Holiday Inn Bologna Via Emilia

... tourists like me, enjoying my tree. But enjoying me in this tree. I do not stare but continue reading my book as my picture is stolen from me. <br>A Little boy walks down the stone path, following him, like a puppy is a yellow and green dump truck, which is attached to him at the wrist<br>I see the 'senoirs club' all the white head bobbing together, on foot, or on bicycles shuffling along to converge around the ...

Short train ride from Florence after a hair raising trip trying to return the rental car in confusing, congested and traffic restrictied Florence (don't rent a car downtown go to the airport). Bologna is an university town (even Johns Hopkin has a campus). Very historical town with a great plaza area like most towns and a great antique market.

... journey. We promptly got lost, so we caught a train for a couple of stops to a one horse town with only one road north so we knew we wouldn't get lost. Okay, no problem. But little did we know that there are no back roads in Bologna. No bikepaths. No sidewalks. No shoulders. <br><br>The way they get around in Italy is long two lane highways punctuated by roundabouts, with speed limits of 70 ...

... but the place had so many other things going for it. Once again Lyndsey and I were the tourist minority, navigating our way through a city that felt authentically and naturally Italian. Everywhere people were going about their daily business and routines, from the office workers sunning themselves on the steps to the Duomo to the Carabinieri endlessly circling the piazza in their squad car, admiring the girls and presumably hoping to find a drive-through Geletaria ...

... threw them off and I put my head down and slipped through a couple arm tackles then all of the sudden was in the clear. Mario was running back to pick one of the guys chasing me, but he was running directly at me, and I didn't know which way to go. I ended up breaking outside of him and running for 15 more yards before getting spun down. The whole thing was fairly comical. After our last touchdown to Mario, Tisma told us to fake the PAT again and go ...

... to look for some sign from the driver...finally after a long way that guy motions to me and says....next stop and presses the button for me...then points across a field and says ostello! thank you Lord for kind people vs. those that cant be bothered!!!!! so get to the hostel....was about to take a dorm then saw the prices for a single were only about 5 euros more so i said i will take a single for 2 nights. now i was happy and excited that i would get to try the ...

... So we check in and get through security and sit down at a cafe next to our gate. I reached in to get my wallet so I could buy something to snack on...my heart dropped. My wallet wasn't in my purse! It must have fallen out in the scramble of getting out of the taxi! I managed to hold it together and ran back to the security station and tell him the issue...but they spoke broken English and didn't know the number for any taxi service in Bologna. So now tears are ...

... to a river because the nearest river floods a lot. So, instead, there are canals that bring the water to the city. Most are underground, but you cans see parts of some of them. There was hardly any water in the one we saw, but supposedly the day before there had been. We all thanked the tour guide and then split up to get lunch before catching the train. I didn't want to make my stomach unhappy, so I just had toast and jam ...

... in Bologna. It was only 40km away via the back roads, but we wasted an enormous amount of time stuck in traffic en route, and barely halfway there decided to cut our losses, find an autostrade heading north and look around in Verona instead. <br><br>Once in the middle of Verona and crossing under the enormous Porta Nuova, a huge piazza opened up to form the forecourt to the third largest surviving Roman arena in the world. The first century open amphitheatre ...

June 10, 2002<br><br>Back on the bus! This time to Italy!! We went to Pisa (and had pizza for lunch!) We saw the tower, of course, and the church. Got to shop in the souvenir shops and sit for awhile in the sun. Very peaceful day. I can tell I'm getting tired, because the travel journal entries are shorter and shorter!<br> <br><br><br><br>We were in ...