Bologna

We spent 2 days in this amazing Italian city in Emilia-Romagna. We stayed in an AirBnb room in a really nice apartment in the city.
The city is a university town, and the biggest city in the region of Emilia-Romagna.

I was truly amazed how nice the people dress up. Fashion in the good sense of the word. They match every single piece of item. And they know exactly how to do it in a stunning way. They even match their dogs. Or actually they match their clothes, hair styles, shoes and perfume to the dog they walk. Dog is an accessory. Interesting concept. I must admit, I've never thought of a pet this way.

The two main squares: Piazza Nettuno and Piazza Maggiore are built together, and surrounded by many palaces, and the Basilica of San Petronio.

Neptun, the god of freshwater and the sea

One of these palaces is what used to be the City Hall; Palazzo d'Accursio. The building, which is a museum today, located on the Piazza Maggiore dates back to the 14th century.

Palazzo d'Accursio

Besides that we went to see the City History Museum, the Tagliavini Musical Instrument Collection and were meandering a lot in the historical city center.

An ongoing concert in the Collezione Tagliavini

The food - oh the Food, or actually the FOOD is the best in Italy.
It begins with the best ingredients:

March 2014: Tuscany and London

My partner and myself decided to make a 10 day tour over Tuscany. Based in Berlin we can travel on a relatively low budget: the price (40 Euro each) for the flight from Berlin to Bologna didn't surprise us at all.

Our itinerary looked like this:

• Flight from Berlin to Bologna
• Bologna - 3 nights, including a day trip to San Marino
• Train from Bologna to Florence
• Florence - 5 nights, including day trips to Fiesole, Pistoia and San Gimignano.
• Train from Florence to Pisa
• Pisa - 3 nights including day trips to Livorno and Lucca
• Flight from Pisa to London
• London - 5 nights, we were meeting up family
• Flight from London to Berlin

Harz, Goslar, Wernigerode

Goslar:

Harz:

Die Brocken:

Wernigerode:

Oktoberfest

Amboise - Nantes - München

In the morning I checked out from the hotel, had a tea and a croissant in a local cafe, and drove to Nantes Atlantique Airport. As I got closer to the airport suddenly I noticed a huge bridge ahead of me. I even speak out something like "what the hell?!".

So I returned the car on the airport and took the Volotea cheap flight to München, Germany.

There I met Alex again to tour over the city and see the opening festivals and ceremony of the Oktoberfest.

Loire - day 4

On my last whole day in the Loire I've finally seen the town where I stayed and its chateau, among two others:

Château d'Amboise:

On my walk up to Luce I saw cave-houses:

Clos Lucé:
This was the house where Leonardo da Vinci got inspired on many interesting stuff. Many of these were manufactured and are exhibited in the house and its park:

Château de Chaumont:

Château de Chenonceau: