VETaly: Day 11 – Florence’s Duomo and Uffizi

It’s somehow that time of year already when I am celebrating being married to my husband. Eight years now. Since then we’ve spent our anniversary in New York, Athens, Busan and Niagara Falls. Florence is now on this rather interesting list of cities as we spent the day starting to properly get to know parts of this city.

We’ve both come down with something, so made the most of being able to start a bit later. There were two main areas of focus: the Duomo vicinity and the Uffizi. Since the Uffizi was open late tonight, we decided to do all the Duomo related things in the morning and then hit up all the rooms in the Uffizi for the afternoon.

So we make our way to the Piazza del Duomo and, thankfully, it is nowhere near as frantic as it was on Saturday. Sure it’s still busy, but not in the absolute bedlam way that gave me a mild sense of panic. The Duomo itself (also known as the Cattedrale Di Santa Maria del Fiore) is just gorgeous. It’s like someone took Siena’s stripes and decided we wanted more of them and make other things as ornate as possible. The same goes for the belltower, again, beautiful.

What is not beautiful is getting to the Duomo about the time it opens because the queue to get in is horrific. Instead, we decided we would start our Duomo museum. This makes it three days running that we are going to a city’s Duomo and the Duomo museum. So it says a lot that of the museums, the one in Florence is probably the best.

For one thing, it is just such a modern feeling museum in the same way the Acropolis museum is. The way they guide you around the rooms can be a bit ambiguous, but the way they have mixed in duplicates of statues still in use with actuals from the old façade is really well done. There are also a lot of other pieces of religious art to really enjoy.

Other than the reliquaries, which I really could just go on about, the real art highlight of this museum was Donatello’s carving of Mary Magdalene. There is something so haunting about this depiction of her being penitent. It is utterly chilling and makes me wonder how it didn’t end up in any of the buildings. Maybe it was just too realistic.

With the museum visited, we were ready to head into the Duomo itself. The queue was a bit shorter, but it was still nearly an hour for us to get in. This was time not well spent.

When we went into Pisa’s Duomo, I mentioned how it just didn’t measure up to other churches we’d been into. Florence’s Duomo measures up even less well. Sure, you do not need to pay to get in, but compared to so many other houses of worship we’ve been into, it is mostly empty.

There are some nice bits, mainly the painted dome, but so many people inside just looked disappointed rather than in awe. I guess it makes sense why, on my third visit to Florence, this is the first time that I’ve been inside. So, if you are planning a trip to Florence and somehow stumbled across my blog – save yourself an hour and do not bother going into the Duomo. The outside is so much prettier and more interesting.

To finish off our Piazza del Duomo time, we went into the Baptistry. Sadly, I have not had a lot of luck with baptistries recently. The mosaic roof is under renovation at the moment, which means it’s only really half a visit. Although, from the mosaics and statues that are still visible, this is a really lovely building that it worth a visit (even a half one) compared to the time sink of the Duomo.

Lunch time meant it was time for another sandwich. Today we went to a Florentine institution that has been serving up sandwiches since 1875. Only 5 Euros per sandwich too. Since I’d had porchetta yesterday, I wanted something different. So a wild boar salami sandwich it was. Quick, hot and satisfying. All the things needed for a good sandwich.

Then you know it’s time for gelato. More flavours to add to the list today: green apple and pineapple. There are so many gelato places in Florence, many with ratings of Google of 1-2 out of 5. So it’s just good to know which places to steer clear of and find one of the many good gelato places out there.

It was then time for the Uffizi. Over two full floors, this world renowned art gallery hosts a lot of beautiful art pieces from the 1300-1700s as well as a number of Roman-era statues interspersed throughout if you need a palate cleanse from the various paintings of Mary and Jesus at various points in their lives.

The corridor of the second floor is truly stunning and an art piece in itself. All these Roman statues, with comments about what is original and what’s a later addition (some of them are quite shockingly changed), guard the floor of the corridor. The border of the top is a continuous row of portraits. I only noticed these in the second half because I recognised one of British Monarch Charles I, but the figures vary from royalty to philosopher’s to just a bunch of the local aristocrats.

However, the huge reason to come to the Uffizi is to see some world-famous pieces of art in the flesh. I’m talking about the works of artists like Botticelli, Caravaggio, Raphael, Titian and Michelangelo. Some people were asking where the exit was once they’d finished the room with the Raphaels… which meant completely bypassing the Caravaggio section. Madness.

If you have 3-4 hours though, it really is worth going through almost all the rooms (I didn’t linger in the section of self-portraits as it gets samey after a while). For every ‘Birth of Venus’ there are 12 amazing paintings you may or may not recognise that are still fantastic, it’s just they don’t have the immediate impact or the PR team.

After about 3.5 hours we had seen pretty much everything in the Uffizi and it was getting close to dinner time. But first, since we stole a glance of the Ponte Vecchio, although I know it would be a lot prettier to cross after dinner once the sun had set.

Dinner started off as I hoped it would, a large sharing platter of local meats and cheeses. Three types of meat, three types of cheese, two pieces of bruschetta. This is exactly what we were hoping to find and it really did satisfy. The fennel salami and the creamy cheese whose name I do not know were special highlights.

For main, we both had pappardelle with wild boar ragu. So, a type of pasta from Tuscany with a meat sauce that is also very Tuscan. The whole meal was a Tuscan affair and a lovely way to finish off the day.

Except we didn’t quite finish there. There was the Ponte Vecchio to be crossed, all lit up with the rows of jewelry shops all closing for the day. Crossing it meant we get to the bakery on the other side to pick up some dessert of pistachio cannoli, before walking back and taking a brief detour along the banks of the river Arno.

So that’s it for the day. Two more days in Florence and the itineraries feel pretty packed so it’s time to grab some sleep.

VETaly: Day 10 – Siena

Final day trip and final early start of this holiday. Since we were both up early somewhat naturally, we managed to catch an earlier bus than we’d initially aimed for. Meaning that, we managed to reach Siena at about quarter to 10.

Since nothing really opened until 10:15, it was the perfect excuse to go into a local café for an espresso and a pastry so full of pistachio creme that it took us both by surprise. It cannot be overstated how amazing the ubiquity of pistachio as a flavour is. One of those things I know I am going to miss when in the UK.

Caffeine and sugar in our systems, we had a wander around the beautiful streets of old Siena before pitching up our ‘Opa Si Pass’ that would take us through until lunchtime.

Since you pick it up next to the Cathedral, it only made sense for us to go there first. The outside of the Duomo of Siena is truly gorgeous with the many statues, painted facade and the massive striped bell tower that dominates the skyline.

Compared to the Duomo of Pisa, which we can do because the Pisano family worked on both, there is no question which is the most impressive. Walking through here, the question does become when does a place of worship just become an extremely focussed art gallery. Art is in every direction you look, from the tiled scenes on the floor to the painted stars on the ceiling to the carved faces of every Pope up until that point staring down at you. The stripes from the bell tower even carry through to the pillars, which turns the whole interior into this exercise of pattern matching.

We got in not too soon after it opened meaning, for a brief moment, the Duomo was actually pretty empty. Didn’t last long as the tour groups quickly followed. However, thanks to how they organised the space with ropes and pathways, it never felt too crowded and you were never too far away from a fantastic photo opportunity that could be taken with minimal waiting for people to clear the frame. Truly, this is one of the best places of worship I have ever been inside.

To the right of the Duomo is the next part of the ticket, the Museo dell’Opera. Which is where you find the thing that a lot of people specifically go for: the Panorama del Facciatone. This is where you are able to get some amazing photos of Siena from high up (really high, there’s multiple spiral staircases) and it’s actually a repurposing of a facade of a church expansion that never finished.

Only small groups are allowed up at a time, but wow the views are quite worth it. The morning mists had mostly cleared, which allowed for some really spectacular uninterrupted views of both Siena and the surrounding Tuscan countryside. On a hot day you can also catch a bit of a breeze to help cool you down after those climbs.

Now for the rest of the Museo dell’Opera. Much like the equivalent museum in Pisa (and I assume Florence) this place is where a number of pieces of religious art related to the Duomo is kept. This includes some of the original sculptures from the facade that are now being kept inside for their preservation.

This particular museum had a lot of what, since Aachen, has become a real obsession of mine when visiting Catholic places of worship – a room full of reliquaries. In brief, I am talking about beautiful pieces of art made for the sole purpose as to keep the bones (or the alleged bones) of a saint in. Siena has a number of these across multiple museums, but the lion’s share is in this particular museum.

 

Keeping with the theme, the next stop is basically next door: the Duomo’s crypt. Having climbed down stairs to get to the entrance, you enter the crypt already below the main floor of the cathedral. There are even some glass ceilings to showcase this… where it is hard to not just wave at bemused tourists or worshippers.

Down here are some beautifully preserved frescos, although some have been ‘interrupted’ by the building of more supports for the Duomo upstairs. There are also more reliquaries, including a really interesting golden tree said to contain 50+ relics including an ‘original nail from the cross’. I love a reliquary holder that needs it’s own legend.

The final part of the ticket was the baptistry, which was a few more stairs down the hill. Unlike Pisa this was open, but a substantial section cordoned off for works. Shame, but at least I got to see inside I guess.

It was now time for lunch. To find this we kept going down the big stairs and reached the main square of Siena, Piazza del Campo. It’s almost the shape of an amphitheatre, with the town hall standing where the stage would be and the rest of square being a slanted semicircle up to a half-ring of buildings. It’s a place where events and the like are held, and wow what a space to do it in.

Like I said, we were here for lunch. This was another sandwich and, going for the Tuscan theme, it contained porchetta, pecorino cheese and green sauce. We ate it sitting on the edges of the square and watched for a while as the shadow of the building behind us moved with the sun in the sky.

Full of sandwich, we went into the Palazzo Publico – the large building at the focus of the Piazza del Campo which houses the Civic Museum. This is another in the list of ‘buildings with stunning painted rooms’ that I have come across on this particular trip. Some of these paintings are massive and pretty much all of them come from the 1300s as that was before the city was devastated by the Black Death and was financially ruined. Goes a long way to explain how so much of this city feels trapped in amber.

Time for some gelato. New flavours added to the list are hazelnut and pomegranate. I haven’t seen pomegranate yet on this trip, so this felt like a good one to add. With three days left I will have to get to pistachio soon, but I am having so much pistachio everywhere else that I don’t feel the rush to do so.

With out ticket to the Palazzo Publico we also got entry to the Santa Maria della Scala museum. Despite the sound of the name, this is actually a former hospital opposite the Duomo and is home to a real mix of exhibits. Honestly, it’s really disorganised, but in a way it adds a bit to the charm because you just follow arrows and have no idea where you about to end up.

Early on, we just stumbled into the church in the hospital – which was completely deserted. I have never been in a properly decorated church without others around me and, it just felt really weird. You have other rooms with masses of frescos that depict various parts of the hospital’s history and overall function.

Then you start to descend the floors. You end up finding the actual chapel that St Catherine of Siena used to pray in. Then suddenly you are multiple floors deep and have entered another museum altogether.

So no one told us this, but this is also where you can find Siena’s Archaeological Museum. It would appear this is still a work in progress by the notices of apology every now and then because of the state of the tunnels (yes this is an archaeological museum in actual underground tunnels). I don’t know if this will be separately ticketed one day, but as part of the Hospital museum it is such good value for money to see some proper Etruscan art.

We were nearing the end of our time in Siena, but still had some stops left in us. First we went right across the city centre to the Basilica Cateriniana San Domenico. This houses the main chapel in honour of St Catherine of Siena (which you are not allowed to photograph) which allegedly contains her head. Thee rest of the church isn’t too much to look at, so we didn’t linger.

Then, before heading up the Medici Fortress to get some final views over the city, we had some panforte – a local fruit cake that is on sale in pretty much every souvenir store. It was nice enough for a fruitcake that had a high percentage of figs. However, I was mostly just happy to sit with a good view of Siena with something sweet to eat and something fizzy to drink.

Back to Florence and then a few hours later we went out for some dinner. My husband has been wanting calzone whilst we were here, and I have been wanting artichokes, so we met in the middle somewhat. Mixed bruschetta to start with and then we split a calzone and a pizza, the pizza having artichoke, sausage and tomatoes on top. Must day, I was incredibly full after that.

Tomorrow is our first of three full days in Florence. I am hoping that Tuesday to Thursday will not be anywhere near as insane as Saturday was. Especially given that I appear to have caught a cold during our many travels and will need to be a bit gentler with myself.

VETaly: Day 9 – Pisa

After possibly the worst non-jet lag induced night of sleep I’ve had on a holiday thanks to a loud mosquito and one of the most uncomfortable beds known to man, we were up and out the door for the penultimate day trip of the holiday. We were going to visit Pisa.

Going into this, I have basically heard from a number of people about how overrated the Leaning Tower of Pisa is, but it’s been a tourist attraction for 850 years. Plus it feels like one of those things that if I do not do it now, I would never do it. So an hour long train ride later and we’d arrived at Pisa Centrale.

It’s a Sunday and we scheduled Pisa for today as it is such a tourist trap that everything on the ticket would be open (except the Baptistry, that’s closed for the months of October and November much to my extreme disappointment as it looks so lovely on the outside). On this particular Sunday was the Pisa half marathon. So roads had fewer cars on the road to the main piazza.

Before getting there though, I had to find the Keith Haring mural. One of his final public artworks before his premature death at 31, ‘Tuttamondo’ was really cool to see in situ. Don’t think I have seen an original work of his before, just prints on merchandise or some of the many people he inspired later. A bit of a stark contrast to the rest of the day.

About 15 minutes walk later and we began to see the Leaning Tower on the horizon and hear the blaring music coming from the finish line of the half marathon. Kinda ruined the mood to be honest, to have loud modern music blaring as you are looking up at these old buildings. At least they packed up by lunch time.

So there it was, the Leaning Tower. It’s nice enough I guess. As a regular building, this is a nice looking bell tower. The lean adds a bit of character to it, sure, but otherwise I just looked at it and wondered how this had become one of the most iconic tourist attractions in all of Europe. I guess it says a lot for 850 years of PR.

We didn’t want to spend the 20 Euros to climb the tower itself so we started on the rest of the ticket, going counter-clockwise, starting with the Camposanto.

Essentially, this is a very exclusive cemetery for famous residents of Pisa. There’s a grave here from the last few decades, so it’s still in active use. The whole thing is set out as a large cloister garden with giant frescoes covering most of the walls. Where there are no frescoes, there are large marble funerary monuments.

Seeing this and the current state of the frescoes, which are mixed from very intact to getting very sun-bleached is a perfect lead-in to the next museum going reverse around the clock.

The Sinopie Museum is a museum that you should not be doing before the Camposanto. We saw these back in Ravenna, but not on such a large scale. When making these gigantic works of art, there are same sized sketches that are made. Since mosaicing and fresco-painting are time sensitive, it helps to have these outlines. So here, in the Sinopie museum, they have many the surviving templates that were used.

Not only that, but they also have a display of watercolours to show what these frescos would have looked like when they were freshly made. Some of them, like that of the destruction of Sodom or the ‘Triumph of Death’ are particularly brutal. Bit of a shame these haven’t remained completely in tact to present day, but at least we can imagine them.

