N and J’s European holiday.

We catch the fast train from Florence to Bologna, it’s barely a 30 minute trip but we get off at our station and contemplate the walk to the Bologna Inn. The Inn is in the centre of the city. We are struggling with our bearings and one wheel on the luggage is a bit wonky, the Florence streets got the better of it. They have a 10 year warranty so that will be sorted when we get back to Canberra. Taxi it is. We get in a cab and show the driver the address. 2 minutes later we arrive. Poor taxi driver, I apologise for the small fare and even tip him. Where we are is not looking too wonderful, if this is the centre of Bologna, why are we here. We only picked Bologna because it was not too far from Venice and supposedly has good shopping. We enter the building and squeeze into the maximum of 4 people lift with our suitcases taking up more than 50% of the space. The Inn is on one floor of the eight floor building and we don’t know what floor it is on. The doorman says something related to Bologna Inn, sixth floor I think he said. So we get out at the sixth floor and can’t see the Bologna Inn entry. I run up a flight of stairs and there it is. Up a flight of stairs I carry the suitcases and we enter the Bologna Inn R&B. R&B, maybe it’s a rhythm and blues themed hotel? No it’s a Room and breakfast, maybe an Italian B&B. We check in and look forward to our room with fridge, somewhere we can put our milk. The fridge is there but no kettle. What’s going on? How can there be a fridge but no tea making facilities. 4 years ago we encountered this situation in Rome and bought a kettle but threw it out at the airport when trying to reduce our baggage weight. MDW says we will just have to buy another one because she knows what I’m like if I don’t have 10 cups of tea in the morning. Off we venture onto the streets of this ordinary city. Lots of traffic, city buildings and graffiti. We found a kettle at a shop a couple of doors down and were told it had a two year warranty. That’s useful to know. Back to our room we have cups of tea. This is the first time in a week we have been able to really enjoy a cuppa. Mind you we have to hide the kettle when we leave the room because we don’t think it is something the hotel management would approve of. I asked if I could use their kitchen to make a pot of tea and they said no, it’s for breakfast making only.
Replenished in tea we look for a supermarket, there’s one across the road. Crossing the road in Bologna is challenging. There are pedestrian crossings but if there are no traffic lights it becomes a game of cat and mouse. We stood on the edge of the pedestrian crossing waiting for the traffic to stop but none did. We soon observed people just walk across and force the vehicles to come to a halt. Holding hands we did the same, if one of us is getting hit then we go together, that’s our motto. After safely negotiating a few crossings our confidence is increasing. We start to cross another road which did not go so well, MDW said she looked into the eyes of her potential killer. She was shaken.
So being in Bologna what do you eat? German food of course, we walk the kilometre to a Bavarian restaurant which has schnitzel’s. We are now in an even seedier part of town but having Google maps, we are confident we will find our way back. It is interesting how reliant on the smart phone we have become. Most tourists walk around with phone in hand, much easier than a paper map. Because it is 7 o’clock we are the only people there that are eating. The food is pretty good but we are eager to kick back and relax. These travel days are quite wearing even though much of the time is spent sitting and waiting.
The next morning we wait and wait for our breakfast to be delivered to our room. It doesn’t arrive so I venture out of the room to see where it is. MDW has ticked “Main room”. She says I was there when she filled out the form, I get the blame for everything, MDW says. The lady says she will bring it in which she does. Tea and toast, the bread is the ultra thin style although there are patisseries which sell delicious breads. Milk for the tea is provided but it is heated and frothy. I wonder how difficult it must be for tourists who come to Australia from non English speaking countries with different eating habits and customs. Only once have we complained about the food and that was when a toasted cheese and ham sandwich arrived instead of plain toast. Usually we give each other that knowing look of “here we go again” or have a chuckle. Although we are in a very civilised part of the world we have got out of our comfort zone at times which is not a bad thing.
