shave ice & gelato

Monday, June 18th
Ciao! I am now in Bologna. I still need to catch up with my days in Venice and also my stay with my friends in Coccaglio. I am only here for one day and have a dinner reservation in an hour but I wanted to at least check in.

I arrived at the train station in Rovato about 15 minutes early. I validated my ticket and I was set to say goodbye to Katia when we saw that my train was 50 minutes delayed! That made my connection in Verona impossible. Rovato is a very small train station with one ticket booth with a man that is not very friendly. After buying a ticket from him a few years ago, I always buy my ticket in advance when taking a train from this station so that I can avoid him. I was not very hopeful that he would be able to help but surprisingly, he was able to suggest an alternate train that should still get me to Verona in time. He told me that I would not have to pay anything more since the train I bought the ticket for was now canceled.

Katia had to leave to go to work and so I sat and waited. This train ended up being 5 minutes late also. I arrived in Brescia and saw that the Eurostar City train was going to Verona and would get me there on time. I told my story about my cancelled train to the conductor but he would not let me on the train. He said I had to wait for the IC train which would get me to Verona in time for my connection.

Monday, June 18th
First a little more about my hotel. Hotel Porta San Mamolo is quite an interesting hotel. I had to pay close attention when shown to my room and later got lost a couple of times finding it. My room was on the second floor after walking through this maze of outdoor and indoor corridors. As I mentioned earlier, I thought there must have been a mistake as I asked for a single room, but this room was huge! There even was a couch in the room!! I was staying for one night but still there were tons of towels (the fluffy type) and soaps and shower caps, etc. The shower was wonderful and the bed was also huge!

I had been to Bologna a couple of times before; once on a day trip and once for an overnight stop. When making my itinerary this year, I thought about 4 days in Bologna but then decided on wanting one smaller place to stay instead of all cities (since my other stops would be Venice and Rome). I know that one night is definitely not “slow travel” but it would have been six hours and 3 train stops to Cortona and so I chose Bologna as my half way point.

Monday, June 18th
Bologna is known for its food, its porticoes and its towers. At one point in history, many have said that there were up to 180 towers in Bologna although more recent studies now suggest that the number is closer to 80 - 100 towers. Click here to see a panoramic picture of Bologna in the 11th century. Less than 20 towers remain today.

The two famous towers in Bologna are the Garisenda Tower and the Asinelli Tower. It is pretty difficult to get both towers from top to bottom in one picture. I took this picture on my walk over to the towers from the main piazza in Bologna

Both of the towers are leaning towers. The Garisenda Tower is shorter, leans more, and is not available for climbing. It is the tower pictured above on the left. The Asinelli Tower is the taller of the two towers, the tower I climbed, and the tower pictured on the right. I have read that there are 498 steps to the top. I lost count on my way up. It definitely was a challenging tower to climb.

I can't believe it has been 8 days since my last post. Where has all the time gone? When I returned home from my trip, I started to download all of my pictures onto my computer and ran out of room! I also ran out of room on my external hard drive. After doing a little research, I found a new external hard drive that seemed to meet my needs. It was delivered last Friday. While everyone was enjoying their new Harry Potter books, I spent 3 full days re-organizing my computer. I also learned a BIG lesson. If you have a Mac, DO NOT touch any of the folders or information in your iPhoto program. I was able to retrieve them all using iPhoto Library Manager, but it was a long process. My eyes were pretty blurry after all that work and so I avoided the computer for a few days after that, but now I am back.

For this post, I wanted to share more of Bologna. Leslie, I hope this continues to inspire you!! The following pictures are of the porticoes and the beautiful buildings and colors of Bologna.

When I first walked into Piazza Maggiore, I was a little disappointed that there were men setting up this huge stage with an area roped off and scaffolding placed right in front of the Basilica di San Petronio. There were two reasons for my disappointment. I was disappointed that it would be very difficult to get a good picture of this church and also that I would not be in Bologna for the free festivities about to take place over the next few days, a dance marathon of some sort.

Fortunately, a couple of hours later when returning for one more moment in this beautiful piazza before heading back to my hotel, I found that although the chairs and the stage was still there and the men were still working on some sort of electrical work, the roped off areas and the scaffolding were no longer there. I started to walk down one of the aisles to get to a good angle to photograph the church when a dog that was by his owner under a chair started growling and barking. I was pretty freaked out (barking dogs and thunder & lightening being my two fears). I jumped and let out a little scream. I was glad to see that he was on a leash, but still was not comfortable being near him and so I maneuvered my way through a few more rows and then was yelled at by the men working on the electrical wiring telling me I could not be there. I sort of acknowledged their message but continued on to get my photo.

The Basilica di San Petronio is the 5th largest church in the world. As you can see the top half was never finished. This makes it a rather unique church today.

