So you‘ ve had the travel log of the journey to Bologna, but now we need party info. We were fortunate enough to be surrounded by friends and acquaintances and lest we forget, the wonderful birthday boy, Roger, so it was perfect from the start.

Roger, Deirdre (our absolute bestest mate) and a couple of friends had done a recce to Bologna and discovered this amazing restaurant called “Oteria de Poeti”. The ambiance is as deevine as the food, not to mention the waiters… It is downstairs in a crypt and I can only recommend you spend you r next birthday there too. We will gladly come, just give me a year or two to recover from this one!

We all met up at midday and the Prosecco started flowing. Thank goodness one member of our group doesn’t drink, so I had 2 drinks going at all times… Come on, I only did it to help her! The snacks were slightly hidden – no it wasn’t me – which meant more for me and “my child”. Jade and David were there too with their absolutely adorable, well behaved, sweet, identical twin to me, 2 ½ year old daughter Jo-Jo. Some of the guests spotted my blatant attempt at keeping her, but alas, I had to give her back at the end of the day. Some parents, I tell you.

Okay, okay, I’m getting back to the food. The starters were mini pizzas, and battered and fried zucchini strips – Jo-Jo and I ate the lot.

The starter was to die for: Parma Ham and a celeriac salad. The ham melted in your mouth and was simply superb. As was the salad.

The next course was a Pasta course. Well, them Italians know how to make pasta is all I can say. I don’t think I have ever had such good pasta in my entire life and they managed to produce it for 70 people! There were 2 types on the plate: one was a rolled pasta with cepe mushrooms (super) and the other was cheese and herb stuffed ravioli (deevine again).

And as if that wasn’t enough, we then had a meat course. It was pork wrapped in a special fatty bacon from the mountains, served with a magnificent sauce from the same area and potato cubes cooked fried with rosemary. A dream come true. It was so tender and just deevine that I would have licked my plate, but Jo-Jo wouldn’t let me ‘cos it’s bad manners.

For dessert, the restaurant made an enormous cream cake and we all wallowed in it. There were also beautiful fruit platters for the weight conscious amongst us...not that I need to...yes I do!!

All that is left to say, is that the food and the friends were fantastic and I can recommend both! Thank you again Roger and to my special waiter, “I’ll be back”