Delayed from 23rd August…………I felt pretty sad to wave mum goodbye as she overtook us on the motorway making her way down to the French coast….but careering to 30 years old and being married means I had to snap out of it pretty quickly! We headed south past Milan and towards Parma. We turned off the motorway (Autostrada) and took the winding back-roads towards the capital of cured meat and cheese. On route we passed dozens of farms advertising ‘Parmagano di Regano’ which were all sadly enjoying a siesta – but informed us that their products were all served in local establishments.

The landscape suddenly changed to rolling hills, crop growing fields and little cottages lining the road side – very pretty indeed. We found our campsite, just outside Parma, and made the most of the pool to cool us down as temperatures were creeping up to 40Deg. We walked down the hill into town and ordered two glasses of prosecco. I think I have neglected to mention so far the brilliance of bars in Italy (although not the abundance we have visited!). When you order a drink you automatically are provided with some sort of snack to accompany it. In some places this is a bowl of crisps but in others such as this bar you are provided with a plate of the local delicacy, in this case Parma ham. This bar was nothing special, in fact actually a little bit of a run down place left over from a 70’s tourist boom, but the prosecco was absolutely delicious and the plate of local meat and cheese outstanding. Another black mark on UK living – when would this happen in England especially for free – and all drinks and food here are always locally sourced! We ordered a second round and received another plate of food no questions asked!

I digress….we returned to the campsite and had a suprisingly good and cheap dinner in the campsite – which, to be honest, was a bit of strange and fly infested place. Although possibly the second funnies thing I have ever seen occurred while we were at the pool. An Italian lethario in unforgiveingly tight speedos spent the best part of half an hour reenacting all the scenes from Titanic with his girlfriend in the pool…he then lept out and proceeded to do press ups at the side of the pool. With each dip he was rewarded with a kiss from his girlfriend who was still in the pool….press-up….kiss…press-up…kiss….!we were not quite sure where to look or how to hide our hysterics. We also wondered if this was how we should be acting as honeymooners rather than dunking each other under the water and splashing each other in the face…..although preferably without the speedos!!!

We awoke to a slightly cooler morning and got back on the road enjoying the splendor of the landscape on route to Bologna.

I think I already sound like I am moaning in this post….I assure you I am not but….Bologna was a bit of a letdown. This is highly likely to be partly the fault of all the the stunning cities Italy had bombarded us with in the recent weeks…Bologna had tough competition. Essentially while the historical centre has some pretty buildings and sweet alley ways….there just isn’t all that much there to see. It’s a popular university town and I think as we were there during the holidays it was maybe a little quiet….but also was the first city we had visited where we felt a little bit weary and not 100% safe. We were, as a whole a little bit disappointed.

We did however, sample a pretty fabulous spaghetti ragu/bolognese in the evening which was so delicious we almost entirely forgot about a day in it’s name sakes slightly disappointing city and vowed never to leave!

One thing Bologna did have was about the 17th statue of Garibaldi we have seen so far in Nothern Italy….if its not a statue then it’s a Piazza or a building in his name…Apparently he is considered to be the man responsible for unifying Italy…although (according to hurried Wikipedia search) he seems to have spent most of his life in South America…..?!? I wonder what he did to us that we forgone any important monuments in preference of a biscuit?!

Ps – had some camera battery issues so apologies for poor level of photos!