To Milano

I'm at the station in Bologna waiting for my train to Milan. It is an underground platform, which is nice since I didn't want to sit outside.

I wandered around for a bit and thought about lunch. However, I was just not hungry! So I stopped at a café and had a spritz... and a sbagliato. At 3 p.m., I walked to the hotel to pick up my suitcase. I reorganized to put my purse and its contents in my suitcase. The cab I requested arrived fast! There were about 50 teenagers in the lobby and they were all leaving. I couldn't get out the door! The hotel staff let me out another door.

The taxi took about 10 minutes and cost 11€. So much better than schlepping my suitcase for a 20-minute walk!The train ended up being 3 levels down. Thank goodness for elevators, escalators, and that I planned enough time!

The train was crowded, but it had assigned seats. It originated in Rome, so this was the 2nd to last stop. The ride was comfortable, and all was going well until about 2/3 the way there. Then train slowed down to a crawl. Later they came on the intercom and said there was a police action going on at one of the other Milan stations, and we were going to be late. No big deal for me since Sarah was running late, as well.

I didn't rush to get off the train since I wasn't in a hurry. I was in the 4th car, and by the time I got 2 the beginning of the 1st car, there was a major crush to get out. People trying to go both ways, but no one was moving. At one point, it was a little scary. I am guessing what happened was that since the train was 25 minutes late, ALL the people were getting on to go back south at the same time. As soon as we got off the train platform, it was fine. But it was a crazy 10 minutes!

I found the taxi area, but there were 2 or 3 separate taxi lines. And of course, no taxis! I finally had to get aggressive and jump to one of the few that arrived. The cab took about 20 minutes to Sarah's, and she was waiting at the door for me.Read more