Well it was an eventful holiday, hire car no 1 died after 5kM from the airport with a tyre blow out (proper BANG), thankfully at just 40kMh. The 24/7 helpline was simply not available on a Sunday night, it's a con and is only manned in office hours so 240 euro's there and back to our hotel in a taxi and a LOT of hassle we eventually get hire car no 2 the next day. This proved to be reliable if a bit unwieldy on narrow mountain roads (VW Passat estate) but most importantly the A/C worked a treat as it was 39c in Sardinia. It's a very pretty island and a lot greener than I was expecting, very friendly people and some exceptional food & drink. We stayed at a couple of rather pricey hotels so paid a premium but in 'normal' places it was fairly inexpensive with fuel at around 2 euro per litre. Some very nice, winding & technical roads to drive on and this place would be a whole heap of fun on a bike. They have a very relaxed attitude to speed limits too.
From Sardinia we flew to Bologna and what an impressive place that is, steeped in history and covered portico's everywhere to protect you from rain & heat. They even had a Brew Dog in the park which opened at night. The city has a nice relaxed vibe and it would have been rude not to have gone to the Ducati factory & museum. To be honest, it's not as good as the Guzzi museum and we were pretty much done after 30 mins. Mortadella is the big thing in Bologna and they make a simple sandwich into a thing of beauty, Mortadella, tomato a bit of olive oil in a fresh ciabatta - bliss !
From Bologna we got the train up to Venice. This was a bit of a faff as they insist on masks on trains but not just any mask, it has to be to some specific European standard. We played dumb tourists and got handed one each free...
Venice is odd because there are no roads and consequently no road noise. You here the odd motorised taxi but it's generally very quiet. Very busy and very touristy and full of American tourists. It turns out you can fly direct to Venice from multiple places in the USA so it's become very popular stateside. The flip side is virtually everyone in Venice speaks English now. It's an interesting place, but if you are not careful can be eye-wateringly expensive and we saw one restaurant charging 20 euros for a coffee in St Marks square... OK, it's St Marks square but just take a step back a few streets and it's back to nearly a tenth of that price. We bit the bullet to save a bit of faff and hassle and opted to get a private water taxi back to the airport (it is weird getting a boat to an airport). We had just left our hotel when the driver/pilot/captain started farting about with the front canopy of the boat. While distracted by this pesky piece of canvas he slammed very hard into another stationary boat. It made a huge bang and threw us forward violently but thankfully we were unharmed. I think our driver/pilot/captain hurt his wrist because it never moved from the top of his thigh and he didn't help us off the boat at the airport. The boat we hit had a huge dent in the rear and looked like it had broken the outer timbers just above the waterline.
Every flight we had was delayed by varying degrees but none more than an hour so in the grand scheme of things not too bad and our luggage made it too, the wife's case was the first off when we got back to Newcastle. The pics are the view from our villa at Baia de Chia, Bosa (very pretty town), A bit of the Ducati museum, If I'm only allowed one beer then it better be a litre and myself & the long-suffering Mrs in Venice.
