So we’d finally reached the time to head off, Bologna was the destination as we nervously pulled into a Heathrow car park at 1am. Our flight was at 7:30am but we hoped we could sleep for a couple of hours in the car before getting the bus to the terminal. As it was Linda slept a little, me not really. I guess it was the excitement and nerves all at once, it was 18 years since my last flight abroad and 2012 since I’d been to Paris on the ferry and driven down, quite a while. Linda had been abroad in 2018, but we were ready. We got the bus around 4.20am into the terminal for 4.45am, found a place to sit and waited a bit before checking cases in, bimbling through security and picking up some drinks. The flight overall was good and we landed on time to that temperature you experience when you head through the plane door into the terminal! We grabbed a bus which we thought took us to near our apartment, only for it to loop around the hospital and head back towards the airport. We jumped off and walked the rest. By this point we were tiring fast but the walk had given us a flavour of our area and a shop to gather food, the owner of the apartment had messaged to say we could check in early if we wanted, so we took advantage and dropped our bags, before heading out again for food. Soon back in the apartment I slept for 2 hours and woke for tea. At this point it was around 7.30pm, so we did what everyone does and headed out “to get our bearings”. Truth be told with today’s tech, maps, street view, listed bars, restaurants, shops and everything else in between, we knew roughly were things were, but we headed off anyway. We stood staring at old gates, the original entry to the towns, churches, ornate buildings and walked along lovely streets, gathering in the feeling of Italy. Restaurants bustled, even on a Wednesday, scooters scooted, music played from bars, people were out. We walked streets and found our way to the main square, staring at the palazzo and the cathedral, sitting for a while on the steps taking it in. We found a life saver in a water drinking fountain, these would be hugely important across the holiday, before picking up the Via San Felice, which would take us back. We stopped in a bar, truth be told, the one place I’d seen on Google maps! We settled down and enjoyed an hour chatting to the owner, Linda even tried to convince him to extend his gin collect to one she liked called Glaswegin! We headed back, stumbling upon a gift. A late night bakery, open 9.30pm until 1.30pm the next afternoon, the strange opening hours were perfect for us, through the 6 nights in Bologna we picked up stuff for breakfast all bar one night, lets just stay we would bleed pistachio cream by the end of our stay! Time for bed, shattered but knowing we would love this city.