Lunch time now and it was time for yet another gorgeous sandwich. There is a place not too far from the tourism train that has amazing Google and TripAdvisor reviews and makes giant sandwiches for surprisingly decent prices. Since I had not seen it elsewhere, I went for one of their sandwiches with fennel salami, smoked cheese, aubergine and a ‘green sauce’ that I could not get enough of. Damn I could just keep eating these sandwiches.

We need to continue the gelato train and found a nicely reviewed one nearby. Another new flavour for me: forest fruit cheesecake. I think I am going to miss both of the gelato places from Bologna more and more as this trip goes on, but this was still a very nice scoop of frozen joy.

Back to the piazza and to the Museo dell’Opera Del Duomo. This came with the audio tour, which probably tripled the time we were in the museum. In here they have a gorgeous collection of artworks from the nearby Duomo, Tower and Baptistry that have come and gone over the years – or been replaced in order to keep the originals safe.

Some absolute stunning pieces of religious art here, mostly the many many many marble statues that they have. The audio guide definitely helps with some of the context behind Pisa’s position many centuries ago, including it’s relative independence and then taking over by neighbouring Florence.

It’s also understandable if the reason you pay the entry fee is to get to the cafeteria, which has a world class view of the Tower and Duomo as you have a drink and a bite. We didn’t do so, but definitely made use of the unique viewpoint of these beloved buildings.

Then we end with the Duomo which, whilst striking on the inside, was a bit disappointing on the inside. Here’s the thing: at this point in the trip I have now seen an awfully large number of churches. This is a Duomo, the main church for the city and so the expectations are really high, which it wasn’t quite able to meet.

Let’s be positive though and point out the massive mosaic of Jesus above the altar. It is absolutely stunning. So is the incredibly ornate pulpit and the chapel that houses the bones of a local saint. I think, for me, so much of this church is taken up with these giant oil paintings and I found myself missing all the little chapels that I have come to love in the other churches we’ve seen. In the end, we spent far more time in the church of St Vitale in Ravenna than we did here.

So, that was it for our visit to Pisa. It was 30 degrees in the shade so we didn’t quite fancy going for the stretch goal of seeing the botanical gardens. Instead we (somehow) got seats on a train back to Florence and did our final laundry of the trip.

Dinner was at a place nearby so we didn’t have to go too far in the latent heat of Florence’s 32 degree day. All the food arrived at once, which was weird, and I got to have the spaghetti carbonara that I have been wanting to have. We had some rather odd bruschetta with mozzarella and anchovies that was way too salty. The carbonara was nice and, because it all gave out at once, the local cheese plate with fruit mustard became a dessert.

Tomorrow is the final day trip and hopefully the last day of this Italian heatwave. We are no longer going to be using the trains, so I just want to end the post with a massive thumbs up to the Italian train network. Sure, we saw some really delayed trains on the board but, for our experience, it’s been a real joy using their trains and even their ticketing app where flexible tickets are so much easier to use. So, thank you TrenItalia for really helping make these day trips and connections a smooth reality.

VETaly: Day 8 – Bye Bye Bologna

Second and final transfer day of the holiday. We bid farewell to Bologna and hello to Florence, after a good few hours in Bologna because that’s just how the timings worked out. So we checked out and dropped off our bags at the train station for 4 hours to try and soak up as much Bologna as we could before leaving.

It’s a Saturday and so much of the centre of the city has been blocked off to traffic, making the multiple journeys to and from the station much less stressful. Especially in the mid-morning when the sun was low enough for the entire width of the street to be in glorious shadow.

I don’t know how much I have said this on my posts, but a massive shout out to all the covered streets of Bologna. Not only that, but the width of so many of the pavements and roads just help to make getting around that much more pleasurable. It’s like they actually thought about designing streets in a country where people will need to shelter from the sun but still need to get from place to place. I’m already missing them.

Back to the day. On the way back from the station we finally satisfied my curiosity about the park near the station with the cool horse statues. This is the Parco della Montagnola and it was nice to have even the briefest of strolls through it. I mean there aren’t enough fountains in the world that celebrate the humble tortoise. Doing this also reminded me just how little of being in nature I’ve been doing this holiday.

Another bit of curiosity satisfying, as we went into a church we’re passed every day and never ventured into, the cathedral to Saint Peter. It felt like a bit of a Tardis as you get no idea of the depth as you walk past it on the main street.

Not only was it larger than expected, but it also had some statues I thought we’d missed. I assume that terracotta figures depicting the reactions to Jesus being taken off the cross were a thing at the time, because there is a complete set of these. They are nowhere near as visceral as the ones we saw two days ago, but expertly done nonetheless.

We then went into our final church of Bologna, the Santa Maria Di Galliera – which was apparently near the hotel Blink 182 were staying in on tour as there were a lot of fans waiting nearby. Anyway, so we went into this church on a TripAdvisor recommendation and – well just how many beautifully ornate churches does one city need. I ask you. It’s getting a bit silly now, but in all seriousness this is a little tucked away church that is worth 10-15 minutes of your time.

Final stop of the morning’s final round of sightseeing was a trip to Bologna’s Archeological Museum. We were attracted mainly because it mentioned having Etruscan items, which I don’t think I have seen too many of. But I was really surprised at how good some of the items were int the Egyptian section.

Sure, pretty much every archeological museum around the world will have some Egyptian stuff and, at this point, we just breeze on by because it’s just a small case of figurines. Well, Bologna has one of the best Egyptology sections in Italy and there were some really unusual items here, some looked so incredibly well preserved too considering they were 3000 years old. So that was a pleasant surprise.

Then we headed upstairs to the main floors where the larger part was all centred on Etruscan artifacts. Despite being in Bologna for a few days, we haven’t really been getting much of a history lesson. Well, today I learned Bologna was originally an Estrucan settlement, before being taken over by Celts and then annexed by Romans. It’s a bit of a turbulent beginning, which is on display in these galleries.

Before this museum, I had always thought of the Etruscans as being something so completely different to the Romans. Now I have been in this museum, it was interesting to see just how similar they were. Again, thought of it more as an elimination and takeover rather than an annexation and assimilation. Also had never thought of the Etruscans as having a trading relationship with Greece… which of course they would.

It was lunchtime and I wanted to do a bit of a greatest hits tour of food I loved whilst in Bologna. So we went back to the amazing mortadella sandwich place and, this time, got one with squacquerone rather than provolone. Definitely the superior pick. We then went and got some delicious gelato – continuing my no repeats spree with scoops of coconut and grapefruit. What a stunning way to say goodbye to such a brilliant food city.

Then we transferred. It was just a 30 minute journey as we took the high-speed line that runs from Venice down to Calabria via Rome. It wasn’t even enough time to fit in two episodes of Aggretsuko. We are staying near the train station because we have two more day trips coming and needed an affordable place that also had access to a washing machine.

We settled in, found the washing machine and then wanted to make something of the remaining afternoon.

This is my third time in Florence and… well it’s a Saturday and so incredibly crowded and also in the middle of a heatwave. I am going to skip over some unpleasantness that happened because I don’t want to remember it, so let’s move onto us arriving at the Piazza della Signoria. Sadly the Loggia dei Lanzi was under renovations, so I couldn’t hang out with some excellent reproductions of Florentine sculptures… but I am crossing my fingers that these will reopen by the end of the week.

We came here to spend what remained of the late afternoon in the Palazzo Vecchio Museum. This grand building has been the seat of local government for centuries and this is still the location of the mayor’s office. Of course, we can’t just stroll in and meet the mayor, but why would we when there are so many ornately decorated rooms to wander through.

