We ended up on a long weekend trip to Bologna and Florence in August after many hours of going through possible hut to hut hiking trips and still unable to decide.
Bologna is a chill and cute town 6.5 hours by train from Basel. If you can’t handle heat very well, I would not recommend to go there in the peak of summer. Considering the weather expectations, we were pleasantly surprised and glad with the trip.
The city center of Bologna is mostly adorned by porticos covering sidewalks. Under the porticos, the heat becomes very tolerable. We also took a habit of retreating to our hotel between lunch and dinner to rest and freshen up. That’s how we survived without getting a heatstroke.
There is more than enough food choices and as Bologna is less popular than it’s neighboring Milan and Florence, it is not bombarded by a sea of tourists yet and the explosion of places encouraging consumerism which comes with it.
Mortadella is one of the main products of the city, so we ate it 3 out of the 4 days of the trip. It was literally everywhere. Some shops offer aperol spritz by the Liter which is a good deal if you ignore the impact of alcohol to the body. I ignored this myself and had a glass.
Needless to say we had gelato every day. I couldn’t tell the difference in portions between small and medium, so I just ask for small and pay a few cents less.
Back to Bologna, thanks to the porticos, it’s a very walkable city. They even close the main street to cars on weekends, which makes an even cooler atmosphere. I also liked the narrow colorful streets around the historical center. Piazza Santo Stefano is a quiet spot to hang out and enjoy an aperitivo. During our trip, there was an open-air cinema viewing for free for weeks at the main piazza every evening. Take that Allianz Cinema.
As sweaty as it was, my favorite part was walking the 3 hour return trip from the city center to Santuario della Madonna di San Luca, again mostly under porticos.
Florence is a 45-minute train ride from Bologna, so naturaly, it was squeezed in the trip. My first thought upon arriving to Florence is that I’m very glad we stayed at Bologna. Yes, the Cattedralle di Santa Maria del Fiore is an impressive Gothic building. However Florence is definitely a victim of it’s own popularity with so much shops than I think is necessary to cater the swarm of tourists.
We made the most of the trip by passing by the main attractions, walking to a park to get a view of the city and finishing off with pizza and prosecco. 4 hours after, we were on our way back to Bologna.
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