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Unbelievably — it’s the last few Italian days.
As I mentioned last week, we decided to pivot on getting to San Marino. So, we asked our VRBO host if we could leave a day early and he agreed to refund our last night. We stopped in at the local Enterprise car rental to book a car for Monday morning. We would leave a day early, drive to San Marino, then just drive all the way back to Rome for our outbound flight. We found a really cute hotel in San Marino for the night and we were all set.
Sunday, we headed back to Modena because they were having a food festival and we wanted to see Modena on a nice day. We also wanted to check out the Ferrari museum. Another quick and easy train ride and we were able to spend the whole day there. There would be no time for piazza people watching Sunday night though because we had to go home to pack!
Monday, we woke up early and said goodbye to Stefano, our lovely and kind VRBO host. We took a taxi to the rental car place then headed out of Bologna. We decided to do a quick side trip to Rimini, which was basically on the way to San Marino just to see this famous beach town and get a feel for it on a Monday mid-day in the very, very early part of the season. There were thousands of chairs set out on the beach and we imagined a summer day there would be very festive but chaotic. A short drive later, we crossed the country boundary out of Italy and into San Marino. This place has been on my to-do list forever and Lance’s as well. We picked a very cute, relatively inexpensive hotel called Hotel Rosa which is in the historical center. We were able to drive up to it, even driving through the medieval gate. We knew that a hotel with parking would be best but it honestly wasn’t very crowded. We decided to make reservations for dinner, then go walk to the Towers that make San Marino famous. Tower 1 was open and we were able to climb the steps to the top. Tower 2 is having some maintenance done so we only could walk up to it, but not into it. You can easily see the Adriatic from the hilltop and the westward view is all mountains. It’s really something! We headed back to the hotel for a rest and shower before our dinner on the terrace of a local restaurant recommended by Paulo at the hotel. Dinner was delicious — a typical Italian meal. After dinner, we walked back up to the towers to see the view in the dark. It was very quiet but lovely too. A perfect night to end our time in Italy.
A final note from Dublin, Ireland
For this visit, we flew Aer Lingus from Seattle to Rome, with a stop in Dublin. As one last fun stop in our long trip home, we decided to stay three nights in Dublin. We arrived quite late on Tuesday the 30th and will have full days on Wednesday and Thursday here in Dublin. I was in Italy for exactly 89 days which is one day short of the maximum I was allowed without a Visa (or citizenship).
Dublin has been great fun — there is lots to see in this very walkable city. We had breakfast in the hotel which is on the north side of the Liffey River then we walked over to Trinity College and the Dublin Castle. We decided to do the Guinness Tour at the St. James Gate. It’s a great tour and I highly recommend it. The end of the tour is at a bar at the very top of the building with views of the whole city. I’m not a huge Guinness fan but I did enjoy the small amount of the tasting. I ended up getting their lager at the bar. Lance enjoyed a pint of the real stuff though. After that, we decided it was time for some fish & chips and found a place that was recommended on someone’s travel blog. It was called Leo Burdock’s. There were no tables in the little shop so we carried it off to a park and sat on a bench to enjoy it all. We are very lucky that both days here are clear and sunny, though it is pretty cool out — a nice relief from the hot and humid of Bologna. After lunch, we headed over to the Dublin Castle to walk around then decided it was time for a pint. We found the famous Temple Bar and sat in their courtyard, chatting it up with people and enjoying some great live music. It was a fun way to spend the afternoon. The final touristy thing to do was walk the Ha’ Penny bridge which of course as young people growing up in DC in the 90s brought back memories of our favorite bar there — the Ha’ Penny Lion. The bridge is a lovely pedestrian bridge across the river and just down the road from the Temple Bar district.
Dublin is not like Italy though as we planned to have a late dinner at a church which had been converted into a restaurant and bar. We had a rest in the hotel then headed out to walk there around 8:30. We arrived at the restaurant at 8:50 and asked for a table for 2. Whoops…. their kitchen closes at 8:45. We missed it. We found that in Italy, getting a table before 8:30 will likely result in a room of all American tourists so we hardly ever ate out early. Luckily we had done a bit of research for dinner and knew of another option, just down the road, that is a traditional Irish pub. Lance had the beef and Guinness stew and we tried some brown bread made with Guinness which is very tasty (of course, slathered with good Irish butter). I had to go the American route and get some tasty wings as it was very much a bar food menu!
Today is our last full day. We plan to spend it as we do… milling around the town, checking out the regular places and the touristy ones. Tomorrow we will pack up and head to the airport for our long haul flight to Seattle.
I think I’ll hold off on writing the final entry of this journal until I get home. I’m sure I’ll be processing this trip in my mind for a long time to come and I want to write the story of it all (not just the details as these entries have been) for myself and any readers in a way that fully depicts the journey…