The first you get to is by far the largest and one of the locations a major wrong in Renaissance art. When this hall was extended, we ended up losing works by Leonardo Da Vinci and Michaelangelo (although apparently the latter was still unfinished). This is not a slight to the huge artworks on display, which add to the insane grandeur of the room, but you can never help but wonder what was lost in such crazy decision making.

The bulk of the tour takes place on the second floor where you just see the opulence of the Medicis. Given how often I have been to Florence, I’ve gained a bunch of this knowledge through osmosis – and yet I am still in a bit of disbelief at how much they stamped their status all over this building when they were able to seize power. It’s awe-inspiring and their influence remains omnipresent in this building with multiple rooms still have their coat of arms on display.

After the comparatively cheaper Bologna, it will take some time to get used to the prices for the museums and other sites here in Florence. Many are pre-booked so at least it won’t be too painful for the rest of the holiday.

Time for dinner. Like with the other hub cities, I really wanted to find some regional foods worth trying. Hopefully I’ll get to a number of these, with tonight’s meal being a very good start. As an appetizer we had some local salami and olives. The star of the show, however, was the main course. So many of the places we looked at before coming here had Florentine beefsteak as being super expensive. Then again, I was looking at places that were a bit Ritzy. Instead, I found a place with glowing Google reviews and had a really enjoyable meal of steak (to share), potatoes and grilled vegetables.

So that’s it for the day. I am probably going to be missing Bologna for a while and, with two day trips coming up, it may take some time to properly settle into Florence. Hopefully that’ll begin to happen over the next two evenings. Until then, it’s a trip to Pisa tomorrow. On a Sunday. It’s gonna be crowded!

VETaly: Day 7 – Ravenna

Second of the four day trips that we have on the itinerary and the only one that, to my shame, where I hadn’t heard of the city before we started booking things. Well, not any more. Ravenna is going to be one of those places I name drop when talking about holidays to Italy (although I will be singing the virtues of Bologna as a hub city all the more loudly).

Since it was another early start, we had breakfast in the apartment with some odds and ends from a local Carrefour. Had to have some mortadella because you just don’t get it for a good price back in the UK. We also had some super-sized tigelle since I just wanted to try and squeeze as much local food out of this trip.

It’s an hour train ride between Bologna and Ravenna, which turned out to be perfect lengths of time to have a bit of extra shut-eye on the way there and back. For this trip to Ravenna, we did the proper touristy thing and bought a pass to all the main sights, including timed entry to two of them, like a month in advance. Probably wasn’t busy enough to have needed to, but you never can tell.

This is a city that is famous for its mosaics and, by buying this ticket, you get to see nearly all of the major spots. We started out with the closest site to the train station, the Basilica Di Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, and the immediate explosion of the gold mosaic tiles really set the tone for the rest of the day.

I’m not even going to start talking about how long these must have taken as we aren’t at the finale yet. I will mention that these mosaics were mostly from a specific time where it was under Byzantine influence in the 6th century – so these mosaics are all incredibly old and impressively well preserved.

One interesting thing to note is that a mosaic in this first site may contain the first visual depiction of Satan in Western art. He’s the blue angel here and is far from the goat man devouring souls that you get in other paintings.

En route to our next site on the ticket, we popped into a church dedicated to San Francesco (he must have churches in every Italian city I’ve visited). The church itself is nice enough, but we are in Ravenna and are ravenous for mosaics. San Francesco is known for a particular room under the altar, which is flooded and contains fish living amongst surprisingly well preserved floor mosaics.

Since we still had time before our 5 minute slot, we went into the nearby Duomo. No mosaics here, but you do have an exquisite chapel to the right of the altar that is dedicated to an icon of ‘Mary of the Sweat’ (or something like that) so-named because of a tale that when someone slashed this icon, it appeared to sweat blood. Interesting story, but you don’t even notice it amongst all the surrounding finery.

Time for our slot in the Neonian Baptistry. Due to the octagonal shape of the building, it is actually really hard to get photos that do the mosaics in this building justice. As the font in the centre suggests, this is a building made for baptisms – just baptisms below a gorgeous mosaic ceiling depicting a naked Jesus being baptised. Now I think about it, I don’t think I’ve seen Jesus naked in classical art when he was an adult.

Next door is the third thing on the ticket, Ravenna’s Archiepiscopal Museum. There are some key treasures to be found here that really make sense of its inclusion on the ticket. Some mosaics that have been removed from and preserved, such as a large one of Mary with her arms open, are inside this museum. You can also find the ivory throne of Archbishop Maximianus – which is amazing to look at, remembering that ivory is bad.

The main reason people come to this museum, however, is to see the Chapel of Saint Andrew. This was previously the private chapel of the Bishop of Ravenna and is still in situ, the museum just occupying some of the old rooms. These mosaics are incredibly blue throughout and, thanks to this particular room, I noticed just how often different birds kept cropping up in these different mosaics. A style of the time that helps tie so many of these locations together.

Two more stops before lunch. First, the tomb of Dante Alighieri – Ravenna’s most famous resident, who’s bones went missing after they were stolen by local monks. To be fair to the monks, the bones were being moved to Florence in a political move by the then-Pope. To be less fair to the monks, it took three centuries before the bones were found again. It must be nine years since I finished reading The Divine Comedy so it’s actually nice to visit his hometown.

Then there was the Arian Baptistry. This was not on the ticket, but was on our list of secondary things to see in Ravenna. Nowadays, the Arian sect of Christianity is referred to as a cult and most traces of it from this era have been washed away. So the fact that this building and its mosaics remain is part-miraculous and part-because this was the sect some Roman emperors of the time followed.

Lunch time. We’d done so much at this point and wanted a proper lunch of the region. We went to the Piazza del Popolo and found a fantastic place for big and well-priced piadinas. As with a lot of food, we swapped halfway though and were able to have two different experiences. The first was guanciale and pecorino, which was a really upmarket felling cheese and bacon filling that worked so well together. Then there one with local squacquerone cheese and chunky pieces of salsiccia for a proper local feeling. Both were delicious and both were better than the piadinas we had in San Marino. Honestly, the thicker bread just did the trick.

For a bit of dessert we picked up some granita since it was a warm and cloudless day. Mine was half mango and half passion fruit and took a ridiculously long time to get molten enough to use the straw. Made for a lovely palate cleanser before taking the rest of the day.

Penultimate thing on our ticket now, the Mausoleum of Galla Placida – although she wasn’t buried there and I don’t think it is known who is buried there. There may even be a chance that no one is buried here. This location features a mosaic you see on all the tourist merchandise, two doves drinking out of a birdbath. Not entirely sure how this of all the pieces is what struck the imagination, although it is pretty to look at.

Personally, I liked the depiction of deer wrapped in the tendrils of the forest and think they could have made equally good magnets and key chains.

Grand finale time and that came in the form of the Basilica of San Vitale. It already looks like a chunky building from the outside, but inside you may want to take a seat to take it all in.

I cannot begin to imagine how long it took to make all these mosaics. As we sat down, we kept seeing more and more different things in it. Suddenly you’d notice that the portraits in the archway all have pairs of dolphins rather than wreaths. Then the large peacocks would become more obvious. This really is the building you need to end on as it’s just a final explosion of colour, themes, techniques and eye tricks.

Even more ridiculous is that the stunning mosaic meant nearly no one was looking up to see the absolutely stunning ceiling painting. Granted, it’s about 1000 years younger than the mosaic, but it is full of amazing technique and trickery that I wanted to just lay down and stare at it for a while. The rest of the church felt like we were in a grotto, it’s a very weird one.

Nothing after this could really measure up, but we did try and fit some more things in before our train back to Bologna. We gave a go to the National Museum in Ravenna, which was very weirdly organised to the point that we got lost a few times. Some nice things were in here, but it’s very easily eclipsed by the Archiepiscopal Museum.

We then took a walk out of the city centre towards the final accessible Unesco site in Ravenna, the Mausoleum of Theodoric. Theodoric, an almost mythical king whose bones are no longer in Ravenna and whose mausoleum was basically flooded thanks to a nearby stream. Nowadays, there isn’t much inside to be seen, the real thing to see is this building in full glory from the outside.

That was a lot to cram into a day and some chill time was needed before heading out for our final dinner in Bologna.

We ended up in a restaurant one street away from us and shared some really great pizza. On one side, there is a pumpkin and pancetta pizza on a traditional crust, the other has mozzarella mousse, mortadella and pistachios on a less traditional chunky pizza base. Neither were traditional pizzas in terms of flavour, but both were utterly delicious. I also confused everyone involved by asking for a side of grilled vegetables.

Dessert was just adding to the list of gelato flavours I’ve had since I was here, tiramisu on the bottom and fior de latte on the top. I thought I’d go super creamy with the flavours tonight as it was going to be a long blog post to write before getting into some packing.

Tomorrow will see us changing venues for the second half of this trip. So long Bologna with your gorgeous food and ridiculously tall towers. Hello again to Florence, where I last went well over a decade ago. It’s going to be a busy one tomorrow, so wrapping this up now so I can actually get some sleep!

VETaly: Day 6 – Bologna

We have a bunch of broken up time for Bologna during this holiday, but this is the only full day that we’ve committed to exploring. In the afternoon of our arrival we managed to do a chunk of our original itinerary, so we found some extra things to plug in the gaps.

As neither of us really wanted too much for breakfast, we got a pizzetta from a local bakery. Not too much but it was a nice thing to kick start us and meant we actually got something from a little independent business.

Our first stop wasn’t even an intended one. We were walking to our first destination and a church caught my eye and I just made a right turn up a slope to the San Giovanni in Monte. Yes, today is pretty much going to be all churches all the time. It’s what happens when you go to a major Italian city and you don’t want to fork out for museum entry fees constantly.

This was a nice church to start on. Well decorated with a number of chapels containing art from local artists and the body of a beatified woman in a gold and glass coffin towards the back. This is the only full body relic we saw all day (and we saw a lot of relics) and it still takes me aback how we just accept that in some Catholic churches we just have the exhumed bodies of people on display.

Okay time for the intended first stop on our trip: The Basilica of St Stephen. This is an interesting place given how it is not just one church, instead it is a complex of buildings that have a far ranging history.

You enter at the Church of the Crucifix, which is a pretty standard church compared to what we’ve seen on this visit so far. There is a crypt accessible from here, but it didn’t look like it was open today. The interest starts in the next room.

Like something out of the Uncharted games, you go off into the oldest building – the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre. It’s a strange octagonal building that is apparently on top of a water source and where a Cult of Isis would go back in Roman times. In the centre is what can only be described as a small marble house, which was their attempt at reproducing a similar structure originally found in Jerusalem.

The next building is another basilica and is about as out of the ordinary. It is effectively a shell of a building with an altar at the front (made from an upturned pagan altar) that is flanked by the empty coffins of Saints Agricola and Vitale (who were exhumed and placed into the crypt). The lack of ornamentation and natural light make this all a bit abandoned and haunting.

Two more small churches and two courtyards make up the rest of a complex. There are interesting art pieces and relics to be found all over the place and, with the right guide, I can imagine these parts of the complex being a really cool treasure hunt. 700 year old nativity scene here, tomb of a tailor there. Old bandages of a saint here, gargoyle of a man looking at his own arse there.

Time for the next stop, the Santuario di Santa Maria della Vita. Another lovely church, this time incredibly white and really not the reason why you need to visit here. Although it is nice enough. No, the reason to come here is behind a 5 Euro ticket to see a specific set of statues.

These terracotta statues of various Marys (and two men) reacting to the body of Jesus as he has been taken down from the cross. The power and the anguish in the faces of Mary Magdeline and the Mary next to her (I’ve forgotten which one she is, but I know she isn’t THE Mary) are … well they are very moving. I had to have a bit of an extended moment with these images to just make sure that I would properly remember them.

Moving on to the final church of the morning, the Basilica of San Domenico. We were due to come here anyway, but my interest was piqued in the previous church. Turns out the man who made those terracotta statues received his nickname from work he did on the Ark of San Domenico.

We didn’t have as long as I would have liked as they were preparing to close the church at noon for mass. However, I managed to make my way straight to the Ark in order to properly take it in. Interestingly enough, this huge piece of artwork is the product of multiple artists over the years and even includes small additions by Michaelangelo. Not sure how many photos of this I ended up taking in the end, but I think my time with it was well spent.

It was lunchtime and, given that Bologna is known for mortadella, it was time to have some. Next to the main piazza is a shop that pretty much specialises in hot sandwiches with mortadella and my word they were delicious. I ended up having one with mortadella, provolone and pistachio cream whilst my husband had a mozzarella moose instead of the provolone. Both sandwiches were delicious, but you could get more of the mortadella goodness in mine.

For the afternoon, it was back to the churches. The Sanctuary of the Madonna Di San Luca. This is outside the main city and at the top of a massive hill. It’s connected to the city centre by the longest continuous covered portico in the world measuring 3.8 kilometres in length and containing 666 arches. Rather than walk this, we took the San Luca Express – the train shaped bus (or Hippo train as I call them) up, which allowed us to take some lovely pictures at the end of the trip.

You come to the Sanctuary more for the building and it’s position overlooking Bologna than for the inside. Don’t get me wrong, the inside is beautiful and I bet being on here at the weekend to see the less accessible areas would be incredibly interesting, but the most I got out of it was from being with the sanctuary on the outside and just getting a wonderful bird’s-eye view of the city below.

Rather than take the train down (and waiting an hour) we opted to walk along the record breaking portico and immediately slap ourselves on the back for not having decided to do it on the way up. The final stretch up is incredibly steep with little to no respite, even on the way down it was a bit of a struggle to get the right footing with the incline and the number of steps. Again, super glad we did not do this on the way up!

The walkway truly is covered for the entire stretch, even opting to form a bridge over the main road to get pilgrims safely across. Every now and then there are alcoves with artwork based on the ‘Mysteries of Faith’ which were all, sadly, behind metal gratings for their protection.

Back in the city centre, we moved onto the only non-religious site of the day. A section of Bologna University – the oldest continuously running university in the world – that has now been converted into a library. In the parts you can freely roam around, you see the walls covered in the coats of arms of students and donors.

It makes for a really fun game of ‘spot the non-Italian location’ as you walk around and spot those of students who will have belonged to Flanders, Bohemia, Aragon and Transylvania.

For a small fee, you can also go into the old Anatomy Theatre – literally a room where students received lessons on anatomy as a body was dissected on the table in the middle. The statuary is especially apt with the walls continuing famous physicians and anatomist whilst a cherub hands a woman a femur … both standing over two flayed men.

So much walking deserved some gelato and, boy howdy, did we have some amazing gelato from a place recommended online. Continuing the run of new flavours with chocolate & rum on the bottom and banana on top. The banana gelato specifically is some of the best ice cream that I have ever had. It was fresh, had banana pieces in it and just made me so incredibly happy.

Final site of the day was the Basilica Di San Francesco… which inexplicably has something akin to a flea market regularly running in the cloisters. I guess it’s a way to bring money into the church. I think we were a bit churched out at this point, plus a good section of it was roped off. Still though, not the worst way to end the day.

A few hours resting back in the apartment meant it was time for dinner. There is one place that I wanted to try but, on the first day, the queue was massive so figured it wouldn’t happen. Well, tonight there was no queue and we got in right away.

