Don’t judge a book……………..

A city with the oldest university in the world. Full to the brim with the young, bold and beautiful students.

November in Italy is a beautiful time to visit. The sun has been shining, the skies mostly blue, with a bit of rain and it’s the perfect month to visit other cities in Tuscany without the mass of tourists around.

Our 24 hour visit was based around a trip to a ceramic showroom (although at one point it was very tempting to miss that bit out altogether!).

Living in different villages 20 minutes apart, we arranged to meet at our well-known meeting point. ‘Under The Bo*****s!!!’

Believe it or not, this is also the local police station, how ironic is that!

Feeling very brave, I was the designated driver, in my new Italian car, Lizzie. Named after our very own Queen, as the car was delivered on the day of Her Majesty’s funeral.

Lizzie did us proud, and 2 hours later we arrived at our ‘almost’ budget hotel.

Chosen by my good friend Michelle, it looked like something out of East Berlin pre-falling wall.

Uncertain we were in the right place, I made her get out the car to investigate, under the pretence I would stay and leave the car running but really it was because I was scared we were in the middle of the old style New York Bronx area and were going to get kidnapped for ransom!!

Thankfully it was the right place and we were soon all together with our host in the tiny weeny old creaky lift, making our way up to the roof top bed and breakfast, set in this residential, student accommodation.

And then WOW!! What a gorgeous little find this was. Very tastefully decorated with only 3 bedrooms. Skyline 1/7 is the name.

Each one with it’s own little roof terrace with well placed planters, giving a decent amount of privacy when fully booked.

The host spoke perfect English, was very accommodating and before she left us we had organised our breakfast for the next day.

The bedrooms were well equipped with a tiny fridge to keep any drinks cold, a bathroom with an array of toiletries, an in-built open style hanging area and we even managed to catch up on an episode of The Crown on the bedroom TV Netflix option!

Breakfast the next day was delicious, and there were lots of options including home-made jams, toast and cakes. Michelle has already, unsuccessfully, tried to replicate ours, but typical of any Italian dish, if you don’t have the exact ingredients from the exact vegetable or herb garden, it will never taste the same!

I’m not reviewing Bologna as we weren’t there long enough to take it all in. But that’s definitely for another time.

This accommodation was perfectly positioned with a 10 minute walk into the always busy city centre.

So if you’re looking for a mid-range, chic, boutique place to stay in Bologna, the lesson here is never judge a book by its cover and take a chance.