This day would take us on a high-speed train trip to Bologna, where we pick up a rental car and drive to our rented farmhouse in Lerchi, Umbria. Looks like it will be a blue sky day, so we will have a chance to see a little bit of Venice in the sunshine.
Venetians going about their day, going to school, going to work...
we go to breakfast...typical Italian breakfast must include some sweet pastries...
One last look at our terrific hotel room....we booked and cancelled several other hotels before we settled on this one. Canals in all directions, a tre ponti corner (there's actually 4 bridges), easy access to Piazzale Roma for bus and vaporetto stations, and close to the train station, good breakfast included, and a very friendly and helpful front desk. If you are ever in Venice, we highly recommend the Hotel Arlecchino (Harlequin Hotel).
(photo courtesy Google Streetview)
Our train is scheduled to leave at 1015am so we have time for one more vaporetto ride, this time to the Rialto stop to visit the Mercato del Pesce.
the detail in Venetian architecture...
gondolas ready for today's tourists...upwards of 50,000 on some days they say...
the view from the Ponte...
and venture into the fish market....there has been a market in operation here for almost 1,000 years...fortunately the fish looks fresher than that...
and the famous black squid...the ink is considered a delicacy in pasta or risotto...we didn't try it...
tuna..now we're talking!
Time to get to the train station, so back onto the vaporetto to the Ferrovia stop....a few sights along the way...
Chiesa di San Geremia, the bell tower built in the 12th century though the church itself dates to the 1700s....
Chiesa di Santa Maria di Nazareth, from the mid-1600s...
the Chiesa di San Simeon Piccolo....with what I think is clean hotel linen, the bags colour-coded by hotel...
and under a perfectly blue sky, like the others here, it's time to leave wonderful Venice...
and board the train to Bologna....
Arrivederci, Venezia...
ciao Bologna....
After picking up our rental car at Europcar near the Bologna Central train station, and taking a few wrong turns getting away from the city traffic, we head towards Lerchi, in Umbria. We prefer to drive on quiet country roads than major highways so we can enjoy the Italian countryside, with little high-speed driving stress, and take the time to stop along the way and enjoy the journey.
First we head to Imola, where Ferrari has its home Formula One race track - shown as Curva Tosa on the map below. We'd hoped there might be some race cars on the track but it was quiet. Only later did we learn that we could have driven further down the road we stopped on and would have seen the Gilles Villeneuve memorial...
(photo courtesy Google Streetview)
From there we drove through the Apenine Mountains rather than the along the flatter land closer to the Adriatic coast. We knew there might be a twist or two in the road...
Yep, a twist or two, especially approaching Brisighella (bottom right)....
where we stop for lunch at Piadina di Passagio...a piadini or piadina is a thin flatbread typical of this region of Italy - Emilia-Romagna...there is a railway station nearby ergo Piadina di Passagio...
(courtesy Google Streetview)
In this Google Streetview photo, you can see a bit of a castle behind the trees (in the yellow circle)...
there's the castle...
back on the road....a twist or two out of Tredozio at the top right, on the way to San Benedetto di Alpe...
and what a twist looks like from the car...with the navigator having an ah-ha moment....
sure enough, a twist or two in the road between Londa and Stia too..now in eastern Tuscany...
some wonderful Tuscan scenery along the way...
and finally the road straightens out - a bit - as we drop into the Tiber River valley into Anghiari in Umbria...with only a few more miles to go...
Those twisty roads have taken their toll, we are tired and it's dark by the time we arrive at our rented farmhouse. It's a late and quick supper at - of all places - a McDonalds, to end a long day of travel. But we've seen parts of 4 Italian regions on this day - Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, & Umbria.
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