Monday started with the Bernina Express train from Chur, Switzerland to Tirano, Italy. Our interrail passes cover the standard 2nd class travel, there was an option to pay for a seat in a Panoramic carriage, but we decided that 2nd class would be OK, and as we boarded the train we were glad we made that choice as the panoramic carriages were really busy. We had hardly anyone else in our carriage, and it had massive windows.
The journey goes through the Mountains, beautiful scenery, lots of tunnels and bridges. The train line is an amazing piece of engineering. Winding it’s way up, through and over the Alps.
From Tirano, we joined the “normal” railway service heading to Milan. As we had previously been to Milan (Some 20 yrs ago ??!) we decided to head straight to Parma, as in the ham. Boy what ham they had!
We spend 2 nights in an AirBnB in Parma, a tiny basement flat, which had everything we needed. Unfortunately the house next door was being renovated, so there was a bit of building noise, but as we were out all day, it was no problem.
On Tuesday after a morning of wandering, we had lunch at Ombré Rosse, walked in to a completely empty bar, not even staff to be seen, Nic stuck her head into the kitchen and said “hello”, the owner came out, apologised that they only had half the restaurant open at lunch time, so walked us out of the building via the back of the bar, outside around the corner and back in another door, a lovely meal, great friendly staff!
Wednesday, we walked to Parma cathedral, amazing frescoes, back to the apartment to collect our bags, and headed back to the train station for a train to Modena. We had been “arguing” about the pronunciation of “Modena” was it Mo’dena” or “”Mod’enna” it turns out the locals call it “Mod’ena”.
Our accommodation was another AirBnB close to the city centre, no cooking facilities this time, but they did provide a breakfast voucher for the local cafe, which was a nice touch. The AirBnB host recommended a couple of restaurants, so we tried both of them, and they were very good.
We did lots of walking around Modena, it was not a big historic centre, but was interesting.
Friday, we left Modena on a train to Bologna, we had 3 hrs in Bologna before our next train, so we dumped the bags at the station left luggage office, at a cost of 12 euros, and headed in to the historic centre of Bologna, a beautiful city, with lots of covered walkways, and the usual smattering of churches. A really interesting 3hrs, not long enough really, but we had to move on, so a train to Florence, via Parto.
We spend the rest of the Easter weekend in Florence, again walking lots, but we started on Saturday morning at the Galileo museum, which was really well done, showing Galileo’s work but also other scientific and astronomic devices, including an Arabic astrolabe (which predicts the movement of stars and planets) from the 10th century – 1,000 years ago, amazing!!
Many exhibits had been collected by the Medici family. Including celestial and terrestrial globes dating back to the 16 century.
We then had a walk over the Ponte Vecchio (bridge), via lots of churches and cathedrals, up to a viewing point over the city. There were wedding photos being taken and a proposal of marriage. The cafe did a surprisingly good and reasonably priced sandwich. The afternoon included the first gelato in Italy so far, it was well worth waiting for.
The weekend continued with more lovely food, this is Italy after all, including an Italian Chinese fusion restaurant, one of the best “Chinese” meals we have ever eaten. Sunday lunch was in a restaurant recommended by an American couple we sat next to in Modena, they had eaten there the night before, and on a previous occasion. It turned out to be a very good recommendation!
Sunday morning we attended the “explosion of the cart” outside the cathedral, an Easter tradition since the 15 Century, where they explode a large cart with fireworks, but it has its origins in the first crusade, when a Florence noblemen was the first man over the walls of Jerusalem, and was rewarded with three flints from the walls of the church of the holy Sepulchre, which are now used to start the fire. The fire is then sent by the bishop from inside the cathedral, in a fake dove on a wire, to set off the fireworks. Yes really! A sight to be seen. Lots of pomp and ceremony, and lots of people, many of whom were watching on their mobile phones, held above their heads!
Travurple 