Hotel Corona D Oro Bologna

... 6:30!!! I told Joanne to wake up and hurriedly got dressed.

We went to the front desk to check out and ask the desk clerk to call a taxi for us. He assured us we had time for breakfast before the taxi took us to the train station, so we took advantage of the opportunity. As promised, the taxi got us to the train station with plenty of time to catch our train. I had the opportunity to ask someone about the "validation" process for our train tickets ...

... the language. Gherardo was a willing wealth of knowledge, and taught me that if a man in Italy is wearing a bespoke suit, he unbuttons the last button on the cuff of his suit, to signify this. I started looking for it and saw it all over the place.

After dinner we rushed to catch our train back to the hotel, but we missed it. It was close to midnight, and no more trains. After haggling with ...

... seaters. Dawn counted 50 in all. These are as new as 2007, as the 2008's have not been released to the public yet. some privately owned and some for sale. Minimum price for one of these retired F1 machines, 1 Million Euro. Ok...

This was truly a dream come true for me and I want to thank Dawn for letting me experience something like this in the middle of our honeymoon.

... never tried it..) and a jaccuzi tub in the bathroom AND there were two sinks - one was really low to the ground so we didnt use it :). We put our stuff away and went down to the desk to find out where was good to eat. I sheepishly asked what the deal was with our room and the lady just smiled and said there is no suppliment, they were overbooked. This place was probably 200 Euro a night and we were paying less than 40 ...

The last days where amazing! We are really lucky... In last entry you can read that we had difficulty to find a place to sleep in Venice. We almost decided to leave without visiting the old center... But at the las moment we got an sms from Nico, from Hospitality club, that he could host us right away! He and Cristina, his wife, have a beautiful home in the center of Mestre with a garden full of cactusses and fruits: kiwis ...

... 4 times through as it was the only thing on in english. We had our 1st Italian pasta in the hotel restaurant and watched a movie on our massive plasma until the power went out (really annoying actually, we still don’t know the ending to that movie!) so went to sleep!

Getting back into the city was far less eventful thank god – there was a bus stop just around the corner and the bus took us straight to the train station to get to the Cinque Terre!

... tortelloni, tortellini (yes, there's a difference), bologna, Parmesan cheese, tagliatelle pasta, and a lot of deserts that I didn't allow myself to remember.  Kendyl and I got some Tortelloni to bring home and cooked it that night when we got home.  After the tour, we still had some time to look around so we basically sped-walked to the Chiesa di San Domenico and Santo Stefano.  Bother churches were very pretty, especially outside, but we ...

... like a spring", come direbbe il mio amico Riccardo. Oggi sono andato a sistemare le ultime cose e ora mi manca, per essere tranquillo al 100% solamente un posto per dormire. Sono mesi che provo a prenotare l'alloggio in una struttura che fornisce a prezzi ragionevoli stanze e piccoli appartamenti ma ancora non ci sono riuscito. Da ...

... for once JM doesn't complain about having to hang out in clothing shops with me, because he's seen how I suffer. It's not too hard to find good deals here too. I've bought a heavy green fake-fur lined coat for only 19 Euro, and another sleeveless sweather for 15 Euro. Benetton here is not as expensive as in the US and is in fact one of the cheaper Italian stores-- I bought a cozy zip-up sweather there for only 15 Euro. People here dress very elegantly and ...

... and the added benefit of having local insights into the city. Being able to socialize primarily with the locals instead of backpackers is an added benefit - in the hostels lately it's mostly been "so, uh, what state are you from?" With a little cash freed up, I decided to allow myself a bit of splurging, with a pricy, but tasty evening drink on a piazza and then a fantastic dinner at a local trattoria. Being in Bologna, I had to go for the local cuisine ...