Interlude in Bologna

Sensory overload – what a place! But, backing up a bit, we arrived in Bologna on Monday evening. We left Switzerland looking forward to returning to Italy. Switzerland was certainly very beautiful but there is something indefinable about Italy – you either love it (like us) or hate it (like our Swiss friend Walter). We left Spiez on a fast train south to Brig and then through the Simplon tunnel into Italy. Unfortunately they were working on the line so we were transferred to a bus to Domodossola and then back onto a train to Milan. With all the delay we still managed to arrive on time in Milan. Speed limits must have been broken!

Our trip from Milan to Bologna later that day was very impressive on a very new Italian train. Over 200kms in 1 hour. The tracks were dead straight most of the way, double glazing made it very quiet, and when you flashed past cars on the motorway you realized that you were going fast. At one point the speedo in the carriage clocked up 300 km/hr. Also on the motorway were several huge traffic jams as people headed back from holidays on the coast.

As it is the quiet season in Italian cities (they’re all on holiday at the coast) there are many hotel bargains. We picked one up via booking.com for 120 Euros for two nights in a nice 3 star hotel including big breakfasts. And only a 20 minute stroll to the centre of town. Of course, we never get anywhere walking in 20 minutes – too many stops for picture-taking!

Typical covered shopping street

All we know about Bologna, apart from being the major rail gateway in northern Italy, is that it is red (so many of the old buildings were made from brick), it is home to the oldest university in the world, and graffiti appears to be a compulsory local pastime. The pavements along the shopping streets are covered walkways and there are numerous old buildings. Around the centre it is hard to know where to look as there are huge churches and civic buildings everywhere. And the outlying streets take you down covered walkways past museums and university buildings to the old city walls.

Sadly so many of the monuments and buildings are covered in graffiti with no respect given for their age. Possibly the downside of having so many students around.

It was our first opportunity to act like complete tourists for a (short) period, rather than staying with locals. We enjoyed the location and our first evening meals out since leaving England. Superb and cheap pizzas and pastas. One more day would have been better to give us time to explore some of the museums and galleries from the inside, but it is time to move on to our next HelpX hosts.