When we were going around the art galleries in Florence at the end of March we noticed that many of the gaps on the walls referred to an exhibition at a place called Forli to which the missing pictures had been sent. (Incidentally, the most extraordinary gap was the picture of three ladies standing at a piano which is used on the poster outside the Pitti Palace to lure people into the Arte Moderna gallery! One could comment about misleading advertising.)

We discovered that Forli is in Emilia-Romagna, not far south of Ravenna, and therefore on a convenient route between Florence and Venice so we decided to check the exhibition out, and were very glad that we did.

On the way we spent a most enjoyable few days in the mountains north and east of Florence: first the Mugello, which was great for hill walks and for pottering between the towns and villages and was practically empty of tourists, then over to the delightful area around Poppi, including the wonderful forests around the abbeys of Vallombrosa and Camaldoli.

We then moved via the spectacular scenery around the Mandrioli Pass and a lovely hill drive on virtually empty but high quality roads through Santa Sofia and Civitella di Romagna to Forli.

However, before arriving in Forli we stopped for a memorable lunch at Il Rustichello at Meldola. We'll submit a review, but suffice it to say that we can heartily recommend this restaurant!

And the exhibition itself was a delight. It is called "Silvestro Lega - I Macchiaioli e il Quattrocento" and runs until 24th June. It is in a brand new museum which has been installed in the dominican monastery in Forli (to which the Civic Museum has been moved) and all the stops have been pulled out to create a good impression. The main focus of the exhibition is on Lega who was a local boy and was one of the group of late 19th century artists called the Macchiaioli (they were somewhat like impressionists). We particularly liked the numerous portraits by him that were included in the show, as well as some pictures by his contemporaries, notably Fattori and Signorini. We never found out precisely what the Quattrocento connection was (we declined the audio guide, and there were no English-language captions), but the exhibition included a wonderful small collection of 15th century delights (two Botticellis, including his extraordinary portrait of a woman from the Palatina Gallery, a handful of exquisite Fra Angelicos, and others by Uccello, etc.) While this is not an earth-shattering exhibition, we would recommend it to anyone who is lucky enough to have the time to fit in a trip to Forli.

Hugh

Forli can also be an inexpensive airport to fly into. Forli (FRL) is being billed as the "alternative Bologna Airport" and is now served by Ryannair Flights to London (STN), Dublin, and Frankfurt. Windjet, a new Italian discount airline offers flights to Paris. Given the low costs of Ryannair and the like, we've been looking seriously at flying into Forli on our next trip to Italy.

We know a German couple that owns a house near ours in Sestino that fly into Forli, and they've left a car in a parking lot nearby for the last two years without ever getting a parking ticket.