Left Bologna this morning and made our way further north to a small northern Italian town Udine. Only staying here one night as we are on a bit of a schedule to be in Frankfurt by the 10th to pick up Sam.
The drive up was fairly uninteresting, fairly industrial/urban landscape as we wound our way north of Venice. A double check of google maps made sure we were not going anywhere near the Slovenian border (a reference to a previous trip).
Arrived in Udine about lunch time. The GPS navigated us to the middle of town, a car park no less which was a bonus. And next to that were the markets - not xmas markets, but general goods market. Italy seems to have these in almost every town you go to, no matter how big or small. Traders set up their stalls out of the back of transit vans and sell everything from jackets, dresses, shoes, scarves, belts, hand bags, etc etc.
Julie got in a bit of retail therapy before we found a small trattoria for a bit of lunch - gnocchi for me, cream of vegetable soup for Julie, along with some crusty bread and red wine. Very nice indeed.
Since we are only here for one night, we thought we would explore the town before finding our hotel. Lovely little town. Lots of narrow cobbled streets, central square, cathedral (of course), and a cute little tourist train/bus which takes you around the town (of which we partook).
Found a really nice restaurant close to the hotel for an evening meal. Great meal, great service (as with all Italian restaurants), great atmosphere. A very pleasant way to finish off the day.
Nice little place to stop for the night. Big enough to explore, not too big so that you are walking forever to see the place.
Tomorrow we leave Itay to head up to Germany. Should be an interesting drive - through the Dolomites, across the Austrian alps. Maybe some snow capped peaks?