Hello! This post will be about two locations that we have visited on one of our summer holidays - but both of them were very short visits, so I don't expect to be able to do them justice. Instead, this is a quick tease of what you can find in both cities, as well as a very shallow opinion.
The two cities in question were Milan and Bologna - both in different parts of the same country, Italy. We spent a full day in Bologna, which I believe was enough, but only had a few hours in Milan before we had to leave to get to our accommodation for that night in Bergamo. All in all, both of the cities had their ups and downs, but I'll get to that later in the post!
Bologna
Bologna was.. Likely our most challenging travel experience. It was a mix of our own awful mistakes, as well as the city just not wanting to help us feel welcome.. Although it also did not want to let us go. Let's dissect what happened first, and then I'll move on to describing the actual place!
First of all, we went to Bologna in the summer. Do not go to Bologna in the summer if you want to have a good time. I cannot stress this enough. The city is built on top of canals and it feels extremely hot even when it's just warm. We did not think about it and ended up walking around the city with backpacks on - we love exploring after all. It was not enjoyable.
On top of that, Bologna did not want to let us leave. We tried to buy a train ticket, but machines on the station did not work, while there was no way to buy tickets with a credit card at the station anywhere else. We do not normally carry cash around with us in Europe, because even in the east we haven't had trouble paying in cities.. But here we should've prepared better, I guess. It took us slightly over an hour to find a working ATM, as apparently fixing broken ones isn't a thing in there, but we did finally make it out!
So, how is Bologna as a city? Well, it depends what expectations you come in with! It has some enjoyable sights, it even has a leaning tower that leans more than the one in Pisa! Overall, however, it isn't exactly a tourist city - it is good for a day trip for sure, but I would not recommend it for a whole weekend or even longer. So what is there to see?
There's this fountain, with some great architecture in the background!
The unfinished church of Bologna - one of the largest in the world!
The leaning tower of Bologna.
Luckily Bologna is built in a way where you can hide from the sun while walking under these arcs. This was our only saving grace!
Milan
So Bologna was a bit of a disaster for us; how did Milan go? Well, at first we had a pretty bad impression - the surroundings of the central train station were really dirty and it was not so pleasant to walk around. That said, when we got tot he city itself, we definitely changed our mind; it got much better! Frankly, I am really sad that we only got a few hours in Milan - we managed to walk the long shopways and got to the square which houses the famed cathedral of Milan.
The cathedral does not disappoint at all. It is grand from afar and from upclose; in real life and on photos. The problem is.. That is all we had time for. We saw it from the outside, from the inside, and then had to leave. That is quite sad and I hope to be able to come back to Milan and see more of it. With that, here are some pictures of the cathedral:
Well.. Us and the cathedral.
A little from the side.
The square the cathedral is on.
Glimpse of the inside.. It's HUUUUUGE.
Closing Words
Overall, our visits to Milan and Bologna were full of one thing - lack of time. We visited them both not because we wanted to explore, but because we needed to use the airports to transition to elsewhere. Due to this, especially in Milan, we had way less time than we'd wish to have. I definitely want to go back to Milan once again to see how much more there is to see. As for Bologna.. I've seen my share and I think I'll skip the revisit, even though I know I would like it better the second time around!