On Our Way to Bolzano

Bolzano — known as Bozen in German … the area is officially bi-lingual Italian/German — is in the South Tyrol province in northern Italy.

A gateway to the Dolomiti — Dolomites in English — Bolzano is where we will begin our 18-day ‘escape the heat’ trip. We’ll be in the city just long enough to pick up a rental car to head up into the mountains.

Our day commenced early … out the door at 6:30a. Although the recent heat dome finally broke with a seriously strong wind-rain-thunder-lightning storm Monday night, it was still quite warm at that hour … humid, too. Instead of walking or taking the bus, we opted to take a taxi for an easy start … which gave us time for a cappuccino & cornetto breakfast at Bologna Centrale.

The Austrian ÖBB RailJet train — eventual destination München, Germany — pulled into platform 9 a few minutes ahead of the scheduled 7:45a departure. There were no signs indicating where to stand on the platform for the specific train car for which we had tickets. Lucky us … car 265 stopped right in front of us!

We were initially assigned seats in a quadruple-booth, which we later changed to two-together seats. This newer model of the RailJet trains is quite comfy. There is a table in the seat back; a narrow ledge where you can set your devices upright to watch a movie or what have you … with a built-in magnetic charger and a USB outlet. There’s also a power point for charging. Wi-fi is complimentary.

As we head to our first stop — Verona — the scenery is rural for the most part … lots of greenhouses and agricultural fields … some green; some lying fallow; others dotted with rolls of hay bales. We passed an amazing field of brilliant yellow sunflowers … alas, my phone was off, so no photo. Occasional small towns.

It’s been a pleasant ride thus far … almost 45-minutes into the ride already. Less than two hours left to go.Read more