After breakfast and research we go to the old centre of town and find a breath taking area. Churches, museums and big towers. One has over 400 steps to the top. A challenge for me tomorrow. Bologna is not as touristy as Florence or Milan with much smaller crowds and no waiting time to enter buildings. Most have no entry fee. The basilica is very impressive inside and even had a church service whilst we were there. We caught a little tourist train to the top of Bolgna’s hills. The road was narrow and windy with many near misses but it just seem that’s the way you drive in Italy. From the top you could see all of Bologna which was shrouded in a haze.
Back to the old centre we did more walking, past the exclusive brands area where the shops appear to try and out do each other with their window displays. We walk past a trendy looking hairdressing salon, no we enter the salon and 30 minutes later MDW is getting an Italian hair cut or this that hair cut by an Italian? Come back in 1 hour, MDW tells me. So I go walking and after 2 hours MDW is still in the chair. I sit at the cafe next door and slowly sip two coffees when MDW appears with her trendy new hair do and colour.
The weather has been a bit miserable with a fair bit of rain. Many umbrellas are opened to keep people dry, us included but we are on our way to the markets. We only just found out about them and the lady at the Inn said they may not be on because of the weather. We arrive to find most stallholders are packing away their products. Most of the stalls are operated by nationalities from Asia, India and Bangladesh. The prices are cheap as is the quality. MDW is disappointed that it is closing up as she likes nothing better than a good rummage around at the markets whilst I carry on about the quality or ask why do you want that. We came away empty handed, bought some nice bread and back to the room. We have another day in Bologna and not sure what else we can see. We have seen all the historic buildings and I just have the tower to climb. On Sundays, Bologna shuts up shop for the morning.
It’s Sunday morning and our breakfast arrives. We go through the ritual of putting the tea bag in the teapot, pour a bit in the cups then empty all the contents down the sink. This way the staff think we have appreciated the breakfast and no one has their feelings hurt. Maybe we shouldn’t order breakfast at all but at least the toast is something in our stomachs plus I’ve started eating too many croissants. The highlight of the morning has been FaceTime with our grandchildren in Canberra and Broken Hill, although this makes MDW homesick.
Today I am planning to climb the Asinelli tower so we walk to the general area to organise a ticket. I ended up buying one online as I couldn’t find a ticket office anywhere, start time 2pm. We found a seafood cafe that offered fish and chips and a toilet. It was down one of the narrow side streets a bit away from the basilica and the other old parts of the city. We were the only two there but it was probably early for most people, 12:30, or it was going to be terrible and no one ate there. We ordered our drinks, cutlery was delivered then came our fish and chips. It came served in polystyrene containers and the batter was not crisp but somehow rubbery and white. We give it a go and the fish wasn’t too bad although it needed to be released from the batter first. MDW struggled, just the look of it was enough but managed to eat some of the chips. After paying and using the toilet it was approaching “climb the tower time”. MDW sat on a concrete block, wished me good luck and told me not to have a heart attack. I joined the queue of mainly 20 - 30 year olds. I couldn’t imagine it being too difficult to do the steps, my only problem would be my fear of heights, so hopefully I wouldn’t end up near a ledge or exposed window. Off we went, one step at a time, I did think about counting the steps before heading off but after a couple of flights that idea had gone. On the way up there were 4 landings and by the time I reached the first landing some people had stopped for a rest or maybe given up. The steps were narrow but the handrail made the task easy as you could almost pull yourself up each step. Once I got to the top I was faced with caged windows, the floor sloping down, away from the centre of the tower. Luckily for me I found an old metal hook which I was able to hold onto when I attempted to take photos. I was not handling this situation well, I need to get back down, now! The trip down was easy although the steps being narrow required more care. Job done my fear of heights is now even greater. I found MDW and we strolled back towards the inn listening to a few of the marching bands that were performing today. We called into the co-op to get milk and supplies for tomorrow’s train trip to Venice. A trial run of packing our bags completed with room for our kettle found, we both agree one full day in Bologna is enough.Read more