Earlier last month I decided to buy my friend Julia tickets to Bologna and take her there on a day trip for her birthday as neither of us had ever been and wanted to explore more of Italy. Bologna is in Emilia-Romagna, a northern region of Italy which is the home of many Italian foods (balsamic vinegar, parmesan cheese, proscuitto & tortellini) and Italian cars (Ferrari, Lamborghini & Maserati, to name a few). It is also home to the oldest university in the world (established 1088!) and famous for its towers and porticoes (covered walkways with columns) so we hopped on an early morning train and made our way up there... stopping, of course, firstly at a café (called a bar in Italian) to get some colazione (breakfast) Italian style aka coffee & croissants.

Remember kids - cappuccinos only at breakfast time and definitely not with your lunch! After we had properly fuelled our bodies up for a full day of sight-seeing and exploring we headed to the Piazza Maggiore, one of Bologna's most famous, central squares, to discover that there was a chocolate festival going on! How lucky that we had booked our tickets to come this day? They had everything chocolate: hot chocolate, slabs of it, waffles, crêpes... it was hard to resist.

Our next stop was then La Piazzola di Bologna market in Piazza VIII Agosto which is open every Friday and Saturday. To be honest there was a lot of rubbish but we spotted a lot of Levis jeans and Barbour jackets - so you can definitely find some vintage gems if you keep your eyes peeled.

We then made our way to a nearby park, Il Parco Della Montagnola, Bologna's oldest park dating back to 1664! It was so beautiful and autumnal (we went mid-November) that we just had to take a bunch of pictures. It reminded me of this funny thing that I saw on instagram which said something like "English people: autumn, from the latin autumnus. American people: fall because the leaves fall." It cracks me up every time.

*Queue cheesy autumn photos*



After all of the walking around and photo taking we were starting to get a little hangry. I know that when you go to Bologna you are supposed to try tortellini, their speciality. However both of us were desperately craving pizza but after some unsuccessful searching we turned to google and found a charming restaurant which served pizza which seemed to have good reviews. It was good but not the best - not like Gusta Pizza in Florence or like the pizza that I tried in Naples (which was actually incredible) but it did satisfy our needs. We did, however indulge in a tiramisù afterwards which, in case you haven't heard of this delicacy, is an Italian dessert with coffee, cocoa, biscuits and mascarpone cream. It is delicious and the name literally means pick me up or cheer me up in Italian - tira mi su!

Some of Bologna's traditional filled pasta

Left: la Torre Garisenda. Right: la Torre degli Asinelli.

Saint Petronius of Bologna

One thing that I have definitely noticed whilst living in Italy is that I have not met one single person who likes Renzi - and this is obvious all around Italy with the street art/graffiti. Luckily for them he has now resigned after the results of the Italian constitutional referendum this month, but once again they have a Prime Minister that they have not voted for...

Our last stop in Bologna before heading back to Florence was il Teatro Anatomico (the Anatomical Theatre) which is in the Archiginnasio of Bologna, one of the city's most important buildings and once the main building of the University of Bologna. For three euros you can have a look into the room that they used for dissection classes of both humans and animals which was constructed in the 17th century out of spruce wood and finished in the 18th century.

It is decorated with twelve famous doctors including Hippocrates, a Greek physician born in 460 BC also known as the "father of modern medicine", all the way through to Gaspare Tagliacozzi, an Italian surgeon born in 1545 who was the pioneer of reconstructive surgery (including nose jobs!). In the middle of the room you have a marble dissection table and by the teacher's desk you have two spellati (skinned men).




Before the Archiginnasio was built, lessons took place in private or rented properties and sometimes in the piazze (the squares). With your ticket you can also take a peek into la Biblioteca comunale dell'Archiginnasio (the Archiginnasio Municipal Library) which has more than 500,000 texts and 12,000 manuscripts, making it the best equipped civic library in the country. I have to say that it was pretty cool to roam the halls of the old university - they are absolutely beautiful and definitely worth seeing for only 3 euros!

The theatre was almost completely destroyed during the Second World War, like many things were, but thankfully a lot of the original pieces were found amongst the building's rubble so it was able to be reconstructed in the original way. Although it was damaged you wouldn't be able to realise it when you visit the room and you can almost imagine the dissections which took place under candlelight.




