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4 days in Northern Italy

4 days in Italy is not much, but we can guarantee you’ll manage to gain a few pounds and see some amazingly beautiful sights.

Day 1: Venice

Gondola under Ponte Rialto, Venice

Sights:
Fitbit showed 19000 steps in 7 hours. No cars allowed, so you have to discover Venice by foot (or waterbus/taxis/gondolas).
You’ll manage to see most sights in one day, but there’s enough to see if you want to dig down deeper in the Venetian culture and stay longer. 

Food:
We’re huge fans of Anthony Bourdain and following in his steps when searching for good places to eat on travels never fails. In Venice he went to Al Covo, a small restaurant in one of the back alleys not far from Piazza San Marco. Unfortunately it is closed on the Wednesday we were there. (Closed on Wednesday and Thursdays).

Instead we ended up paying for the location and not the food at a mediocre touristy restaurant with a view at Ponte Rialto. But hey, back alleys are everywhere, these beautiful and lively canals are only here. 

Day 2: Florence
20.000 steps.

Ponte Vecchio, Florence

Sights:

• Piazza della Signoria and Palazzo Vecchio
• Il Duomo - Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore
• Ponte Vecchio
• Galleria degli Uffizi
• Santa Croce 

Food:
Lampredotto is a typical Florentine dish, made from the fourth and final stomach of a cow. It is cooked in water along with tomato, onion, parsley and celery, and then seasoned.
 

Florentine Steak
A favorite of Tuscan cuisine, bistecca alla fiorentina ‘beefsteak Florentine style’ consists of a T-bone or porterhouse steak grilled over a wood or charcoal fire, and seasoned with salt and, sometimes, black pepper, and (strictly after the steak is retired from the fire) olive oil. Bistecca is invariably served very rare, but it’s incredible tender and by far the best steak we’ve ever had ( Trattoria Dai Coco Filippo)

Day 3: Siena
10000 steps (lot of train sitting)

Visiting Siena was not in our plans, but the temptation to squeeze in one more city during our short stay in Italy grew too big. We jumped on an early morning train from Florence and got to experience a beautiful day in Siena before heading to Bologna. 

Sights:
Walk and eat

Food:
Wild Boar is Italy’s favourite game meat and Tuscan wild boar is renowned all around the world for its taste and quality. It has a deliciously mild savoury flavour, perfectly balanced with a hint of nuts with a relatively soft texture.

 
Day 4: Bologna 
 150000 steps. (Mostly sitting and eating).

Vegetable market, Bologna

Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history, art, cuisine, music, and culture. It is the seventh largest city in terms of population in Italy.

Sights: 

• Piazza Maggiore
• Basilica of San Petronio
• Asinelli’s Tower
• The Pinacoteca Nazionale
   

Food:
Bolognese sauce is a meat-based sauce for pasta originating from Bologna, Italy. It is customarily used to dress tagliatelle and may also be used to prepare “lasagne alla bolognese”. In Bologna, ragù alla bolognese is known simply as ragù.

Pasta Bolognese, Bologna

(Don’t know what it says, but seems a little odd to place a photo of a cute piglet in a pile of ham, don’t you think?)

Travel tip:
Multiple times we came to closed doors, because it was closed for the day, siesta time, too late, out of food etc, so lesson learned is to get out early and check opening hours if you have a specific restaurant in mind.

And of course don’t forget to fill up on gelato in between all this walking and eating.

- Cathrine / Team Jetpac

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