One of the many great things about my husband is that, a lot of times, we’ll have similar shortlists when ordering meals. So, if we can agree on a top two, we just swap the plates part way through. This is how I ended up having both a traditional tortellini in broth AND black-pepper gnocchi with pumpkin and gorgonzola for dinner. We also had a side of a roasted pepper stuffed with walnut cream and some tigelle. It’ll be hard to beat this meal for the rest of this holiday, but I’m sure we’ll give it a try.

Tomorrow is another day trip out of Bologna before changing location completely. I’ve seen the name crop up a bunch of times in the last few days, so hopefully I’ll enjoy what I find in Ravenna.

VETaly: Day 5 – San Marino

It’s been nearly 4 years since I’ve been able to add a new country to my tally, one of the longer gaps as far as I am aware. But today, another country has been visited for the first time: the Serene Republic of San Marino. With this, I just have two of the European micronations left – and I have thoughts about getting to Liechtenstein.

The whole reason Bologna became the middle hub of this visit was because of our ability to do a Sammarinese day trip from here whilst also having enough other things to do. It was a bit of an early start so we could catch a train to Rimini at 0730 followed by the 50 minute bus ride at 0930. So not too bad a journey when you have anime downloaded for the train ride and are going to see the oldest republic in the world.

Going to specify here that this trip was to the capital of San Marino, also called San Marino. There are other towns and places to visit in this small nation, but this was the best option for us for now. It is a very beautiful country and feels like a mountain of untouched potential for wider tourism.

The historic centre of the capital is a UNESCO Heritage site, which is perfectly understandable given just how beautifully preserved and/or restored so many of the buildings and walls are. Being high up on a mountain, the city centre is all various inclines with these beautiful buildings at different angles and all made of stone.

It was just this wonderful moment walking from the coach to the main gate to the city and then walking up to one of the many panoramic viewpoints with Sammarinese flags unfurled in the breeze. The views from up there are either countryside and forests or this stretching out of red roofs with the sea in the distance.

There wasn’t too much of a plan of what to do whilst we were here other than to visit the three towers. These are depicted on the flag and give their name to the chocolate wafers that you buy as a souvenir (or make at home if you’re a weirdo like me). Back in the day, these were all watchtowers to keep the city safe and some have gained other functions along the way.

The first is also the largest in terms of the surrounding complex of buildings. It previously housed a jail and was also a place where torture occurred. Apparently San Marino was torture-happy in older times, something that probably would have been exaggerated a bit when you go to the local torture museum.

You can go up this tower, but I am not good with heights and am especially not good with ladders. So we rambled around the walls for a bit and then started making our way to the second tower.

The walks to the first two towers are both quite steep so, before attempting the second climb, we bought some lemon sorbet to give us a bit of a sugar boost. Not had something like this since Sicily and it was just the perfect bit of refreshment before going forward.

The second tower now houses a small museum on weaponry, but everyone is here to climb the tower and to walk along the ramparts. This is the highest of the three towers and it provides some of the best vantage points to take photos in the city. Something that would be easier most other times of year when it isn’t flying ant day and you are just walking over an increasing number of corpses.

Still though, you just cannot argue with the view you get of the first tower. It’s one of those views that I thought I would only be able to get with a drone or being in a helicopter. You do have to make your way up some old stairs to reach the photo spots, and it’s pretty narrow at the top, but it is most certainly worth it.

Some more hill walking and panoramic views will take you to the third and final tower. There’s nothing extra here other than a tower that you are unable to climb and the joy of having visited the three towers of the Sammarinese capital. It’s more steep walking up and down back to the city centre, but the route is dotted with cafés, restaurants and souvenir stands. So the walk back really is the perfect time to get some stuff to take home.

Lunch was a piadina from one of the many restaurants in the city centre. I can see myself getting another one of these as a quick walking lunch before this holiday is over. I know this was a bit of a tourist trap place because of the location, but it was a big serving and these kept us going until dinner.

For the rest of the afternoon, we went around to some of the other places that were included in the price of entry for the towers. But before that, we went into the main basilica of the country. It almost feels like a converted temple compared to a church built for purpose. The columns and the statues made this have a different kind of feeling to other major churches that I’ve seen in this area. Then again, this is on the smaller side and I feel that most of the budget went on marble.

After this we went into the ‘People’s Palace’ where the various councils and heads of San Mario’s government sit. Not a large building, but it is beautiful inside and out.

The room where the Grand and General Council sit was especially beautiful with it’s painted walls and ceilings. You can tell just from the amount of iconography just how much faith is here in Sammarinese politics, probably down to their country having been founded by a Catholic saint.

After this, we went to the State Museum and the Saint Francis museum. Not too much in the latter, whilst the former had some interesting art pieces with a mix of local and acquired works. There is one painting in there depicting the torture of Saint Agatha as well as some interesting history into how far back they can trace humans living in the Sammarinese vicinity.

Whilst we could have probably killed some time here just walking around, it made sense to head back to Bologna for dinner and cut off our time in the Sammarinese capital for now. My husband managed to get a nice picture of the San Marino-Italy border on the bus ride back to Rimini.

Back in Bologna, there was some kind of event going on in the main square – so a bunch of the surrounding streets were closed to traffic. There was also a tortollini event happening with a massive queue to get in… so we just stared in bemusement at the adult choir singing with a person in a rabbit costume before going for dinner.

Tonight’s dinner may have contained one of the best pasta dishes I have ever eaten. We shared a burrata to start with and then for the main I had green tagliatelle with a white ragu. Never even heard of a white ragu, but it was creamy and full of pork and some other flavours I’m not too sure of. Sure the owner didn’t seem the friendliest with tourists, but he wasn’t our server so it didn’t matter and didn’t detract from the taste of the food.

To finish, we went to the same gelateria as yesterday (which we found out was a chain that operates in London at double the price). Two more flavours tried and we realised that they actually rotate the flavours, which meant that I could not have the fruity flavour he had. Instead, I had the caramel panna cotta and the mascarpone with candied figs flavours – neither of which were available yesterday. I fear that this rotating flavour gimmick may continue to grab me throughout this holiday.

VETaly: Day 4 – Welcome to Bologna

So there we have it, the first of the travel hub changes. I am now writing this from Bologna, capital of the Emilia-Romagna region and home to some of the most famous pasta dishes in the world of Italian cuisine. In all honesty, this place, whilst seemingly up-and-coming and a food city – was mostly picked because it’s a place where I can do a day trip to San Marino.

Having checked out of our hotel, the train from Venice to Bologna took just under two hours. We are going to be relying on Italian trains a lot for the rest of this trip and… so far so good. Technically we could have taken a quicker train, but a longer train made sense given that we wouldn’t be able to check into our accommodation anyway.

For the next four nights, we will be based in a nice studio apartment not too far from the main square. It is also a 20 minute walk from the train station which, despite the 30 degree weather, was a breeze because a lot of Bologna’s streets are covered, which means that the only time we were in the blazing sun was the small area around the train station and whenever we had to cross the streets. Pretty excellent example of how architecture can make an immediate impression on sun-haters like myself.

We allowed some time to get acclimated to the room, my husband made sure I got some caffeine in my system (as it’s pretty much my base-level mood stabiliser at the moment) and we had a look around the immediate vicinity because we weren’t going to just waste this afternoon. Although we have now taken a big chunk out of a future day… so we’ll need to find some more things to cram into the list.

Starting out, we had the Two Towers. These will be well known to anyone who has played some of the Assassination Creed games as they are very fun to climb up. There are also a lot more of them in the games, it’s just that over the years these have been taken down. Still, there are apparently close to 20 left standing in various states of repair (hell I can see some from the window of the apartment).

