Today was another big day. We were out of the apartment not long after 7:30 and were able to go directly to the desk for tickets to Bologna. We ended up taking the intercity train to Bologna which is halfway between a bullet train and a slower regional train. This one has assigned times and seats. It left Florence at 8:10 so we didn’t have long to wait. It was about 15 minutes late arriving and leaving so as we left, they made an announcement that anyone who wanted to make a complaint, on how to do it. We will not be making a complaint. For our return tickets we chose the flexible regional tickets so that we could choose to come back when we wanted.
The central train station is a little over a km away from the older section of the city, but we made it in no time. What can I say about the thousands of porticos in Bologna. It was so different from anything we’ve ever seen. We’ve seen porticos before, yes, but never that many. A person could walk for hours on a rainy day and never get wet. We started our visit at Piazza Maggiore where we were going to do a lab cache, but the entry to the place we needed to go to find our answer was closed so were unable to do it. It was a bit disappointing because it meant that we could not do the other 4 on the list since they had to be done in sequential order. We looked around a bit in the square while listening to a young man sing before continuing looking for more traditional caches.
We also strolled through the giardini margherita where we saw turtles sunning on the rocks. There was a long line of food trucks at one end of the garden with all sorts of food, including one selling octopus burgers. Doesn’t that sound appetizing. Lol.
We went a few times around two of the towers of Bologna. Everyone talks about the leaning tower of Pisa has a leaning tower, but nobody talks about the fact that Bologna two. It is even taller than the one in Pisa but not as well known and not as pretty. There was a cache hid there but there were too many people around to search so after a few attempts we gave up and continued our sight seeing. The two towers were built between the years 1109 and 1119. The taller one (Asinelli Tower) is 97.2 meters tall and has a lean of 1.3 degrees while the shorter one (Garisenda Tower) is 48 meters tall (reduced from it's original 60 meters due to the lean) and has a lean of 4.0 degrees. By comparison, the leaning tower of Pisa 55.8 meters tall and has a lean of 3.9 degrees.
Along our walk around the city, we were able to take a variety of interesting pictures.
By 5 we were tired so headed back to the train station via a different route so that we could pass under different porticos. The platform for our train was so far away that it took us almost 10 minutes to reach it once we entered the train station. We saw why getting more expensive tickets can come in handy. We were during rush hour and many people did not get to find a seat. Fortunately, we arrived early enough to get seats together. It took much longer to get home because of the many stops on the way and also, we had to make a train change in Prato.
With all that walking, we logged in at 20 km for the day. Our biggest day so far. We now have gone to all the places that were on our priority list for day trips. There are still a couple left like, San Geminiano, Milan and Orvietto that we will decide as we go. We are more than halfway in our vacation. Time goes by fast when you are busy.
You should check to see about tickets for the last supper in Milan, may help you decide when to go there. We loved those porticos -Wendy
ReplyDelete