We decided to book a walking tour of the historical center of Bologna to get our bearings and learn some history. It was maybe the worst tour I’ve ever been on, to the point of hilarity, but we did get to spend a couple of hours in the sunshine walking around the gastronomy capital of Italy. One of the selling points of the tour was the famous Basilica of San Petronio; unfortunately the tour guide didn’t get us there until it was closing for lunch. Perhaps we will go on our own tomorrow! About 2/3 of the way through the tour we passed by our apartment and Phineas escaped, taking the headset and audio thing with him. We had to sheepishly return it later in the the afternoon. We weren’t alone in our shock at how bad the tour was. 11 minutes after the tour was scheduled to end, the guide was still touring us around with no sign of stopping. Luckily one brave attendee saved us by saying she had to get somewhere; everyone else eagerly took that opportunity and ripped their headsets off to also end the tour as quickly as possible before she could resume. As soon as the guide walked away the several of the other attendees starting the debrief of how bizarrely terrible the tour was. We didn’t end up joining, but one of the families offered for all of us to meet at the Bascilica later that afternoon to try to tour on our own.

After the tour we were hungry and found a sandwich shop for lunch. It was incredible. Mortadella is one of the specialties of Bologna, also know as “fat city”. It’s essentially baloney, but much better somehow. I had a mortadella sandwich on freshly made bread with an artichoke spread. Jake had a sandwich of ham with a tomato and onion chutney. Penelope had fresh bread with Nutella (anyone surprised?), and Phineas had a side of meatballs in red sauce with bread. Perfect. We did learn one cool fact about tortellini on the walking tour: Bologna specializes in little tortellini made with mortadella, other meat, and parmesan. According to our guide, the inspiration for tortellini was the navel of a beautiful woman. There was also something about looking through a keyhole that we didn’t fully understand. The kids found the legend a little weird and creepy, especially when the guide was pointing at Penelope’s belly button as she told it.

Penelope has been wanting to shop, so after dropping Phineas back at the apartment we wandered out. The biggest shopping score was a pair of new glasses for Penelope. We found a shop that made them in 20 minutes! With Penelope’s sight restored and full bellies after an amazing dinner we all went to bed and slept a solid 8-10 hours. Finally well rested and fully acclimated, we are ready for the next adventure in Bologna