Whilst you are able to climb these, the tickets are meant to run out super early and I can’t think of many things worse to do on a hot day than climb a massive spiral staircase in a tower with presumably poor ventilation. Sure, the view would be great, but at what cost to joy.

A few blocks from the towers is the Piazza Maggiore, the main square of Bologna where we really burned through a lot of the things on our to-do list. It’s a lovely square surrounded by old buildings and with a huge open space in the middle for, I’m assuming, events. There is also a hippo train (this is my term, I have no idea what you’d call it otherwise) that stops here and we will be going on a ride in a few days.

Sadly, Neptune’s Fountain, the main fountain in the square was cordoned off – I assume for some kind of works because we are no longer in the tourist high season. But you can see how it would be gorgeous if the water had been switched on.

Next to the fountain to the left is the town hall, also known as the Palazzo d’Accursio (sadly a name and not meaning this building had a curse). As town halls go it is a massive complex of buildings which is now a still-functioning civil building crossed with an art museum.

It is also home of a clock tower that you are able to climb up for 8 Euros to get a view of the red roofs of Bologna and to see the towers in a more proper context. When climbing the tower, we were asked to sign a waiver since some of the stairs are original and they do not want to be liable for any accidents. Don’t think I’ve been asked to do that before… it definitely did not inspire confidence but all was fine in the end.

With the tower ticket, you also get entry into the art museum – which was larger than I had assumed. These are mostly local works, with some really lovely art pieces placed in some even more beautifully decorated rooms.

The art museum itself is split into time periods, with the medieval section having one of the more gruesome depictions of Jesus on the cross that I have seen in a while. Definitely one to make the children cry on a Sunday.

For me, the highlight was this single room with a marble statue of Apollo in it. The walls and ceiling were painted so that it felt like we were looking out into gardens on all sides. Almost like Apollo himself had invited us into his cosmic gazebo. It feels like such a flex to have a room like this for the sake of a room like this with a single statue (which I assume was a curator living their best life rather than historic placement) and I wish it could be mine.

After this, we went across the square to the gothic and very much unfinished looking Basilica di San Petronio. Having an outside that’s just this unfinished and, now, would never be finished is just absurd and I kinda love it. The marble stops about a third of the way up the the remaining just being brick.

Looks can be deceiving though, because the inside is full of decoration. There are 22 chapels to the side, with many of them being decorated in very different ways. Some are full of marble sculptures, others make use of stained glass and then there is the reliquary one which is just boxes with bones on display.

When you are inside, it makes sense that this is the main church in Bologna. This church also houses two more things of interest. Firstly, you have what’s seen to be one of the largest astronomical instruments – in the form of a line calculated by Cassini where an image of the sun falls at noon every day. The other is a depiction of Mohammed in a fresco being devoured by demons… which is why armed Italian police at the door due to multiple terror plots to blow the basilica up.

After this we picked up a very late lunch and went back to the apartment to get some laundry done. Lunch was a gorgeous porchetta sandwich. One was plain, the other had onion jam and a balsamic glaze. I am sure we will end up having multiple types of sandwich for the remainder of this trip and I guess we’ll have to see if another one happens tomorrow.

With the laundry done and hanging up (although how well it’s going to dry is up for debate) it was time to head out for a light dinner. The manager of the tourist apartments mentioned a local place and, since it was well reviewed on Google, we figured why not.

Since we are at the traditional home for filled pasta, I had the pumpkin tortelloni with butter and sage which also came with a side of the ragu sauce. My husband, well he went for the spaghetti bolognese as he wanted to be able to say he had eaten it from the place of origin. Personally, I’m really glad I had the tortelloni. The sweet pumpkin and the spice of the amoretti just work wonders together. Do I wish there had been more on the plate? Sure, but to be fair I wasn’t the hungriest.

We opted for dessert rather than a starter, deciding to get tiramisu and panna cotta (which was more a firm creme caramel) that we both ate half off. As someone who is not a coffee drinker, the espresso powder on the tiramisu was a bit of a shock to the system – but it was nice to have both desserts.

Dessert wasn’t over though. I have kinda decided that I want to try and have a different gelato flavour each day… but today I had two flavours as that was the minimum available. For the sake of contrast, I had one scoop of cream custard and then one of nougatine. The difference was night and day. The subtle vanilla creaminess of the custard against the rich and fudgy nougatine with the hazelnut pieces. By having two, I have bought myself a day to not have gelato… but not sure I’ll need it.

Early start tomorrow as we are making the 3-4 hour trip to go and visit San Marino. My first new country since November 2019. As someone who has been trying to keep his country number and age as close as possible, this could not have come at a better time.

VETaly: Day 3 – Venice Proper

Second and final full day in Venice and, to be honest, I think that we could have probably just gone with one fewer night and cut out Murano completely to shove in the key things from today. Considering just how much of a tourist trap Venice has become, it surprises me how done I feel after two and a bit days here. I guess the extra day would have come in handy before the time of Google Maps when you had to earn your Masters in orienteering in order to find tourist spots.

We woke up to a very different Venice, one that was covered in mist. It made for some really weird photos considering the extreme sunshine we’ve been having, as well as some very uncomfortable tourists who kept accumulating moisture with no hopes of having it evaporate off.

Our first stop was meant to be the Rialto Market. I’d read so much about it, including how long it’s been held here and just how it would be a cool detour in the morning. Thing is, it’s Monday. This means that whilst the market is technically running, the main event (aka the fish market) doesn’t open back up until Tuesday. So yeah, this was pretty disappointing but that’s what happens with shorter stays like this.

Oh well, it just meant that we would make our way to Saint Mark’s Basilica just that little bit earlier and get in the very long queue that was nearing the sea by the time we got there. Despite the hub’s best efforts to get some ‘on the day’ tickets, it was to no avail and we were in the basilica within 45 minutes. Honestly, there was no rush and the time passed really quickly.

Despite this being my third time in the city of Venice, this was the first time I went into the basilica as neither my school trip nor my father wanted to spend time on that queue. Well more fool them, this is clearly one of those things not to be missed on a trip to Venice. Then again, I honestly cannot remember what I did on either of those visits.

Anyway, the inside of the basilica is gorgeous, but the visit does suffer from the extreme crowd control method that they’ve had to employ. You have no real free rein to look around and, instead there is a sectioned off one way route for everyone to go down. Given the crowds, I understand it, but it does mean that you aren’t fully able to see every part of the basilica from the best angles.

Whilst we did not pay the 7 Euros to go upstairs for a crowded balcony view of Saint Mark’s Square, we did pay the 5 Euros to see the Pala D’Oro. This is a spectacular piece of massive goldwork that also allows a small diversion behind the altar. This is significantly less crowded than the rest of the church and gets you some of the best pictures of the gold paintings on the ceiling.

The Pala D’Oro itself is stunning and really hard to take in when standing in the basilica, especially as it hangs rather high and so you need to crane your neck to make out Mary at the top. Was it worth the cost to see this specifically? I’m not sure, but it was worth it to have it a bit less crowded and to actually get some proper quality time with some of the artwork before rejoining the mad throng for the second half of the circuit.

By the time we’d made it out of the basilica, the mist had mostly cleared up within the main part of Venice (although it still obscured the views of islands further away), which meant we could do our next part of the itinerary: a trip up the Grand Canal. After all, this is a city built on its canals and this is one of the best ways to see it outside of an 80 Euro gondola ride.

Whilst we weren’t early enough to get a seat at the front of the boat, we still were there at the windows taking as much in as we could. While my husband was enjoying taking photos of specially branded boats for package delivery companies like DHL, I had my own mini-drama unfold as I watched a handcuffed man being escorted out of a police boat and into the station. Suddenly seeing everyday things reframed as boats makes it all feel a bit Pixar.

