Il Fluviale B&B Ferrara

... I am encouraged that I will soon be arriving with family. I can put my travel miles card away, put my feet up and have a proper vacation. Because as I've been saying to some people. This is not a vacation, it's Hard Work!

I arrived in Ferrara at 5:30ish on Monday evening, It was already starting to darken, the skies saying goodnight for a while. I found my hostel with only asking one person for ...

... even though you may have paid for first class passage you may find (as we did on the trip to Venice) that no seats are available. We ended up sitting in separate second class seats on that trip.

Our tickets showed our seats were in Coach 1. I assured Joanne we must make sure we approach the train from the front, assuming Coach 1 would be immediately behind the engine. Of course, that wasn’t the case. On this train Coach 1 was at the ...

... power of the ruthless Este dynasty who built the fortress to protect themselves from their own citizens.

Ferrara's Cathedral, built in 1135, is a gem of Romanic and Gothic architecture featuring a 3 tier facade with boney arches.

The Church of Sant'Antonio in Polesine contains beautiful frescoes from the 13th and 14th centuries.

The Palazzo del Diamanty (palace of Diamonds) was close to the castle and we leaned on it and check it off our list.

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.

... an hour. No one follows these limits. I know because Mandi and I found ourselves on such a road, on singlespeed step through bikes, getting passed by Porsches, Minis, and giant semi trucks headed north at 100 km an hour. At first we thought it would get better. Then we resigned ourselves to our fate. We were going to do this, no matter how crazy it was. And that's how we ended up biking nearly ...

... is actually the same bus we just got off of, the guy just had to turn around and I guess he didn't think we were going to get back on. So anyway, it took us about an hour to get to our hotel after we got off the train (which was delayed by two hours) but we made it. As we check in i notice that there are six slots with room keys behind the front desk that are not numbered but have names of famous artists. We give the ...

... served us a nice breakfast with coffee! It was too good to be true... All day we walked around in Venezia, as we could leave our bikes and bags safely at the house. It was such a relaxed day.. We transformed into true tourists and walked in all areas of the town making loads of pictures. It's such a relief to be in a city where there is no cars (and not even bikes...), so quiet and everything is more relaxed. Although certain ...

... the past couple of days fortunately it hasn’t hindered our sightseeing
(right now it is about 10:30 and it is pouring)

One of the peculiar things that we noticed on the way in and out of Bologna was it looked like prostitutes were lined up along the roadway right before the Autostrada. Another note is about the Autostrada and sometimes on the exit ramps you have two way traffic it is a little freaky you feel like you are going the wrong way.

... been told the wrong bus number!! The lady gave us a bus map and new directions and off we went. Found what we thought was the right bus, but after a while I realized it was going the WRONG WAY.. AAGGHHH!! So off we jumped, crossed the road and tried again – surely this one would take us there. We basically crossed from one side of the city to the other, and got off where the tourist info lady had told us to. We were in the middle of NO WHERE. Like the outer ...

Albergo Centro Storico, Ferrara Ricki: Had a beautiful, long, hot shower this morning, not worrying if anybody else was waiting to use it, or that the water would turn cold. Gotta make the most of it when you got it! Breakfast was provided in the price of the room, but wasn't much. Even so, we left feeling pretty full (don't know how) and were gone by 10am. Our ...