It was a Tuesday morning in late October and there were hardly any tourists in sight at Piazza Maggiore.   There are a fewer sadder, melancholy sights in life than an empty piazza.   After an hour of not so fruitful people-spotting , around 11am I spotted some activity:  a sudden procession of people [...]

        I step out from my hotel and I am slapped in the face by a nippy, cold wind. I do a double take and look around me. No I am not in Edinburgh. Ahhhhhh. I am in Bologna! Skies are cold and grey. Very dreich indeed as we would say in Scotland.   [...]