This year I had planned to take a city trip on my birthday and go somewhere warm, where the sun is shining. Delicious food would also be nice. So it basically came down to Italy! Unfortunately, Mid-August is high season and cities like Florence and Naples (on my wish list for a very long time) were too busy. This is why we had decided to go to Bologna! I didn’t know much about the city, but a quick Google image search revealed that it was a nice enough city to justify going there. So we booked and went to Bologna!

Bologna is a beautiful city, most houses are colored in an earthy brown. Somehow it has a medieval touch to it. Note: I can recommend Bologna under any kind of weather conditions, as
you will find great arcades all over the city that allow you sightseeing comes rain comes shine. 🙂

On our first day we explored the entire city center. We found churches, nice alleys and we were quite impressed by the arcades mentioned before!

I was particularly fascinated by the Basilika Santo Stefano – it is different from what you normally see in your ‚church next door‘. 😉 But see for yourself…

Later that afternoon we climbed the city tower. I should mention: Not only Pisa has its leaning tower, Bologna has one too! Italians must be fond of their leaning towers… Hehe. You can only climb up the `normal tower` right next to the leaning one. After climbing a thousand stairs (you will pant and sweat!), your reward is a great view over the city and its surrounding hills!! Unfortunately, a storm was approaching with dark clouds, so we hurried to get back to our hotel, while it was hailing outside for half an hour.

On the day of my birthday, we had planned to go to Florence, but the train tickets were too expensive, so we decided against it. This is why we went to the beach in Rimini! Yes, … Rimini. Those, who know me, know that normally I wouldn’t choose to go there 😉  But it was the only beach close by you can reach by public transportation. We actually found a spot without sun loungers and parasols, where we enjoyed a day in the sun. I do not have more than this picture…

On our last day we had two things on our list: Walk up one of the hills to get a view over the city…

Check! The walk was exhausting and there was not much to see on the way. On our way down we took the bus. At least we had burned some calories walking up there. 😉

….and Finestrella di Via Piella. What’s that? Hard to explain with words, so just look at the picture. Nice houses!

Our time in Bologna was already coming to an end. All in all, we enjoyed our stay, although three days is way too much for a small city like that. You can basically see everything in a few hours. If you like to take more days, I would definitely recommend renting a car to be able to explore the area. Train tickets are way too expensive on short calls and they are seldom on time… 😉

I should mention the delicious food we had all weekend!! I am already a huge pizza and pasta fan, but what they served us in Bologna was just AMAZING! I especially loved the fresh pasta… Good thing I don’t live in Italy. I would probably way 10 kilograms more! 😀 Click on the pizza photo to see more pictures…