We started our Italy trip in Bologna, then visited Vicenza and Venice.

As seniors we are “slow travelers” so having an entire week was great.

Our Airbnb was on Via Oberdan and this was a perfect location. It was on same street as La Prosciutteria among the many stores and restaurants, plus had two markets and a greengrocer. 18-20 mins walk to Centrale Stazione and about 10 to Piazza Maggiore.

Close proximity to train station was great for day trips.

It’s a very livable, compact city - easy to get around walking everywhere.

We enjoyed an introductory tour from a volunteer with the International Greeter Association to get the lay-of-the-land and learn about ex-pat life.

Both the Poggi Museum and the Anatomical Theatre are very interesting as was the Santo Stephano Church complex and Basilica di San Petronio. Walking around the Quadrilatero was lovely.

We took the San Luca choo choo up to the church at San Luca and I had great fun walking the continuous portico down. Walking up would have been a challenge for me, even though I’m in relatively good shape.

All our meals were great - you really can’t go wrong. And the gelato!
We did not find Bologna as crowded as others have reported.

It is an ideal location for day trips with frequent train service. We enjoyed touring Parmigiano Reggiano, vinegar and prosciutto “factories” with a guide outside Parma, after which we walked around lovely Parma.

Another day we went to Ravenna for the exquisite mosaics.

DH and I separated for our third day trip. He went to Faenza for the ceramics museum - which he loved - and I went to the Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah in Ferrara which had excellent exhibits.

Following Bologna we went to Vicenza, an enchanting city known for its Palladian architecture. Highly recommend a visit there - definitely not over-run with tourists and Palladio’s Teatro Olimpico was worth the trip.

We finished with almost a week in Venice, a city that had not captured our hearts in two previous visits. Three’s a charm as we really enjoyed it this time. The crowds were not as overwhelming as I’d been led to expect.

Highlights were an intensive tour with venicescapes dot org and a ghetto tour with Lucia — both have excellent reviews on TA. DH really liked the Correr Museum and the Accademia. I enjoyed the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. The Frari Church was another highlight.

We stayed in Dorsoduro right off Campo S Barnaba and can’t recommend this location enough.

Happy to answer any questions.

Nice report. Hotel and restaurant details would be great!

SusanP stayed at Airbnb. Every restaurant was great. La Montanara and Trattoria Della santa come to mind.

I just came across your post and it resonated with me because I recently read One Good Thing by Georgia Hunter, an historical fiction about Jews in Italy during WWII. The fictional main characters are studying in Ferrara when prohibitions against Jews take effect. I had not known anything about Ferrara or about the situation of Jews in Italy during this period. Also, the main character grew up in Bologna - a city I am familiar with - and the book documents how the city was affected by the war. I thought the book was very well written and did a great job of showing how quickly and profoundly conditions in Italy changed. It also vividly traces the route of the heroine as she makes her way, by foot, from Florence to Rome.

Great, concise report, glad you got to see Ravenna and Ferrara as well.

joduhl, you might be interested in reading Giorgio Bassani's Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini, a novel about a Jewish family in Ferrara during the rise of Mussolini up to the start of the war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ga...Finzi-Continis

I'm sure it must be available in translation.

It's also a classic 70s De Sica film:

I spent several days in Ferrara a couple years ago and really enjoyed it. Great town for biking about.

Thank you for that recommendation. I have heard of the movie, but haven't seen it. I did not realize that was the theme. I will put the book on my list. And hopefully I'll make it back to Italy some day and can visit Ferrara.

joduhl
You won’t believe this, but I had downloaded that book on my kindle before trip to Italy because I liked her excellent previous book. I had no idea the subject matter!
I was shocked to start reading about the Holocaust in Italy and it really made the museum in Ferrara come alive. Very good book.
I can recommend “Eternal” by Scottoline about what happened in Rome.
And even less well-known is about the Holocaust in Salonika Greece, explained in “The Little Liar” by Albom. That’s where Lilli’s friend’s husband was from.
Last year we spent two weeks in Rome with accommodations on the main street of the Jewish Ghetto. Great, lively location if you get to Rome.

Yes, I also loved her first book, We Were the Lucky Ones, and this one did not disappoint. It was particularly poignant because I was familiar with some of the places. It must have been profound to read it while you were in Italy. And yes, the book made me curious about the history of Jews in Greece.
Thanks for the other recommendations.