We flew to Bologna and stayed in a lovely guesthouse called the Cristina Rossi B&B. The lady who owned it was so friendly and wonderful and gave us hugs and kisses goodbye when we left. I would definitely recommend staying there! Bologna was so much fun and it was nice to be in a place that was full of local people and not touristy at all. We spent the day wandering around the streets and explored the Piazza Maggiore, the town hall which had a community art display, the food market and the university district. After all the walking we had done we went to a tiny pasta restaurant and had fresh homemade pasta! We indulged in the most delicious gnocci and pumpkin tortellini, I could have eaten it all evening!
Our next stop was Florence. I had always wanted to visit Florence but never got the chance to on my interrail trip two years ago so I was so happy we were able to go this time. Florence was a lot different to Bologna, lots more people and bustling streets packed with tourists. That being said we still thoroughly enjoyed it. We spent one day seeing all of the sights such as the Duomo, the food and leather market, the Ponte Vecchio and the Piazza Signoria and the next day venturing to the Uffizi Gallery to see all of the famous Renaissance artwork and then to the Boboli gardens. We were pleasantly surprised because we got into both places for free as it was the first Sunday of the month! We ate a lot of gelato in Florence and managed to find two vegan restaurants! The first was called Panino Vegano and did wonderful burgers and paninis as well as desserts. The second was called Crepapelle which did sweet and savory vegan crepes. Both restaurants had gluten free options top!
After Florence we travelled to Lucca, the walled city! Lucca was so pretty and so different from the places that we had previously been to. The city is surrounded by massive walls which you can walk/run/cycle along. We opted to cycle along them and rented bikes for the afternoon cycling along the 4km long walls in the beautiful sunshine. As Lucca is easily accessible by train many people come to visit just for day trips so in the evening it was nice and quiet and quite romantic to wander around the streets.
Our final destination was Pisa. We didn't originally plan to go but due to flight times being changed we had to re think our route and decided on staying for an extra day and flying home from Pisa. We had a lovely day looking around the streets and stalls and of course went to see the leaning tower. It was so funny just to sit and watch people doing the obligatory photo of trying to push the tower back up! For our final evening we treated ourselves to a delicious three course meal and had a quiet night in the hostel.
The food, the people and the culture are fabulous and I loved every minute of our trip. I can't wait to plan the next one!
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