That concludes our Bologna visit! Even though it was foggy and a little bit rainy we really enjoyed ourselves and thankfully Bologna has a whole system of porticoes which means that you can explore the city and not get wet (or you could just bring an umbrella).

Getting to Bologna from Florence is very easy and I would recommend taking the train, either Trenitalia or Italo. We used Trenitalia for both journeys and going there the regional train took 1-2 hours, whereas la Freccia (the fast train) took a little over half an hour. There are loads of stations in Bologna so make sure to choose "Bologna Centrale" when buying your tickets and enjoy your day! If you're staying in Bologna for longer you could visit some of the other places in Emilia-Romagna. Taste the traditional aceto balsamico (baslamic vinegar) from Modena or explore Parma, where the beautiful Italian parmigiano reggiano is from (parmesan cheese).

Alexandra x

Gusta Pizza is probably one of the most popular pizzerias in Florence, especially amongst students. It is both family run and cosy and is close to the Palazzo Pitti and the Ponte Vecchio - the perfect stop for some post-sight seeing food. Expect to find cheap and cheerful pizzas accompanied by a long queue outside, especially in the busier summer months.

As you walk in the smell of freshly made pizzas fills the air and you are greeted by a friendly face asking for your order. You have the choice of either eating in, which I have never done simply because it's always so busy, or having your pizza to go (da portare via). I have always ordered it to take away and sat in the Piazza Santo Spirito, right next to the pizzeria, with a bottle of... (Italians cover your eyes) wine or prosecco. You can also, of course, go the Italian way and have some beer instead. I know that Gusta Pizza sells wine but traditionally many Italians would cringe at the thought of wine and pizza together.

The first time I went here last summer it was actually awful: the cheese wasn't melted, there was a weird liquid on the pizza and the dough was not fully cooked. We felt defeated, but we kept seeing so many people enjoying their pizzas so this year I decided that I just had to give it another shot as clearly so many people, locals as well as tourists, loved it. I'm not sure what happened the first time as every time I have been back the pizzas have been top notch, and I have been many times.




They have a simple but tasty menu, with some specials which change every now and then. I have tried their Margherita, Gustapizza (cherry tomatoes, rocket salad, parmesan & mozzarella) and one of their specials which had pesto and mozzarella, all of which were yum yum yummy & deliciously soft. Friends have also tried the Napoli and the Caprese and they all had smiles on their faces as they ate. Apparently they make heart shaped pizzas which they offer to "all of the ladies" but I have been at least 5 times and have only ever been made normal ones... awkward for me. Perhaps one day I will be presented with the honour of receiving a heart shaped one.


I love taking the pizza and eating it in the square with friends or loved ones. Santo Spirito is an interesting area of Florence which is very lively at night and has a beautiful ambience about it. Just watch out for some dodgy characters who come by and offer you drugs - you will be fine, just politely decline if you are not interested and they will be on their way. It really is nothing to worry about and shouldn't deter you from going there because it's one of the best squares in Florence to hang out in at night!



North of Naples it is hard to find Neopolitan pizzas - they are generally thinner, however Gusta Pizza makes the yummiest doughy carb-y ones. They taste so good and the fluffy dough is baked by angels, however you do end up having a little bit of a pizza baby, or twins/triplets in my case. After living here for almost 5 months I have to say that my absolute favourite pizza place has to be somewhere called Da Gherhardo which is also in Oltrarno (I will do a "where to eat in Florence" post with all of my favourites next month). They let the dough rise for a good amount of time so that the yeast doesn't make the pizza keep growing in your belly. That being said, before I found Da Gherhardo, Gusta Pizza was my #1 favourite in Florence and it still is up there (it's cheap and more casual) so definitely check it out - Via Maggio 46R!

The opening times are 11.30-15.30 and 19.00-23.30 but they are closed on Mondays and generally closed for the whole of August (as is half of Florence).

Alexandra x

As I was living for a few months in Italy, I obviously had to visit Rome. I had already been a few times before with my parents so I was Tamara's designated tour guide for the day and we got to live out our Lizzie McGuire dreams. Getting to Rome from Florence is very easy and we had originally booked a BlaBlaCar there and La Freccia (the fast train) back. Our car was supposed to leave from Florence at 7am from the main station and at around 1.30am the night before (we were up way too late drinking vino) I got a text saying that our car had been cancelled. Just like that. 10 minutes of tipsy panicking later we booked a (very) expensive train to Rome and 8 hours later we were on our way...

