2017 day 19 (20th September - Bologna)

A fabulous and memorable day today. Our last day in Bologna so we finished on a high note - not that there was anything wrong with the other days at all. This is a city we can absolutely recommend to anyone considering coming to Italy. It is unique and has just so much to offer.

Today was our cooking class day. It turned out to be so much more than that though. After meeting us outside the hotel after breakfast, our cooking instructor Rita took us on a walk around town and explained how Bologna has ended up with the incredible food that it is celebrated for. It was the Roman crossroads for Nth Europe, the East and Africa so has drawn food traditions from all those areas and more as well as being a centre of trade from the Americas when they were discovered.

We visited the food market Street which was full of sights and sounds and smells we've never experienced before. Here we purchased meat and fruit and late wine for our lunch - thankfully Rita was doing the buying.

More wine tasting on the way to her place and then we entered her beautiful villas in the central part of town - typical villa type of residence with roof garden, courtyards etc - really beautiful place to live.

And so to the cooking class. We mixed the ingredients for pasta and rolled it into balls to rest. Then to the kitchen to make the bolognaise sauce as well as quiche and .......wait for it - Tiramasu! So much to remember but she is going to send us the recipes etc.

We then learnt how to fold the pasta into tortellini and torteloni and then fold and cut for tagliatelle-  boy are we experts - until we get home and try to do all ourselves. Rita is quite renowned in Italy and takes classes all over the world so we were learning from the very best and it showed in her teaching.

All that then got cooked and we sat down for the great Tasting!  Needless to say it was all just beautiful. Wine with each course and some magnificent cheeses just to make it even better. It was a fabulous experience and we actually stayed until well after 4.30 and then she told us that it is usually over by 3! Probably because we're slow learners but she was kind enough to say she was just enjoying herself.

Needed to walk so called into the old civic building in the Piazza which is now a library and if you go down to the basement you can walk amongst the old Roman foundations. Amazing -they date back 2 centuries b.c.

No need for dinner tonight. Off to Switzerland by train first thing in the morning so early night is planned.