#bolzono

On Thursday we made the journey to Bolzano and ate lunch at Il Corso - our best pizza of the trip! Then, we wnt to Loacker Weingut, a family-owned winery with a tasting room that overlooks the vineyard, the rolling hills, and Bolzano itself. We ended up with a private tasting and free roam of the vineyard, and we used it to frolic.

We popped back into Bolzano for some gelato but it was so hot that it was melting faster than we could lick it. Then we hit the road to make it back in time for, of course, a round of spades. Casey went nil and I picked up 10 tricks to save her anddddd WE DID IT. The boys were so far behind that they tried a blind nil to catch up but just ended up digging themselves deeper. Gals for the win!!!

On Friday morning we said see ya later to the beautiful Dolomites and started our trip to Bologna. We decided to stop in Padua, just outside of Venice. We got noods at Miscusi and really enjoyed them with our 3 liters of frizzante.

Then we went to the world's OLDEST botanic garden. Unfortunately, oldest does not mean best. It was nice, but everything looked like it was in need of water. Finally we were in Bologna, where we met up with Maya, Daniel's sister. We went out to Trattoria Bertozzi for a lovely, fun dinner. The waiters had great banter, Daniel got porked, and I tried Bologna Bolognese. Gelato for dessert, of course.

For our last full day, we walked around Bologna and got lunch at Al Sangiovese, where I had the best truffle risotto of my life (possibly the only...). Then it was time to get ready for our cooking class with Luigi. We made bolognese, linguine, tortelloni (+ 3 tortellini for us adventurous gals), arugula salad, and tiramisu, all from scratch. It was wonderful and fun - we learned a bit about Bolognese culture and a lot about cooking.

On our walk home from the cooking class (carb comas setting in), we passed a church mid-concert with Italians spilling out onto the steps, wine in hand, just vibing on a summer night. We stopped and had a moment. Then we wandered into Piazza Maggiore and it turned out we'd crashed Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna's outdoor silent film festival, right as it began! A MASSIVE crowd, a full live orchestra, and a black-and-white silent film playing on a screen the size of a building. No ticket, no plan, just perfect timing. The next morning we all went our separate ways and said goodbye to Bologna! I went back to Denver, Casey and Reed went back to London, and Daniel and Maya headed to Florence and Rome.