So, three days into our Italian adventure we left to go on a holiday to the Dolomites (about 500km north of Siena). The clouds of the previous two days had cleared, leaving us with perfectly clear blue skies as the sun came up over our apartment.
First thing on the list was thawing and packing the new Volvo (that’s three cars in four days for anyone keeping track). Credit goes to Hayley for the composition of the next photo:
Then a quick family portrait outside our apartment before heading off.
We only got 2km when we realised we were going past the cannoleria we hadn’t tried yet. They are piped to order, so we had to get one each.
They were excellent.
Next stop along the way was Bologna. It’s often challenging finding parking near the centre of town, but it’s best not to try to drive into the main pedestrian-only piazza on a busy Saturday like I did. These locals however are completely unconcerned as it’s almost certainly not the craziest thing they’ve seen an Italian driver do that day (more on that in another post).
Bologna bubble blowing:
Lots of nice architecture (and stylishly-dressed locals) in the Piazza Maggiore:
Hayley, Polly and I were all taking photos of the buildings in the plaza and Audrey wanted to join in. It took her a little while to get the hang of my camera.
But she figured it out pretty quickly:
We went to a great little food market for lunch, the Mercato Delle Erbe. They had (among many other things), amazing old signage:
This has become my go-to meal in Italy (and it’s even low-carb). Available pretty much everywhere and always excellent.
After lunch we headed back to the car and continued to Modena where were staying the night. We still haven’t gotten in sync with dining times here (lots of restaurants don’t open until 7) so we had to keep the kids awake long enough to eat. We found a great little board game/pop culture store across the road that had just opened. The owners were SUPER eager to teach us their favourite games.
We made it to dinner and went back to our Airbnb, which had a amazing Wes Anderson lift:
And that was day one:
The next day we decided to head to the Enzo Ferrari museum before continuing north (Modena is the home of Ferrari) . Two minutes into the drive we realised we were behind a Ferrari prototype wrapped in camouflage.
There’s a great mix of old and new cars and architecture at the museum, which is at the site of Enzo Ferrari’s house and workshop.
The kids were surprising interested in the cars:
Although I think Audrey just liked being in charge of the interactive tour on the iPad.
The section of the museum devoted to engines was a bridge too far for them though.
Next stop was Verona. It turned out that we were going to be there on the day of one of biggest events of the year - the Verona Christmas Run, where competitors run a 5k race dressed as Santa. We arrived two hours after the race started but the streets were still full of Santas and their supporters:
I still find it amazing that you can stumble across 2000-year old Roman arenas wedged between a Zara and an H&M.
We headed to the Christmas market - the first of many on this trip, I’m sure. Mandi was excited to have her first vino brulé (mulled wine).
The kids tried to buy everything in sight.
Lots of christmasy snacks. I’m getting addicted to these little Bussolai cookies:
Half the ‘centro storico’ is pedestrian-only
We walked back to the car across the river.
And drove the final 200km to Bolzano.
Tomorrow we start exploring the Dolomites. Stay tuned…
