Bologna

My train rides from Cinque Terre to Bologna were quite stressful. Each one of them was late, forcing me to run from one to the next. There was a massive crowd trying to get on the train from Parma to Bologna, and I literally pushed myself onto it seconds before the doors shut and many people were left waiting. I ended up having to stand awkwardly in the aisle for about 20 minutes before people got off at the next stop. I hadn’t printed my ticket because on my train from Milan, someone had shown their electronic ticket on their iPhone and it was fine, but apparently that doesn’t fly on the less classy trains. The ticket collector told me it wasn’t okay and I got very scared that he would fine me a ton, but he got distracted with some craziness right behind me so I thought I might have gotten out of it. Unfortunately, he came back to me later and said I would have to pay the ticket price, but then he only made me pay him an arbitrary 5 euros. I’m pretty sure he just pocketed it, but I was glad to not have to pay a 50+ euro fine. I think it was 20% negative karma for having kept the 20 euros that the machine spit out at me at the Florence train station.

In Bologna, I stayed with a woman who was renting a bed. There were absolutely no hostels in the city center and I didn’t want to pay a lot for a single room in a bed and breakfast, so this seemed like a good option. It turned out to be quite nice, as the lady I was staying with was very sweet and helpful. I basically had a double bed that was surrounded by a bamboo fence in the corner of the living room. It was in a very good location and pretty cheap, so it was a fine accommodation for two nights.

On Tuesday, I went exploring around the city. It is quite small and extremely walkable, and I mostly just walked around all day looking at the various monuments and piazzas. I started in Piazza Maggiore, which is the main square. Almost all of the sidewalks are covered by porticos, and it is said that you don’t need an umbrella in Bologna. The city is really pretty and charming and infinitely less touristy than the other places I visited. It is called “Bologna the Red” because most of the buildings are painted some tint of red. Some parts of it reminded me a little bit of Cambridge, MA, because it is very much a university city, as it houses the oldest university in Europe. I went to the Museum of European Students, where I read about and saw artifacts of student life. It definitely made me miss college. For lunch, I had a yummy lasagna Bolognese. Bologna is famous for its good food, and it satisfied my non-picky palate. I basically just walked all over the city and into some churches (I have decided that I am on the church tour of Europe) and watched children shooting pigeons with a fake machine gun. I went to dinner with my host, where I learned about her life and enjoyed a delicious crostini covered with cheese, honey, and walnuts. Naturally, I finished off my last night in Italy with a serving of gelato. They certainly do their food right.

I got up at about 3:30 am this morning, nervous that my taxi wouldn’t come for me at 5:00. It did come, and I attempted to sleep on my entire flight home. Now I am back in Sevilla, catching up with Rebecca and laundry. It is nice to be home, but I had an amazing adventure over the past few days and am proud that I did an entire trip “ridin’ solo.”