#14

^this. It’s also worth booking your slot in advance if you visit the Uffizi as the queues can be horrendous. I’m sure you can still do this, though it was aaaages ago when we went.

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#15

Ah okay - they were mainly cooking meat and fish on this programme. (NB - as an aside, do you find that cookery programmes tend to major on meat/fish dishes? I’m trying to remember the last time I saw a cookery show - other than a specifically vegetarian one - that featured a vegetarian dish).

#16

You could watch the start of Stage 11 of Giro d’Italia (17 May).

#17

Don’t bother trying to rent anything there, there’s nothing available.

#18

yeah Lucca is really nice.

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#20

that’s why I was there. we went on an orchestra tour and stayed in tuscany and played a really nice open air concert in Lucca, with bar crawl afterwards. fantastic place.

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#21

Don’t get me wrong, there’s still lots of lovely food here to try in Bologna. Hopefully they touched on aperitivi, which is a big cultural thing here. Basically you pay a few euros for a drink around 7pm-ish and get to help yourself to tonnes of food. The bars all try to outdo each other so it’s just a really nice social/cultural thing to do.

Italian food tends to be very regional - so you’ll find most restaurants in any given area will have a lot of very similar traditional dishes. In Bologna that is dominated by meat dishes, obviously Spag (Tag) Bol but also lots of tortellini filled with pork or chicken. In the South you seem to get a lot more vegetarian dishes which is just because of historical poverty.

#22

yeah lucca is really lovely

#23

Cinque Terre is really beautiful, but jam packed with American tourists. One of their main brands of guide books recommends it as one of the top places in Italy.

I second Lucca- olive oil is their big thing there too

Pisa is good for a day trip- have flown via Pisa many times. The Leaning Tower is even weirder when you see it in real life, it’s just in the middle of this big lawn in the town centre.

Pistoia is very pretty too. https://www.discovertuscany.com/pistoia/

Beans are their local thing in Tuscany. Lots of soups.

#24

Also my favourite thing in Florence for the ridiculous grotto.

https://www.visitflorence.com/florence-museums/boboli-gardens.html

#25

The American Cinque Terre thing is so weird - have regularly met US tourists seemingly doing Italy in 3 days: 1 day in Rome, 1 in Florence, 1 in Cinque Terre.

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#26

Hopefully they’re playing outside because I’d hate for Kasabian to damage any medieval buildings.

#27

Turns out it wasn’t an earthquake at all, just a Kasabian gig

#28

Yeah it’s really weird. I guess someone recommended it way back in the past, and now it’s the Place You Must Go.

Remember seeing a whole coach party of rich older ladies from somewhere in the Deep South in Sorrento in Campagnia. They were all dressed up to the nines in Chanel suits and the like, but someone had clearly told them they needed special walking shoes, so they were all wearing giant white puffy trainers too.

#29

Are they gonna sue some scientists for not accurately predicting Kasabian’s arrival too?

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#30

ha ha. Maybe they’d called in at one of those designer outlet warehouse places but kept their trainers on for the walking.

American tourists are always comedically badly dressed, all cargo shorts, huge white trainers, baseball caps and cheap t-shirts.

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#31

Practically spitting on the idea of la bella figura.

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#33

Most has been covered. If you’re confident I’d say a car is definitely preferable with the freedom it affords, but obviously finding parking in some places is ballache.

+1 to don’t bother with Pisa / if you’re over that way you can do the tower in a morning and then get the fuck out.

I stayed in a beautiful converted castle/vineyard near Gaiole called Castello Di Tornano, but there was Castello Di Ama and Castello Di Meleto which were both bigger and nice to get a look around (Meleto especially) should you decide to venture a little in to the Chianti region. Beautiful, breathtaking scenery in the area as well, kept pulling over to just stop and enjoy the views.

#34

Also:

If you don’t have wide/big feet, Italy is a great place to buy shoes.

#35

Wow, way to rub it in.