurant was good they wouldn't need to do this. 3. has a big sign outside with pictures of the food.  Seriously, learn a couple of Italian food words.  It's not hard. 4. has English menus.  Actually, English ...

While waiting outside a shop, I decided to just film people walking by for a couple of minutes.  Ok, look, I'm not Francis Ford Coppola, alright?  I never claimed to be.  YouTube link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-dxt6cufgA

View of St. Mark's from the bell tower. The famous 'Bridge of Sighs' leading from the Doge's Palace to the Doge's Prison. The street leading to our apartment. The courtyard is behind the gate at the end. Chocolate mountain. The winged lion is the symbol of Venice.  Pretty cool symbol if you ask me. Little meat pigs, presumably pig meat.  You know you want one. Somehow the vegetables at the markets in Italy always look amazing.  Maybe because they typically only eat things in season? Venice's famous fish market. This was a cool 24 hour clock face. One of the wells in our courtyard.  Check out the intricate carving. Shop where oar holders for gondolas are made.  Apparently the guy quit being an astronomer to do this.  I think that's kind of awesome. Hmmm...symbolism maybe?

Our time in Bologna ended on Monday the 24th, sadly.  I must say that I really enjoyed Bologna, and would urge anyone interested in seeing a real Italian city to go there.  It might not have the historic sights of, say, a Rome (what city does?) but it's friendly and comfortable, and the food is amazing.  This is real life Italy. Other things we did there include the Archaeological Museum of Bologna (of course), and the Museum of Modern Art .  The archaeological museum was good, if a little old.  It lacked much English translations of things, but had a very nice collection of Egyptian and, particularly, Etruscan artifacts.  They also had the largest collection of Greek pottery I have ever seen.  There was literally room after room of it.  This is because the Etruscans traded widely with the Greek colonies in Magna Graecia (Greater Greece, now known as southern Italy.)  They also had a temporary exhibit of a reconstruction of the famous re...

One of the things we like to do is take food tours in the various cities we visit.  This time we took a food tour of Bologna with Catia of www.bolognatourguide.com.  She was a great guide, and we learned a lot from her, and ate a lot of great food on the tour. Bologna gets quite a few tourists from other parts of Italy, but not many from outside Italy, as it is surrounded by Florence, Milan, and Venice.  We loved Bologna, though.  It doesn't have the vast number of ancient sites of a Rome, or the charm and romance of a Venice, but it also doesn't have the gigantic crowds or high prices of either of those cities.  Don't get me wrong, Rome is still my favorite place I have ever visited, but Bologna has a charm and a vibe that really set its hooks into me.  We will definitely be going back. Random street in Bologna This store we visited on our tour was amazing.  I bought about 5 pounds of Parmesan Reggiano cheese to take back home. Totally wort...

In the next few series of posts, I will discuss our recent trip to Italy.  During this trip we stayed for five nights in Bologna, and five nights in Venice.  We also made a day trip to Bolzano to see Otzi the Iceman . We arrived on the afternoon of November 19th.  The weather was moderately cold, with highs in the 40s.  Not terrible, but not spring either.  We stayed at the Hotel Paradise , which I cannot recommend enough.  This was a great little hotel.  The room was clean and large (by Italy standards, mind you) and the free breakfast was great.  The location cannot be beat, in a quiet area but only a 10 minute walk from Piazza Maggiore, the main piazza in Bologna. Hotel Paradise Piazza Maggiore Statue of Neptune Basilica of San Petronio, the largest church in Bologna A view of Neptune through the arch I thought Bologna was a great city.  It is a real working city, with a large student population due to being th...