One more entry for Bologna and then I will move onto Rome. The food in Bologna is definitely one of the highlights of this wonderful city. Here are a few pictures that I took during my afternoon there:

I always put myself through the same stressful process when planning a trip to Italy. I start out by thinking about the places I want to visit. I look at the train transportation options and connections and realize that my plan does not work. I then rework the order of the places and become more frustrated when the train transportation options continue to not work. I add new places, take out places, and try to rework the order again. At the same time, I check out hotel options and try to find flights that will work. I experience a few sleepless nights until my itinerary finally is set. I feel so much better once I have my basic itinerary in place.

This year, I had two definite locations in mind; Acqui Terme and Camogli (which I guess was not that definite since I am now staying in Santa Margherita Ligure). I thought about heading to either Stresa or Baveno after landing in Milan. I also thought about staying in Lucca and either Bologna or Parma at one point during my trip.

After looking at train schedules, trying to visualize lugging my luggage on and off trains, and remembering to do it slow, I came to my senses and realized that I needed to choose only three locations before heading to Zurich. I decided to start out in Santa Margherita Ligure and then to go to Acqui Terme (the train schedules worked best this way). The problem was trying to decide on my third location.

The logical choice would be the town of Como since it was a train stop on the way to Zurich. I have only been in Como twice, both times very briefly, walking from the boat dock to the train station; once coming from Menaggio and once from Bellagio.

My frustration with trying to plan a stay in Como was finding a good hotel. I also thought about Stresa and Baveno again even though the train routes were a little longer and more complicated. I have never been to the Italian part of Lake Maggiore. Like Sandra, I posted a question on the Slow Travel Italy forum to get input from others. I did not get any overwhelming recommendations for any of these three lake town options, and meanwhile, Bologna continued to tug at my heart.

I kept telling myself that logically I should head north to the lake region. To get a better feel for Como, Stresa, and Baveno, I went to the Italy Trip Report section on Slow Travel and searched each town. I read every trip report mentioning any of the three lake towns. Nothing really jumped out at me.

Bologna continued tugging. I did a search on trip reports on Bologna. Pedalaforte's, Bologna, Piedmont, late Nov. 2007, was the first trip report I read. Once I began to read the food descriptions (including gelato at da Gianni) on page four, my decision was made!! I started to imagine all of the gelato places I could try and thought about maybe even going back to Parma to have some gelato at K2. I not only thought of gelato, but also of all the wonderful restaurants I have wanted to try.

Food was my deciding factor and won out over a relaxing lake vacation.

My plan is to spend six nights in Bologna, staying at Hotel Porta San Mamolo. I spent a wonderful night at this hotel last year, breaking up a long train trip. My only other visit to Bologna was back in 2000, again only an overnight stay breaking up a long train trip. Each time was much too short.

I am excited to finally spend time in Bologna, to get to know this city a little better. I may possibly do a day trip or two while in Bologna. I have never been to Modena, and so that would be my first choice. I also may try to return to Parma or Ferrara, both places I have loved staying in during previous trips.

Because it is late and I am tired, instead of adding photos here, I will link a few of my previous blog posts with photos of Bologna from my trip last year:
*the Two Towers in Bologna
*more of beautiful Bologna
*a few more photos of Bologna

Saturday, July 5th

Saturday was going to be a long travel day. Jan was driving to the airport to pick up a friend. I asked her while planning my trip if I could catch a ride with her to the airport. This way, I could take the bus to Milano Centrale and then the train to Bologna. My other option was to take the train to Alessandria and then wait 2 hours for a 3 hour train to Bologna. Jan's friend was arriving early in the morning and so we planned on leaving at 7am.

Jan knocked on my door at around 4 in the morning. At first I thought I must have overslept. She said that her friend's plane was delayed and so we could leave at 11am. I was glad for the extra sleep since my head was not a happy camper after the 2 glasses of wine. After a couple of tries, Italian wines just don't seem to agree with me unfortunately.

I finally crawled out of bed around 9 am. I went in search of coffee and then headed back to my room. Jan was out at the internet cafè and came back to the room soon after I returned. We decided to start packing up the car and leave a little early. We ended up leaving around 10 am. We got stuck behind a slow driver until we hit the freeway (I know it is called something else here but you know what I mean). The scenery was beautiful. The freeway drive was not as pretty but it was nice not being on a train for once.

Once we took the airport exit, we looked for a gas station. Filling up the gas tank can be in interesting experience. At our first gas station, the gas would not pump. We found a guy that seemed to work there or nearby to help us. He was very helpful. Because we did not have the appropriate card, we could only use euros. The problem was that the machine did not seem to like Jan's euros. After manh tried, the machine finally took 20 euros. That did not fill up the tank. We then tried to put in more euros with no success. Because Jan needed to fill the tank up, it was going to be a guessing game as far as just how many euros she would need. We finally found out that there was another gas station nearby that took credit cards. The second gas station was a breeze. It was a full service gas station where the guy that worked there pumped the gas and afterwards, Jan paid with her credit card.