The trip was lovely and was the perfect way to just show off a bunch of the architecture. We ended up traveling the whole length of the boat route, which actually got us back to near our hotel and allowed for a change out of the morning’s clothes into something less humid.

Lunch was something I’ve been looking forward to in Venice – a paper cone of fried seafood. The first choice was having a power outage, but thankfully there was another well rated one nearby. Just a cone of freshly made-to-order fried calamari rings with a squeeze of lemon. It’s what I was craving, even as the seagulls descended on a nearby Korean couple who had dropped a piece of their fish on the floor. They say to be aware of these birds and, honestly, they aren’t wrong.

It was time for our final big loop of Venice as we walked south towards Basilica Di Santa Maria della Salute. It’s a basilica with a massive dome that you can see as you come into the airport and just towers over a lot of the Venice skyline. Thing is, this is all the way on the other side of the main islands and it’s not like the Grand Canal has too many bridges to allow direct routes.

On the positive side, however, it did mean we got to make a discovery of our own on the way. The rather lovely Parish Church of Saint Moisè, situated opposite a group of 30 people who had 80 Euros to burn on gondola rides, is a medium-sized church with an incredible looking sculpted altarpiece depicting the handing down of the Ten Commandments. Honestly, it’s these kinds of events that make me think I could really get on well with Venice if it was that bit less crowded.

Half an hour later we were at our main destination for the afternoon. Up close, the scale of the dome is all the more imposing, although that level of grandeur isn’t matched on the inside. At least not in the free areas of the church as the other sections are closed on Mondays. It’s free and a really nice place to look around and admire just how massive this dome is on the inside, but I think it paled in comparison to the two churches we came across by sheer accident.

Since we were in the area, our next visit was a bit of an odd one – but it just sounded like a bit of an unusual thing to see. This is the (former) church of Saint Barnabas. Its exterior was used as the setting of the library in the third Indiana Jones movie.

The interior is now used for exhibitions and is the current home of a number of replicas of machines as designed by Leonardo Da Vinci. This makes it one of two such exhibitions, which is weird for a city that he isn’t typically associated with. Made for a different kind of diversion and showed just how out there some of his ideas were for the time. Also, just how much he contributed to the war efforts of the Borgias.

Time for dinner and this is the first, of I assume will be a couple, of visits to a proper pizzeria. To start we split bruschetta (which I know is Tuscan, but it looked nice) and a final Venetian food I wanted to try: sour sardines. I’m not a fan of rollmops, so was surprised to find I quite liked these sardines. I think the sweetness of the onion and raisins really helped me to enjoy the meal.

My pizza was referred to as the Tirolese and it had speck and gorgonzola on top. This was one of those menus where, if this was a local place, I would happily have just eaten my way through it. I was very happy with my choice though and, if there is a next pizza, I now know that I want to have something a bit more different. Hopefully with artichokes.

So that was it. We packed, got our gelato of the day as a reward for having packed (today it was blueberry) and now it’s just making sure everything is ready for the change in location.

As I mentioned a few posts back, I have some serious Venice-baggage. Thankfully this third time was the charm and I have a more positive view of the city. That being said, I can see myself never making the effort to come back here though which, if you have read some of my other travel blog posts, can feel like a major thumbs down. In the end, Paris Syndrome is a thing and I think Venice is my equivalent city – the culture tells you how romantic and great a destination it is and in this instance I just come away mildly bemused.

Tomorrow will be a travel day for our next base in Bologna, where we will be doing some proper day trips out. One of which I am especially looking forward to – but more on that when I actually write it up.

VETaly: Day 2 – Burano and Murano

This is the first of two full days that we have in Venice and, for the most part, decided this was the day to vacate the city proper for the nearby islands. To be fair, I think the planned itinerary for this trip sees us doing a trip out on the first full day in a new hub city. At least with Venice, we did this because Sunday felt like the wrong day to try and actually get into Saint Mark’s Basilica.

Somewhat unusually for us, the hotel we’ve booked in Venice came with a breakfast in the price – so that’s us sorted for the next few days. Properly fuelled, we started off the day proper with a timed ticket for the Museo Correr, which is at the eastern end of Saint Mark’s Square.

Other than the Peggy Guggenheim, this is probably the main art museum in Venice. It’s a bit of a weird mishmash of four quite different smaller museums all joined together. As such, it feels like it’s a bit of a jack-of-all/master of none situation.

I will always have a soft spot for some beautiful renaissance statues, but my head is immediately going to us being in Florence in a week – knowing that this is going to be easily eclipsed. However, I will concede that there were some really interesting pieces here such as the paired Eurydice and Odysseus statues and one of Daedalus tying the wings to Icarus.

The part of the museum that helps it distinguish itself, at least for me, happens in a weird off-shooted dead end that we had to help an American couple find. This is a section containing some historical maps of the world, interesting because of Venice’s historically important role in maritime history. Having these older maps not be a main event is a real misstep.

At the end of the museum you find yourself in some opulent rooms, the final room of the whole museum being the very best – the ballroom. Whilst not as large as some of the rooms we saw in the Doge’s Palace yesterday, it very much gave them a run for their money. Truly Louis XIV could have been here taking notes for Versailles had timelines been differently aligned.

Our culture for the day done, we started on our island excursions aboard a packed water bus for a 45 minute trip to the island of Burano. Famous for its laceworks and brightly coloured houses… I can tell you that absolutely no lace was purchased on this trip. Although many pictures of colourful houses were taken.

Seriously. How picturesque are these brightly coloured houses on the banks of the canals. This also means that large sections of this island group are just heaving with tourists, with prices to match the demands of the tourists. Thankfully I managed to find us a nicely affordable lunch after some walking.

Cicchetti are another local Venetian food checked off of the list. In retrospect, we could have easily ordered more than these five, but it was just too fun to order one of everything off of a menu. One of these featured another local food, a creamed cod spread that I would have easily ordered another one of. At this point the sun was very much at the peak and I was more than happy to have some time in the shade.

We meandered a bit more before taking a boat to Murano. Easily more famous than Burano and, thanks to watching every episode of Blown Away, I have such an appreciation for the work and artistry to go into making these pieces. I just can’t justify spending £30 on a glass owl the size of my thumb. There is a 1€ Murano glass shop which looks like it’s full of rejects… which is more my speed and so I got myself a tiny frog.

Honestly, we were at a bit of a loss on Murano. Neither of us are major shoppers and it is nowhere near as pretty as Burano, so after some walking around for a little bit and getting gelato (today it was mango) we headed back to Venice proper so we could have a bit of time in the hotel before dinner.

Dinner was actually at a restaurant really nearby, but had some fantastic word of mouth on Google Reviews. It wasn’t too far off the main tourist path, but it felt so quiet. Quiet enough that we could sit overlooking the canal watching the boats go by as we had dinner.

To start we shared a rather lovely selection of hams with some bread. This is the kind of thing I knew I wanted to do when we were in one of the apartments later in the holiday… but hey I’ll take having this as an appetizer.

For my main, I went for Venetian style liver and polenta. I almost never have liver because I can not cook it properly and not many regions have it down as a speciality. Almost did not have it because it has such a brief window of deliciousness. Thankful that I did because it was such a nice different thing to have.

Dessert was more cannoli, this time from a different bakery. Mine was limoncello, my husband’s was the one covered in coconut. Again, we’ll be in places with cutlery soon, so going to have those kinds of take-out dessert once we change location.

Tomorrow is the second of the two full days we have in Venice. The central cog will be getting into Saint Mark’s basilica – hopefully it won’t have too long a queue so there’s time to check off the remaining things from our list.