We finally got there and it was a glorious day! We had a couple of stops on our itinerary to be able to see as much of Rome as possible in one day. The Italians that we were drinking with the night before thought that we were crazy and should stay a little bit longer but we were determined that we could do it.

1) Visit Il Colosseo (the Colosseum)

Built roughly between 70 and 80 AD (crazy!) it is the largest amphitheatre to ever have been built and could hold between 50,000 and 80,000 spectators (again, crazy!) The thing that most people know it was used for is gladiator fights, however they also had venatio (animal fights) which involved hunting & killing wild animals (thousands were butchered in one day), as well as re-enactments of famous battles and classical mythology dramas. They also had capital punishment (damnatio ad bestias, damnation to beasts) on display for spectators to watch which involved the criminal being mauled alive by a wild animal.

I feel like we always think of the Romans as having been super advanced for their time, which of course they were regarding philosophy, technology, engineering, the military (the list goes on), however their morals were clearly not very developed back then if you read into what went on in those times.

L'arco di Costatino (The Arch of Constantine)

Regarding tickets: buy one online before here. You'll get to skip the line and will get in and out much faster than waiting in the regular queues. When we got there they told us that it would be around an hour and it was really slow. There's a small booking fee but honestly it is worth it and the ticket includes both Il Colosseo and the Forum Romanum (Roman Forum) which are ruins of the ancient government buildings. We originally wanted to go there too but we got there and the line was absolutely massive so we went onto our next stop: food.

2) Eat Italian Food

We were starving from our early wake up and so searched for a little trattoria in one of Rome's less busy side streets, away from all of the tourists. As you can imagine, this was pretty difficult and after a while the hunger overcame us and we settled on something which at least didn't have a massive menu with pictures outside of the restaurant.


We both chose this beautiful yet simple penne pasta with a concoction of garlic and tomatoes which could have only been created by the gods themselves. Seriously, the ingredients sound quite boring but all of the flavours were on point. Also, a little "fun" fact (in quotation marks because it won't be all that fun for some): in Italian there is an expression that you say when someone is everywhere and it is "essere come il prezzemolo" (to be like parsley) because they always use it in their cooking! After a yummy carb-packed lunch we felt fully satisfied and ready to move onto our next sightseeing stop, which happened to be very close to the restaurant: The Trevi Fountain.

3) Visit the Fontana di Trevi and make a wish

The Trevi Fountain, or the Fontana di Trevi is one of the most beautiful, and undoubtedly famous, fountains in the world. It was built in 1762 and has appeared in many films including Fellini's La Dolce Vita. Remember the iconic scene with Anita Ekberg & Marcello Mastroianni? If not click here. I also remember that Fendi had a fashion show on the water for their 90th anniversary which looked phenomenal!



If you have ever visited the fountain then you will have noticed all of the coins in the water. Tamara told me that the money is used to fund food for the homeless in Rome and that around €3,000 is raised every day so if you go there be generous! Knowing that all of the money went to charity, we made a good few wishes each...

After all the wishing it was onto stop #4

4) Stroll around La Piazza Navona 

Us with la Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi

The square is absolutely beautiful and full of baroque Roman architecture. It is built on the site of a stadium from the 1st century AD where the Romans used to watch games and competitions but now it is a pretty place to go in Rome with plenty of photo opportunities!

5) Walk up the Spanish Steps 

It was then onto stop #5 which was la Scalinata di Trinità dei Monti, more famously known as the Spanish Steps. These became famous after Audrey Hepburn's famous movie Roman Holiday and interestingly, on the corner next to the steps you have John Keats' house where he lived and died - it's now a museum which we didn't go into but Keats was a very important Romantic generation poet who I had to studied for IB English Literature (cry). His works are beautiful (many odes) but when one has to study something everything seems so much less appealing, at least for me. Anyhow, when you are on the steps, and actually in Rome in general, many men will "offer" you roses that you then have to pay for: avoid.

6) Go Shopping

Altare della Patria (Altar of the Fatherland) aka il Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II (The National Monument to Victor Emmanuel II), built in honour of the first king which is now a museum of Italian Unification which, as I mentioned in my Milan blog post, was not a simple process).

