Back to Italy...this time Bologna

I was trying to think of somewhere to go for a weekend with my New Zealand friend Nicky, we're both fairly well travelled and it gets to the point where you have covered most of the obvious candidates. We both love good food, and Bologna cropped up as an option. The flight options are good, Italy is never not good - decision made.

May rolls around quickly and we meet at Terminal 5 both having done no research but ready for a weekend of wandering around. First day arrives with a thick grey cloud to greet us - undeterred we headed into the old town. Didn't take long to love Bologna, within about 5 mins from our hotel we walked under a ' portico' - a covered gorgeous walkway. Bologna has a lot of porticoes ( we later found out it  38 kilometres of them, built over 1,000 years ago). The city has a world heritage status as a result. But for us not only were they beautiful - they solved our no umbrella problem. Brava Bologna!

We spent the morning discovering lovely little churches, laughing at the massive lean on the two most famous of the city's towers and admiring the fabulous Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio. For lunch we headed towards Piazza San Martino for a pizza at Nicola's Pizzeria. Meant to be one of the city's best....we can now vouch for that. Little tip - share one - they were huge. They also very sweetly bring you a creamy pudding afterwards - we looked horrified when they did - but managed to find room ( it was delicious) and then spent a good hour or two regretting it....

In the afternoon Nicky's colleague Luca met us and gave us a tour of the city. In one of the main squares - Piazza Maggiore he took us to opposite corners of an opening towards the centre told us to put our ears to the wall and talk to each other. It was amazing - we were 10 metres apart but it was clearer than a mobile. Very cool. He took us to a nice locals spot for prosecco and told us about the politics of the city. So good getting to meet someone to bring a place to life.

For dinner it had to be ragu - spaghetti bolognese was invented here and we weren't going to leave before we tried it. We went to the very pretty if a little formal Ristorante Pappagallo to have our ragu - I had mine in a lasagne and Nicky had hers with tagliatelle. Damn good. 

Sunday was sunny and was the day to walk up the leaning towers - two rich Italian families had a ' mine is bigger than yours' show of machismo and built what seem to be fairly pointless towers in the city. There are actually many ( and not just in Bologna). But the two famous ones are Torri Asinelli and Garisenda. Built in the 12th century - Asinelli is the biggest with 97m to climb up, the smaller Garisendsa is a 47m and has a lean of 3.2m - scary! We started to climb the 498 wooden steps just after 9am. Starting early and not wearing Birkenstocks would be my top tips. I spent a lot of time trying not to loose my shoe....the views are gorgeous from the top - terrocotta roof's, lovely plaza's and green countryside all around. Great start to the day. 

The afternoon had us visiting the modern art gallery ( so so - wouldn't recommend), and going back to Piazza San Martino this time to Molo3 for some incredible seafood.

We left Bologna fitter ( good city for walking), fuller and feeling like we may have found a great new weekend destination.

Up hill, down dale

Christmas 2014 was for me a really magical one, in large part as it was in my new house and it was special to be able to host the family all at mine. I got very carried away with pine cones, stuffed reindeer's ( the inedible kind) and home made Christmas pudding vodka. The other big reason that made it special was us all opening an envelope from super brother Paul. In it we were told that our gift was a long weekend in Yorkshire in a gorgeous Eco lodge all together. What a present! 

So 4 months later, I find myself at Kings across station about to board the 8.03am destination Darlington. Less than 3 hours later i arrived, and the taxi service in the form of Dad reliably picked me up ( today is the day that the princess of Cambridge arrived - warning to Prince William, daughters don't stop asking for favours the minute they leave home....). We met up with the rest of the family in the market town of Richmond.

I'm very familiar with Surrey Richmond, but this Yorkshire Richmond was equally impressive. On Saturday's the central market square becomes a car free zone and lots of market stalls selling home made preserves, plants and fruit and veg take over. We stocked up on Yorkshire rhubarb, home made jams and bread for our weekend. When we arrived at our home for the weekend we were all full of smiles, Natural Retreats is a small complex of maybe 20 lodges all set in a stunning location in the Yorkshire Dales about a 20 minute walk from Richmond. It was right on the coast to coast path and our lodge was at the end surrounded by Forrest, rabbit warrens and open fields to the front. Inside it was all Scandinavian grey furnishings, fully opening sliding doors to let nature in and cosy bedrooms. Perfect. It was going to be difficult to leave.

We did leave from time to time, we walked into Richmond along the river most days, spotting kingfishers, failing to spot otters and smelling all of the wild garlic. Tina and I explored Richmond castle. One morning  Paul spotted a male deer about 20 metres ahead in the forest. We made it one evening over to a lovely local pub in Molton. But mostly we stayed in amongst the bunnies, the pheasants and the cheeky little squirrels in our little house. A proper piece of heaven - highly recommended for families young or old or groups of friends.