Continued from Bologna 2026 Day 2 Part 1.

Almost back, in the home stretch now.

I guess this is the fancy part of town.

Made it back! There’s a lot more people waiting for the next tour. I told the kids that they better pay attention as I’ll quiz them at the end at what they’ve learned. And depending on how well they did, it’ll decide if they get ice cream later or not. Telling them I’d quiz them actually ended up causing a lot of arguments between them about paying attention, something I wasn’t aware of because RL was throwing up next to me.

RL is really glad to be off of that bumpy ride. After throwing up, she seems to be feeling better, thankfully.

Oh look, a wedding.

Oh look, an accordion busker. It’s a rare sight now. So many fewer people carry around cash anymore. I’ve not gone to the atm a single time to get cash this entire trip. Europe is very much a cashless society now. RL has been sad about this because she want to give money to all the live music players, the kids too.

Walked by this supermarket on the way home. Let’s stock up on supplies and maybe let’s get dinner here to eat at home as well.

We told the kids they can pick out a dessert snack.

Nice! A prepped food section, we’ll get some lunch for home here.

Every single day, he asks for sushi. We are in Italy, we can’t eat sushi everyday, but we’ll eat it once in a while.

So…it’s ok to eat premade pasta, just like real Italians.

Now we are extra careful to see what’s cooked and what’s raw.

Looks like a pretty healthy lunch. I feel like eating out at restaurants all the time, you can never get enough vegetables. Not a problem buying food and eating at home though.

Yum, pretty good. We’ve been eating out so many meals in a row, it’s nice to break it up a little bit.

The kids and their treats that they earned for answering some questions on Bologna facts. Such as having the oldest university, 7 secrets of Siena, the color of the stone under the Neptune fountain (black). What are the 7 secrets and why is there a special colored stone…I don’t even know that. I would need to look it up.

Oh, it’s also father’s day. No one remembered until I mentioned it later in the day. Here’s all the kids giving me a happy father’s day hug post nap time. RL apologized and said we’d redo Father’s day tomorrow since everyone forgot.

And it’s time to go eat dinner after we spent the hottest part of the day inside napping.

Looks like some of those wooden supports have been replaced. And why is one different and supported with an extra block of stone?

The dumpsters that we see around town. The recycle waste ones just open up. The general mixed waste one needs a card to be scanned before it’ll open.

Dinner spot, specializes in charcuterie platters. Cold cuts is a huge thing here, so let’s give it a go.

This is a very pretty restaurant.

Water fountain to serve your own water. I feel like tap water has been slighter easier to find in Europe this time. With that said, they just keep handing you little tiny pitchers, and it gets drank up immediately by all 5 of us so we keep on having to repeatedly ask for new pitchers at every restaurant. Come on guys, it’s actually pretty fucking hot here, let’s stop pretending like we don’t need to hydrate a lot…like a LOT.

WATER!!!…and beer.

We got the sampler board, looks beautiful. We told the kids they have to try most of the stuff.

There’s a lot of possible cross contamination for nut products, so PL will mostly be eating this delicious mortadella bologna sandwich. I used to think mortadella always contained pistachios, but found out that it’s mostly without it here.

I saw that on the menu they had a donkey cold cut, and I asked for it to be part of our board. They forgot, so they gave us the donkey extra for free on the paper plate. Now we can all say we’ve had donkey…so what does donkey taste like…well, like any other cured meat, at least when it’s made into cured meat form. Both RL and I want to try donkey meat as a non-cured meat.

LKL is a fan of cold cuts, in particular Prosciutto.

Another Italian blonde beer, crisp and clean. Love it. All these European blonde beers also seem to be playing well with my tummy as my IBS has been doing well on this trip.

Loves his Prosciuto.

While me and the kids finish taking our time eating dinner, RL who ate faster, asked to slip out to go check out a resale shop nearby.

It’s like Pac Man, but with bread.

RL’s resale shop.

Why does this wooden pillar have a giant block of what looks to be mica supporting it? Was the bottom rotting and they just sawed off the rotten part and added another stone instead?

I promised the kids gelatos after dinner. It’s hot and we are in Italy, seems like a good way to close out the night.

Why is mint chocolate chip called after eight?

Yummmmm, everyone’s happy.

Mint chocolate chip(after eight) and peach. I really like the peach.

RL still shopping at her resale shop so she missed out on our ice cream outing.

Chocolate mustache.

Been a fun chill night, we came back home to watch some Naruto. I finally got the airplay to work on the big tv…then all of a sudden everything went dark. Oh shit, we’ve lost power. It’s 8pm and we were just going to watch a few episodes of this and put the kids to bed. There goes our chill night. I contacted airbnb host immediately, and started looking around for the breaker. I see light in the hallway and at other units, seems to be only affecting our one unit.

The host said the breaker is actually on another floor in the building and told me where to find the key to open the electrical closet.

I feel like I’m in Jurassic Park, trying to turn the power back on. I was following instructions on my phone as my airbnb host send me the info. The airbnb host did not get the Jurassic Park reference.

Does not seem to be tripped. I turned it off, and then back on. Still no power….fuck.

I did find the power for the light switch to turn on the light for the electrical closet though.

Pointed out the only breaker in this closet that’s turned off to the host…maybe this is the one? Nope. The host contacted the power company, and they told me that it’s an issue with the power company’s side….except it’s only affecting my unit. Fuuuccckkk. It’s getting really hot, and because we had closed all the electrical shutters for the night so we don’t wake up in the morning to light, we can’t get them to open and therefore the windows don’t work either so no airflow. The apartment instantly became an unbearable hotbox during this heat wave.

We could probably rough it for a night if we could get the shutters and windows open, but with that being not an option having no power, the only real option was to rent a couple of hotel rooms for the night and hope the power will get fixed the next morning. It’s Sunday night and they weren’t able to get any technicians to come out tonight. I looked on my phone and walked literally around the corner from our airbnb and found the nearest hotel. Went in there, asked if they a room to accommodate us. As to be expected, they do not have any rooms that will fit 5 of us, and the best they can do is put us into one 2 person room and one 3 person room. I guess that works. Another 470 Euros later, I’ve booked hotel room for the night and asked our airbnb host to comp us for a night if the power company pays them back for the power loss. And if the power company doesn’t pay them back, then half refund works…but honestly…who knows what will happen. Probably no refund at all at the end of the day, sigh.

The check in desk at the hotel had a what looks to be a Ferrari F12 as their car plate reminder.

An hour and a half after our power went out, RL and I left the kids in one of the rooms on their ipads and went to the rooftop deck for a drink. Stressful times, seems like a good time for a drink.

Might as well make the best of a not so ideal situation.

The older couple who sat next to us chatted with us a little. They are 81 and 80, and have just been married for 3 months. The man was really proud of that fact. Good for them finding love again after both were widowed. They were very cute.

Why not, let’s have another Negroni.

My room with LKL. The AC is cold in here, so that’s good. What’s not so good is that it seems every single place we’ve stayed at here in Europe, the mini split AC is always positioned that the cold dry air just blasts you straight in the face as you slept so you end up with dry nose and dry throat. Come on now, some little bit of care could be taken to better position those units.

To be continued at Bologna 2026 Day 3 Part 1.