Italy 2025

Italy in early July isn’t exactly something I’d seek out, but I had no choice as I had to present a paper at the IEEE ISCC conference. The event took us to Bologna, which I was visiting for the first time, and since we had two free half-days, we managed to take a high-speed train to nearby Florence — a city I vaguely remembered from the game Assassin’s Creed 2. I more or less survived the 35 °C heat and ended up enjoying Italy after all. Just next time, please in winter time!

Bologna

Bologna is known for its many towers, omnipresent arcades (which are great for hiding from the sun), the oldest university in Europe, and good food—but to be fair, that probably applies to most of Italy. What interested me the most was visiting the San Luca Basilica, located on the southern edge of the city, on a small hill about 300 meters high, accessible via the longest covered portico (pilgrimage path) in the world [1]. At 35 °C, it was quite a brutal workout, and it was clear that many locals use it exactly for that. There is a little tourist train you can take up, but we didn’t want to cheat, so we chose to shower in our own sweat instead :)

Viewpoint

Piazza Galvani

Portico start

Bologna

Di San Luca

Portico path

On the top

Piazza Santo Stefano

Di San Luca

Torre dell’Arengo

Two towers

Hidden canal

Di San Luca

Pilgrimage path

Arcades

Florencie

Florence is one of the most popular tourist cities in Italy, mainly because of its historic center, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. From Bologna to Florence, it’s just over 100 km, and the trip by car or regular train takes almost two hours. But by high-speed train, it’s only 37 minutes, if you don’t mind paying three times the price. High-speed trains are also reportedly much more reliable and have functional air conditioning. Since I needed to be back for a meeting at two o’clock, there was nothing to think about. We left at eight in the morning, saw the main sights in Florence, and were back by two. Honestly, it was enough for us in that heat. The train ride itself wasn’t much of an experience though as about 90% of the trip was inside tunnels, so you don’t really notice the 250 km/h speed at all.

Cathedral

Palazzo Vecchio

Ponte Vecchio

Santa Maria Novella

Piazza della Signoria

Cathedral

Ponte Vecchio

Santa Croce

Palazzo Vecchio

View

High-speed train

Assassin's Creed II

Visiting Florence finally forced me to create a Steam account and play Assassin’s Creed II which takes place in Florence. Last time I played it was 15 years ago. I walked through the same places we saw and took a few comparison screenshots. It’s incredible how accurately the landmarks look and how the map matches reality. Two pounds well spent :)

Vegan

Veganism is fairly well known in Italy, and almost every restaurant immediately knew what it meant and what they could prepare — though the bigger problem was often the language barrier. Most of the time, I got some form of pasta in tomato sauce. I also tried vegan lasagna (though at our Zizzi, they make better one). What was absolutely amazing, however, was the famous Italian gelato. In Florence, I highly recommend the fully raw Cortese Cafe, and in Bologna, Cremeria Cavour. Other ice creams we tried felt terribly artificial and overly sweet compared to these. The breakfasts at the hotel were also great, with an unexpectedly large selection of sweet pastries and cakes, and of course, the ever present fresh fruit. After dinners, we sometimes got a bottle of limoncello, which was a pleasant way to end the day :)