Viva Italia!

Buongiorno tutte!

We drove all the way to Lake Maggiore, arriving about 8pm. 300 miles in one day: quite a tiring trek, really.

It was starting to get dark, so we stopped at the first campsite we found. It was right by the lake, but we couldn´t see a lot in the dusk.

In the morning light we found that the site wasn´t that great, and Kathy was suffering with an allergic reaction to mozzie bites, so we left post haste.

We decided to avoid the autostrada (costs money) and headed for Bologna, eventually arriving at 6:30pm. We found the campsite, but needed supplies so went on a wild goose chase to the supermercado: 3Km turned into 17Km!

The campsite was quite crowded but had the best facilities yet: large cubicles and v. clean. Had mozzarella, basil, tomato and olive oil salad for dinner, accompanied by some unexpectedly fizzy red wine.

10.9.04
Bit of a lie-in, showered and planned our day. Got the 1pm bus into Bologna: 1 euro each way! Wandered towards the central square: Piazza Maggiore. Had wonderful pizza at Altero and then looked around the church of San Petronio: 22 side chapels all containing paintings, scupltures etc. It has an astronomical clock; we bought a guide book and some postcards (no photos allowed!).

The general architecture and feel of the place was fantastic: columned porticos everywhere. Bought pasta, dried tomatoes and funghi porcini (mushrooms). We also visited San Stefano´s (Saint Stephen´s) church!

To round off the day, we had a meal at Nino´s, where we both chose the set fish menu. It was absolutely amazing, as was the service. Something, unfortunately, disagreed with Tim´s stomach (mussels?) and he was rather ill later

So on to Venice…