Italy - Rome, Florence, Bologna, San Marino and Venice

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They had a featured exhibition at that time. It was the re-vitalizing a painting of Da Vinci. They showed the process of cleaning the painting plus a analysis of the way Da Vinci made the painting. Very information and interesting.

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This was the last day we stayed in Firenze. Our dinner had to be Florence steak. We went to Trattoria Dall' Oste. This one is well rated by tourist and close to the train station. Food yummy and friendly atmosphere. Food portion is big, the smallest order for Florence steak is 1kg.

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Our next stop is Bologna. A quiet city. The old city area is a bit farther from the train station, but we still stay at a hotel close to the train station. This is because we will take an early train on the next day to San Marino. Besides, we did not want to walk a long with with large bags.

We chose this hotel based on review on internet. Most people said that the breakfast of this hotel was wonderful. In fact it was just a usually buffet breakfast in hotel, saying it a full breakfast merely because the usual breakfast in Italy is only coffee and bread.

Room is quite spacious and decent, not bad.

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After we checked in, we walked to the old city of Bologna, it took about 15 minutes but the route was not boring. The street we walked was like Nathan Road in HK, lots of shops. At the end of the street is the Piazza Maggiore (first picture), the old citycenter of Bologna.

We went to see the Fontana del Nettuno (Fountain of Neptune) but it was under repair. (second one)

The old palace, church and government office surrounds the Piazza. The third one is the palace.

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A few minutes walk further from the Piazza is the University of Bologna, some said that this was the first university of the world. We went to see the Teatro Anatomico, this place held the anatomy lesson in the old days.

The corridor to the theatre is well decorated with symbols and paintings.

Inside the theater, an Apollo statue at the ceiling to look down the table for dissection. All furnishes are wooden with some old scripts and books shown in a glass casing.

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There is a lecture room next to the Teatro Anatomico. Large with lots of book at the back of the lecture room.

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Two tower, the landmark of the old city of Bologna. You can go up the tower to see the city. The next one is the Basilica di Santo Stefano, a well preserved old church.

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We went to a sandwich shop in the evening, their sandwich and the place is rated No. 1 in Tripadvisor. We met the shop manager Luca and he is a very nice and friendly guy. He introduced to you all the interesting sightseeing place in Bologna, he would let you charge your phone, he told me that he would open his wifi for every day even the shop is closed, you can use his toilet, etc. etc.

He also wrote a note on his ipad about the tour spots in Bologna and would share it to anyone. The note is very comprehensive, with location, virtual tour and description. Based on that note, I found that there is a place named "Little Venice". That is a part of Bologna city having canal, and hence we decided to go and see.

Btw, the sandwich shop is called StreeTOAST.

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The next day we went to a state inside a state, San Marino. Italy before united is a place with a lot of tiny countries. San Marino is one of them and they do not unite with other and form the nowadays Italy. This is the fifth smallest countries in Europe, as far as I know. The full name is Republic of San Marino. It was establised in year 301, so they claim that they are the oldest republic country in the world.

To go to San Marino, beside driving direct, you have to go to Rimini first. There is a bus from Rimini to San Marino. Hence, we took an hour train from Bologna to Rimini, then go there by bus. After you cross the border of San Marino, you can take a cable car up the old city of San Marino. See the picture showing the cable car.

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After you arrived by bus, just walk up to the entrance of the old city St Francis Gate. San Marino has their own guard with full uniform. They will direct you to the gate. The city is a bit like Mont St Michel in France. It is a small city, neat and tidy, built on a hill top. You can enjoy a view looking down the country. The third picture shows the quarry that they used to build the city in the old days.