Monday 26th September 2011 – Revenna to Venice

First stop today was Bologna, famous for Bolognese sauce and Bologna (bolony) sausage aka mortadella.  Interestingly classic pasta dishes such as tortellini and lasagne were also invented here.  Downtown is quite fascinating, with lots of one-way streets and wide footpaths.  The footpaths are all covered with archways incorporated into the buildings on each side of the street.  This is one European city you could walk around in the rain without the need of an umbrella.

Amazing covered footpaths

... and amazing cobbled streets

We came to see the leaning towers (the Due Torri).  They are nowhere near as beautiful as Pisa but their history is fairly remarkable.  Two aristocratic families expressed their rivalry by competing to build the tallest tower in the city.  One of the towers is now only 48 metres having been shortened for safety reasons in the 14th century and is leaning more than 3 metres.  The other tower stands 97 metres high and leans more than a metre.  So much for foundations!

The Leaning Towers

Back on the road, we called into a service centre to have our lunch of crackers, salami, cheese and semi-dried tomatoes (the tomatoes we bought in Bologna and came from Australia of all places).  Unlike France, there are no roadside picnic places along the autostrada so the service centres are the only place to get off unless you exit completely to towns.

There are lots of trucks on the autostrada today.  It’s interesting how you get used to travelling at speed.  When we first picked up the car I was reluctant to travel at the 130 with everyone else.  Now we keep up with the crowd -  not everyone though, the trucks are obviously limited to something less than the 130 and there are those that ‘fly’ past at something much greater.

Tonight we are staying at the All Season Venezia-Marghera on the mainland from Venice.  As we arrived here around 3:30 we’ve had a nice restful afternoon.  Tomorrow we will catch a bus into Venice and explore.