Z. Layne Raftery - How to Conquer Bologna in an Hour and a Half (and make an American Quilt)
We awoke to a grand Venetian morning for our last day in the Veneto. Trudging up the now familiar staircase in the hotel complex, we broke the fast at a bright and early 7:30am and made our way back to Arsenale ferry terminal for the 40 minute ferry ride to the station, up the Grand Canal. It was forking cold, though it was good to actually take a ride the whole way up the canal and take in the sights that we missed from the shore. Venice is dirty, grimy, mouldy, uneven, collapsing, decaying, smelly, broken, old, and decrepit. It’s also one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever visited.
We jumped on our train (first time on the actual Eurostar) bound for Bologna. Why Bologna, I hear you ask? To be honest I have no idea. I can’t remember why. I just looked at a map of Italy, saw it there in bold, capital letters, put it to the Board (Matt) and then booked a hotel there. I didn’t look at what there was to do there, and knew nothing about it, except a guess I held that Bolognese sauce was invented there. I was right. Bolognese sauce was invented here.We jumped off the train and into a cab at Bologna Centrale, one of Italy’s most important rail hubs as it’s at the crossroads between Milan, Venice, and Florence. It took five minutes to find the hotel in the cab, which was good because we feared it would be extremely expensive. It wasn’t so. Catching a cab also gave Batesy’s suitcase a much deserved rest (one of his two wheels has gotten stuck, and is dragging along the ground slowly decaying, while the other wheel valiantly continues its rolly quest).
The Savhotel was an epic hotel, as Matt put it, like a Hilton in the middle of Ipswich. The area in which it is built is a dive – it looked like the ghetto or the Bronx. But the hotel was fantastic. And free WiFi! What more could you ask for?We checked in, did some interwebs-ing, and looked up some stuff to do in Bologna. Well, the list of stuff to do in Bologna is relatively short. Once you’re in the main part of town, the city is quite pretty. All of the buildings have the same red-tile roofing which makes for a great uniformity. But other than that, it’s quite a boring, somewhat sleepy city.
We walked first to the Neptune Fountain, which was pretty cool, and featured many Roman Gods with water squirting from their nipples. Matt decided to copy their pose for a photo. Then we went to the Duomo (Cathedral). Although it was closed, until 3pm. As it was 2:30pm we walked around the block, and checked out the many stores that were also closed. I figured some kind of siesta was enforced here. Returning to the Duomo at 3pm, we checked out its insides. It’s the 5th largest Cathedral in the world, and was beautiful. It was going to be the biggest (bigger than St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican), but the Pope hundreds of years ago wasn’t a fan of this idea and commissioned a university to be built right next to it so that it couldn’t be expanded. Bam.After this, we walked to the Two Towers – two leaning towers in Bologna that stand together. It cost three euro to climb the taller one of the two, and we thought what the hell – why not? Not like we had anything else to do in this town. We climbed it, it was exhausting (even moreso carrying the Lonely Planet guide to Italy), and took in the view from the top. It was epic. Hundreds and hundreds of red-tile buildings in every direction. We photo’d it.
Upon descending the tower, we returned to the hotel, where we relaxed for a bit, confident we had conquered Bologna. For dinner, we both decided to eat something Bolognese. The hotel offered this at its restaurant, and so we ate there. It cost 23 euro, or roughly 36 AUD, so we were expecting something huge. The tagliatelle Bolognese that was delivered to us was not huge – though it was delicious, it was small. We ate, satisfied for taste but not quantity, and asked for the bill. The guy told us that another course was coming. Out came another plate, of cold cuts and cheese. I have no idea what cheese it was, but it was amazing. After downing this, our want was quenched. We retired to the room, where I read a little about Florence before collapsing from exhaustion after completing a huge day of Bolognese activities.
M.G.R. Bate - Four to the Flor-ence
We awoke to a frosty snowy morning in Bologna. Such a dismal sight was unwelcome in our humble hearts as we were required to carry our large, voluminous bags two or so kilometres down the uncovered footpaths to the train station. Yes, we were about to leave the gay capital of Italy for the prosperous and more heterosexual community of Florence. But first, it was off to the breakfast buffet. And oh what a buffet it was! Bacon, scrambled eggs and breakfast sausage (and I’m not talking about the kind of breakfast sausage you get in Bologna after waking up in a strangers bed after a night at the discotheque – A Hoy!). It made the Astor Quest’s selection of breakfast look like...well...the Ass-tor quest (if it didn’t already because of its small shoebox like room).
After breakfast, we booked a day tour of Florence for the following day. The tour takes place on a Segway. Yeah, you read correctly, and in case you didn’t read, I’ll repeat in capital letters: A SEGWAY. But more on that tomorrow. First we had to make it through the drizzling snow to our train station two kilometres away.
We made it.
It was a short 40 minute train ride and we saw some remarkable sights. Within the space of ten minutes, we saw fields completely covered in snow to fields that were luscious and green without a single snowflake resting gently on the bosom of any blade of grass. We also had a creepy Italian dude sit near us, who kept looking at me in-between playing a game on his phone.We arrived at the platform in Florence, and Zach informed me that the hotel we are staying in is not too far from the train station. He was right. We checked in at around 10am, much to our delight. When we got in our room, it smelt like a Grandmother’s house. Basically, it reeked of old person smell. We quickly deduced - after discovering our room’s bathroom was larger than the rooms in the hostel we spent in London and Belfast put together – was in fact a disabled room. Well that solves the case of the smelly room. Conveniently, and unfortunately, our room is located right near the breakfast buffet room and reception. But on the plus side, we get a little seat thing in our room to help us into our wheelchairs. So it all evens out in the end.
After taking a well earned break to catch up on some blogging, we set off to find an internet cafe to locate our meeting point for the SEGWAY tour tomorrow, as our printed ticket did not give us the address. So we set off, did a little surfing, found the address and had a bite to eat. Next we set our sights to the Duomo, the number one thing to do in Italy, according to the Lonely Planet guide (which lists having a picnic in the top 25 things to do, and doesn’t even mention the colosseum. Thanks LP!). It’s the fourth largest cathedral in the world and it was mighty impressive. What’s more, they even allow you free entry and you can TAKE PICTURES. So much for that crappy cathedral in Venice that wouldn’t even let you talk quietly or take pictures – yet they had no problem selling you full access to the cathedral for 6 euro in total, and the loud sound of a cash register opening in the store, just opposite of the entrance. Cha-ching!
We found our meeting spot for tomorrow’s tour and walked around the streets for a little bit. We stopped into the free entry supermarket (yes! Free entry to the supermarket! I know! I couldn’t believe it myself. I was flabbergasted. Goodbye to the entry fees I have to pay to get into Woolworths at home! I know where I’m going to live!) and bought some 95 cent chips and some coke for dinner as our large breakfast was an adequate feast compared to the meagre shoe-laces that we had for breakfast everywhere else.
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