Bye Bye Bologna

 

Tuesday 22nd August 2023

Today is our last day in Bologna.  

The plan is to deliver the car back to a Hertz office anywhere,  have lunch with Ben and Izzy somewhere in Bologna when they arrive from Cinque Terra and then take the train to Venezia. Easy.

Today is also my dad's birthday and he would have been 96 today.  So a bit sad.

I was looking at the map to find a nice restaurant to have lunch with Ben and Izzy which was somehow close to all of us. I found one but then I saw a Ristorante Enzo nearby.

So we walked to the restaurant passing by one of my favourite statues.

I used Google maps to find the restaurant but something happened and it suddenly started directing me to the Enzo Palazzo or something. Once I realized, we had to retrace our steps but made it to the restaurant just as Ben and Izzy were arriving.

Apparently Re Enzo means king and there were a number of them. The guy was hard to understand,

Anyway we ordered Bass(fish) (as usual for me) and it was amazing as the waiter stripped the meat from the fish at our table and served it with vegetables. I had mine with the plain gluten-bloody-free version while Ben and Izzy had theirs with something else.

The fish about to be prepared.

Ben's fish

Paul had veal pizzaiola which was very nice

And then dessert. 

My panna cotta. Quite a common gluten-bloody-free dessert. But very nice.

They had tiramisu (sigh)

Ben and Izzy

A really great lunch washed down by lambrusco, of course.

And then it was goodbye to Ben, goodbye to Izzy and finally goodbye to Bologna. Really nice place but very hot.

We finally boarded our train after being told by at least 2 people we were on the wrong binario (platform). Very confusing and no one to ask but as we neared the actual departure time, the information appeared on the screens.  We had actually booked business class for room for the bags mainly.  The fast train was very nice only taking about 1.5 hours.

We were so thirsty and as soon as we got on, received a little pack of goodies.  I asked dejectedly and not expecting anything, 'Do you have anything senza glutine?'.

The lovely lady pulled out a special box for me, which looked like Paul's but was labelled, senza glutine!!!!!  Yes!

I got water, juice, nuts, protein bar. A nice surprise.

This is what the seats looked like. Very comfy.

Once we arrived in Venice, we looked for a water taxi to take us to our hotel, the Hotel Bonvecchiati. It had its own jetty. After tense negotiations, we found someone who would take us to the jetty so we would not have to walk and carry luggage. We had found travelling with 4 bags and a disabled person difficult. Escalators at train station were a nightmare. 

Eventually we got the taxi and it was quite an amazing ride to our hotel.  A taste of Venezia.

The jetty to get onto the watertaxi.

Inside the taxi.

A few scenes from the back of the boat.

It was quite busy but good to arrive at the hotel.  I had slightly underestimated the difficulty of moving from boat to jetty and back again. Luckily they do have things to help but the need to jump across water was a bit scary.

Once in our lovely hotel combining the old and the new,  

This is the wardrobe and the teeny tiny TV. Not great

This is the bathroom with bidet (of course) and two basins! Best bathroom so far..

we had a rest before  venturing forth.

We thought we would walk to San Marco Square which was very close and maybe have a drink and dinner.

On the way

This is the front of our hotel.

The closest bridge

A tartufi shop very nearby.

A place where gondolas go to die(?)

San Marco Square

The church of San Marco

A band in one of the restaurants lining the square

Us experimenting with a selfie at a restaurant.

Just after we took the selfie, we decided it was too dear and too hot and that we would find somewhere else or return to the hotel. We ran off.

Back to our hotel

The view from the window.

S we ended up back at the hotel seeking air conditioning. We started inside but not good so eventually ended up on the balcony outside which was a bit better and far more interesting.

I asked you know what and the first waiter had no idea but then a waitress explained what pasta I could have.  Not the tartufi one damn it but at least I could have one.

Guess which bread is mine. At least I got some and not that bad.

My gluten-bloody-free pesto pasta

Paul's seafood tagliatelli

 

What is this ?

Have a look at the glass in the photo above. What do you see? I saw rubbish and asked the waitress to take it away.  She almost collapsed with laughter. When able to speak, she said it was the centrepiece of the table, a work of art designed by some famous artist.  ie a rose. She then pointed out all the tables had one in different colours. I thought it was a screwed up serviette stuck inside a glass.  What do you think?

She thought this was very funny and suggested we try a complimentary glass of limoncello. She must have looked at me and thought I needed it. She was correct.

Tomorrow we are doing a tour of the canals. Maybe I can insult the locals again tomorrow.