7) Visit the Pantheon 

Dating from 118-128 AD, the former Roman temple is now a church and is absolutely beautiful. It's one of the best preserved Roman monuments and definitely worth a visit.

After our last stop we were thoroughly exhausted from all of the walking and went off to hunt for some gelato. Clearly our eyes were bigger than our stomachs because we both ordered massive ones and after I had chosen three variations of hazelnut/chocolate mixes there was no way that I could finish the entire thing without being sick (cry because it was actually really good).


At around 5pm we made our way back to the train station, walking the whole way. We walked so much the whole day to make sure that we maximised how much we saw of Rome and it was definitely worth it. Everything that we saw was well within walking distance of each other (20-30 minutes max) but I guess you could take a taxi or a bus if you're lazy or can't walk that far.

Once we got to the station the train was delayed, surprise surprise! So we venture off to McDonalds to find this new "sweety" thing that everyone was raving about on the internet. It's basically a nutella burger so if you don't know what i'm talking about click here. It was nothing special, 2/10 would not recommend and by the time we actually got our order we were the ones who were late and were running like madwomen through the Roma Termini station. We hopped (flung ourselves) onto the train and a little over an hour and a half later were back in Florence and definitely ready for bed.

I would definitely recommend going to Rome if you're in Florence or anywhere nearby. You can do it in a day if you don't go into many museums etc. in order to maximise your time and you can do it cheaply too- the only money that we spent on the day was on food, our Trevi Fountain wishes & our ticket to the Colosseum. Not bad!

How to get to Rome from Florence? 

The options are: bus, BlaBlaCar & train. The bus we didn't even bother with because we figured that it would take way too long. BlaBlaCar we tried but failed... if you are not as unlucky as us then I would try it out. I haven't yet but a lot of my friends have and have recommended it to me. As far as trains go there are two companies: italo and Trenitalia. Both have some discounts and offers going on but I know that for Trenitalia you can take La Freccia (the fast train) on a Saturday and get a 2x1 offer, so that's definitely worth looking into if you would like to go anywhere in Italy on a Saturday with the fast train, however you obviously have to book in advance.

I hope that you enjoyed all of the photo spam & that you enjoy Rome if you're going any time soon, we certainly did!

Alexandra x

Ristorante Quinoa was the first ever 100% gluten-free restaurant to open up in Florence, Italy. After my friend Ilaria and I saw it featured on instagram numerous times we finally decided to go there during my lunch break for some yummy gluten-free goodness.

First of all the building was absolutely beautiful. There were lots of old frescoes and if you go to the bathroom (on the 3rd or 4th floor) you can have a better view of the courtyard which is so so cute and perfect for sitting outside in the warmer months (not now as Florence is absolutely freezing. This is not what I signed up for when I picked Florence as one of my year abroad destinations!) It's an old palazzo in Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore (map below) which is a little bit tucked away but very very central, in between the Duomo and the Santa Maria Novella train station.

We obviously, due to the weather, chose to sit inside which was equally as nice and filled with space heaters which we very much appreciated! When we got there we were presented with a very long (and inventive) list of food options. Their menu was very extensive, including not only Italian, but also many international options and everything was gluten free! They also had a lot of plant based and vegetarian options as well as those with meat so it's perfect for everyone really: meat-eaters, vegetarians, vegans, coeliacs, those with lactose-intolerance or just anyone who wants to eat yummy food.



We both decided to go for more oriental dishes and Ilaria, la mia amica italiana (how beautiful is her name!?), chose a pad thai (yum) which I was very jealous of whereas I took a vegetable wok stir-fry which came with rice and lots and lots of veggies which was equally as good. Whilst we were waiting for our food they brought us some warm, freshly baked bread which was incredible considering that it was gluten free. Normally a lot of these kinds of breads don't have that much taste but I honestly would not have been able to tell the difference and I came away less bloated yay!





The restaurant wasn't cheap but wasn't particularly expensive either. Each main was around 11-16 euros, however the place was charming and the menu very inventive - it was nice to see some more international options on the menu for once. Also: how cool is the name?

They are open for lunch from 12.30 - 15.00 every day Monday to Saturday, dinner from 19.30 - 23.00 from Tuesday to Saturday and brunch from 12.00 - 15.00 only on Sundays. So definitely try them out if you're visiting Florence and are looking for something gluten-free or just a little bit different.

Alexandra x