Selice Bologna Imola

I climbed a tree today, I sat in this tree on a branch. Protected, Buffered. Cradled. I read my book, sitting in a tree.
Feeling guilty of all I am not doing. I watch people riding by ringing their bicycle bells. I am strangly humbled. I sit in this tree and watch, the water fall from the fountain, making its delicate shapes and slapping to the base as it loses its fight with gravity.
I notice with a small ...

Our original plan was to take a train back to Milan and fly to Munich; then we found out we could fly out of Bologna which is much closer to Modena.
Knowing we had to leave for the train station at 7:15 this morning I set the alarm clock on the nightstand for 6:00. I wasn't very comfortable that I set it properly so I also set the alarm clock on my global cell phone for 6:00.

I slept like a log last night and awoke refreshed this morning… ...

Ferrara is a Medieval town that dates back around 1300 years when Ferrara was a Byzantine military fortified city. In 1115 Ferrara became a free commune and in 1135 the Cathederal was built.

The driving was flat and the highways were fast with lots of speeding passers. The parking was limited at Ferrara and the complexity for the parking signs left us concerned while we were touring. The parking spaces were tiny and many of the vehicles were dented and ...

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.

... cabbies, who would not take us, we found a gypsy cab and Mandi bargained him down to a 35 euro ride home. And that's how we ended up blasting along the very roads we had biked earlier, in a random cab just hoping to get home. And we did, he dropped us off right in front of our door.

The next day, we were headed for the Cinque Terre, and I'll tell you more about that in the next.

Jael

So we spent a bit of time the night before we got here trying to secure some accomodation. We found the hotel online and it seemed like a good value even if it was a bit out of the way. Whats a 20 minute bus ride anyway. So we get on the bus, which is the right bus going in the wrong direction; we found this out when we got kicked off at the last stop. So we get off and then get on the next bus headed in the other direction ...

... farmers. Other activities are the info shop "infoshock", a cinema; an Internet cafe; a ciclo officina (bike workshop); an Italian language course school for migrant; a gym; and now and then they organize diners, parties and concerts.. (every Thursday for sure). By chance we met two other cyclists that also stay here for the night, from USA. They are also traveling around in Italy now, same low budget style but with really ...

... It turned out the hotel wasn’t too far away, and on the way there we learnt that the man was Sicilian, and he couldn’t understand why we were in Bologna. It was a bit too hard to sign language 'we got a cheap flight here, it’s only for 1 night and then we are off to the Cinque Terre’. We did manage to get the Cinque Terre bit across – he said it’s ‘OK’ but we should really be going to Sicily because that is much ...

... historic monument in the States. Here, it's just an everyday building home to families and businesses. After six months on the road, Via Val D'Aposa 7 was our home for one month while Andy taught a course on international conflict resolution and human rights to university students enrolled in a summer program. During the month, we saw most of Bologna's tourist attractions, hopped on trains to nearby (and not so nearby) towns, and survived the everyday ordeals of living in a foreign ...

... shoppers. Shop service is often rather slow in Italy. As we waited in the bread shop we saw a collision between two cars just outside the shop, and, long before it was our turn at the counter, the arrival and departure of an ambulance. Having bought our provisions we walked in ever-increasing circles looking for the Post Office so that we could consult a Verona phone book. In most countries we have visited the Post Office is in the centre of the city. In Tuscany ...