Tales from Italy - Part 1 - Red Bologna and stylish Milan in March

I will start this story by admitting that I am very afraid of flying, but I want to travel so much that I make every effort to overcome this fear. The truth is that after the first flight /it was 2011 and I was traveling alone to Vienna/ I really liked the feeling of flying by plane. But after a few years, during a flight from Lisbon to Bucharest, for the first time I felt turbulence and extremely unpleasant gusts of wind. Since then, the fear has been great and I have not yet found salvation. The truth is that for this trip I even enrolled in an online course led by the famous #lufthansa pilot #MarioBakalov. During the lectures I really learned an awful lot about airplanes, the most important thing was what caused the turbulence and that it is really not a cause for fear that something feels wrong with the airplane. The knowledge helps me to some extent, but I still have anxiety before flying on a plane, but to overcome it, I am determined to get on planes more often and even alone.

But let's start with the story of this wonderful trip in even more wonderful Italy.

We chose the destinations at convenient times with departure on Friday evening and return on Monday afternoon, which was an official holiday. I didn't want to waste a second of the long weekend.

Our flight to Italy left at 9pm and was to beautiful Bologna.

Arriving at 22:30 at Bologna airport, I already knew that the price for a taxi or fast train to the city center for two people would be the same and for this reason I chose to use a taxi that would drop us off directly in front of the hotel. Still, we didn't know the city and it was easier and safer.

After a whole day of work, rushing to the airport, hanging around the airport, the fear on the plane and everything else ... as soon as we checked into the hotel, we immediately headed to the beds and with all the tiredness fell asleep immediately. Luckily we slept well and had an early morning walk in a rainy Bologna, but luckily it wasn't cold. We had a little time before our train to Milan and I would say it was quite enough for us to tour the most central part of the city.

One of the important distinctive features of the city. Bologna is the numerous arches that are part of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage. They were literally everywhere and thanks to them we were able to explore the city relatively dry, even though it rained the entire walk, and at times quite heavily.

According to tourist guides, there are about 38 km of arches in the historic center of Bologna alone. Impressive, right?

Another distinctive feature of the city of Bologna are the buildings in different shades of red and orange. Italians often call the city "Red Bologna".

The city has a special charm and I would say that I liked it very much. It is small, neat and has a special romantic spirit.

While researching on the Internet the options for walking in Bologna, I unexpectedly discovered that the city has a serious network of canals. The most famous of them is located on st. Piella which was on my must visit list. Unfortunately it was a disappointment for us. We expected at the end of winter that the canal would be full, but it turned out that there was almost no water.

Another interesting fact about Bologna is that it is from this city that the "Pasta Bolognese" so popular all over the world comes. While we Bulgarians most often eat Spaghetti Bolognese, for Italians it is a pure insult. For them, only tagliatelle is served with Bolognese sauce.As we know, Italians have strict rules in the world of food and drink, which they follow extremely strictly and even insult foreigners if they make a mistake. I know that one of the important rules for Italians is that cappuccino is only drunk until 11 in the morning. In Rome, in a cafe, I tried to order coffee with milk and it was elegantly explained to me that there was no such thing in Italy, in Italy there is only "latte macchiato". I personally am amused by these unwritten but vigilantly enforced laws and I don't mind obeying them.

Walking, we quickly reached the largest cathedral in the city, the Basilica of San Petronio, whose history is quite interesting.

The structure of the basilica was built as early as 1390, but it was never fully completed. According to the information transmitted over the years, the Cathedral remained unlined, as it was planned to be larger than the Cathedral of St. Peter in the Vatican. Something that Pope Pius 4 forbade.

I personally found the story quite interesting, but I'm not a historian to tell it, so I'm attaching a link to it - https://seen.bg/web/article/2-kade/2646-tuhlite-na-san-petronio . 

I personally find her very interesting and beautiful. My building looks modern, never mind that it was built so long ago.

Something that struck us and we liked is that many of the gates of the buildings in Bologna have exquisite and ornate handles and ornaments. Something that is seen in many Italian cities, but here it was especially prevalent.

I may be afraid of airplanes, but they amaze me, I get excited and read everything related to them with interest. But far more interesting to me are far safer according to my brain's setup - trains. I had pre-booked a trip on one of the fast trains in Northern Italy on the Bologna - Milan section.

The distance between the two cities is about 230 km, but by train we covered it exactly in 1 hour and 6 minutes without a second delay compared to the schedule, which according to Bulgarian train standards is downright magic.

Milan Central Station was one of the things about this city that impressed me the most. Regardless of the huge crowd of people, the opulence and the facade and the sheer size were incredibly interesting. The building is amazing.

This is the Milan Central Station building /or at least the part that my phone camera was able to capture in one shot/ from the outside.

Since it was more than 1 hour until the check-in time at the hotel, we decided to get there on foot, walking in a slightly rainy Milan and exploring around us.

I cannot deny that there were many interesting buildings, but in my opinion they were far inferior in splendor and beauty to those in Rome, which we visited in the month of May 2023.

We quickly freshened up at the hotel and went for a walk in the most central area of ​​Milan.

On our way we liked a small restaurant that seemed like it would offer us the authentic cuisine we were really looking for.

This lovely flower booth was right across from our table and to our delight we dined with a charming view. I am amazed at how well the Italians arrange their stands.

I'm sure most of you know what the fruit and vegetable stalls in Italy look like...they look like art.

But let's get down to business! What is Italy without delicious food?

I confess that I am not a fan of pasta, at home I love fusilli with cheese and no amount of exaggerated sauces can impress me. But in Italy, the taste of each type of pasta and each of the hundreds of different sauces is different, impressive and makes me fall in love with even the most basic dish!

I don't know what is the reason for the different taste, but certainly the Italians care much more than the Bulgarians about quality ingredients, and it is unlikely that this is the reason for the huge difference in taste.

After a hearty and delicious lunch, we headed to the most famous and key place in Milan - the square with the iconic Duomo di Milano and Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, which is considered one of the "ancient" malls in Europe, but is actually quite an impressive and diverse place to shop and eat.

Saturday afternoon was a stampede to say the least and so one of the evenings we returned to this place and in the dark, but still well lit, we were able to see it in all its splendor without the huge crowd of people.

We quickly entered the cathedral itself. It is truly breathtaking. Its scale is incredible, and despite the many people in it, somehow there was a calm inside that I can't describe.

След посещението на катедрала се отправихме към замъка "Сфорцеско" и парка "Семпионе", но за съжаление валеше много силно дъжд и не можахме да им се насладим напълно.

Completely soaked, we reached the end of Sempione Park, where the Arch of Peace is located, which is supposed to resemble the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, which I have yet to see. There is a similar arch in the city of Bucharest.

The heavy rain shortened our evening walk a bit, but anyway we were already tired and headed to the hotel.

I had read and heard so much about Milan that I seemed to have formed an unrealistic image of the place. It is also possible that the rain spoiled my sense of the city, but Rome certainly impressed me much more. I am not sure if I want to return to Milan again, or rather I would use it as a convenient starting point for walking to the Italian and Swiss lakes and other interesting places in the area, which are easy, convenient and fast to reach by train.

I have visited few cities in Italy - Palermo, Cefalù, Caltanissetta, Rome, Bologna, Milan, Verona, Bergamo and Trieste.

And which is my favorite city out of all the ones visited, you will find out in the second part, in which I tell about the rest of this trip.


Expect it in the coming days!