The next stop was to return the rental car. This was a very stressful experience for Jan. First we came up to a spot where there were 3 different lanes going 3 different places. I did not see the turn in time and was not very descriptive in the correct lane. We circled again and took the correct turn. Then we saw the sign to turn left, but there was a machine that seemd to be like a parking ticket machine. We saw the car behind us trying to back up. Jan tried to do the same thing. I was so glad at this point that I was not driving and this confirmed for me to never drive to an airport. Jan finally was able to back up into the traffic but we then found out that we were in the correct place. She had to turn around and return, take the ticket and then put the ticket in the next machine. This made no sense at all. Once we parked the car, we went up to this little van with a window. Jan stepped on a big cement block and gave the woman the rental car papers. After a 3 hour journy, we we were on our way to the airport.

Sunday, July 6th

My plan for Sunday was to travel to Modena. Why would I take a train the day after a long travel day? For a tower of course. The tower in Modena (Torre della Ghirlandina) is only open on Sundays for climbing. After a wonderful breakfast at Hotel San Porta San Mamolo (they put on quite a spread with pastries, special cakes, cereal, yogurt, bread, ham, cheese, eggs, bacon, and fresh fruit as well as any type of coffee and I suppose tea you would like), I headed to the train station. The main piazza in Bologna was so peaceful after my 10 minute walk to the centro. The walk the rest of the way to the train station was a bit longer - about 20 minutes. I saw this cool old porta (part of a wall with an entry way) as I was near the train station. I decided to walk through it. Ewwww, it smelled of urine (the area near the train station is not a great area) and while somehow not paying attention, I tripped on one of the stones and fell on my hands and one of my knees. Ewwww!!! All I could think of was the yucky urine that I was now probably touching! I got out my little bottle of hand sanitizer and squirted it all over my red hands. I then noticed that one of my toes was bleeding. More hand sanitizer on my toe and then a bandaid.

I used one of the automatic machines at the train station to by my regional ticket. I thought I would miss the train, but for once the train running late was good for me and I just made the train after validating my ticket. The train was full. The last stop was Torino for this train. I am not sure if more people than normal were taking the train because of the planned strike for Monday, or if this was normal for a Sunday in July.

After arriving in Modena and checking out my photocopy of a map I got from one of the Cadogan guides, I was on my way. Right away, I was confused since it seemed to me that I should be going one way, but there was a sign pointing a different way. I stopped and asked a very nice older man for directions. He confirmed that I should be going the way I planned to go. Perhaps the sign was for cars?

It didn't take long for me to fall in love with Modena. The colors of the buildings were quite similar to the colors of the buildings in Bologna and the architecture styles were also quite similar, but it was a lot less crowded than Bologna. On my way to the centro, I stopped at a bar to use the bathroom. This was my first "floor" bathroom (I believe the correct name is Turkish bathroom). The woman at the bar was very nice. I had an espresso before leaving and then continued on my way with the tower as my goal.

Sunday, July 6th

Here is the rest of my day in Modena...

As I was leaving the Galleria Estense, I stopped to thank the woman and the two men who checked my ticket when I entered the museum. I thanked them and told them how much I enjoyed my visit. They asked where I was from. I said "Hawaii". The woman could not believe it. She kept saying "Hawaii?!!" in a very animated voice over and over. She could not even imagine what it would be like to live in Hawaii and started asking me all kinds of questions about what it was like to live there, the weather, the food, the beaches, the temperature, etc. etc. She then asked me what I did. I told her that I taught children ages 3 & 4 and that school started again in the end of July. She could not believe that we had school in August. She again said over and over "agosto?!!" She was so animated and just could not believe this.

We then talked about the euro-dollar difference and I said that now is a good time for them to travel to the US. One of the men wanted me to write down the difference between the euro and the dollar and then started calculating the cost if he traveled to the US. Next we started talking about different places to visit in the US.

And finally...the converstation turned to politics. It is so interesting how just about every person I have spoken to here in Italy is so interested in the US politics. At one point, they asked where Obama's mother was from. I told them Kansas. No one knew where Kansas was. I tried to explain and then thought of the movie, The Wizard of Oz. The conversation became quite animated as I tried to explain the movie, talking about the tornado and the house, and then everything in color, and finally Toto and clicking the shoes 3 times. The woman in one of the rooms in the museum who was working there and not so friendly, came over to us and said "SHHHH" very loudly with a grumpy face. She left, and we continued our conversation. They asked me to write down the name of the movie so they could look it up later on the internet. Once I wrote it down, they realized I was talking about "Mago di OZ". At that point none of us could even remember why we were talking about this movie. IWe finally remembered. I don't think they ever figured out where Kansas was located.

An hour had passed and I said that I had to leave to catch a train back to Bologna. I asked to use the bathroom first and had to walk by the crabby lady (there were only 2 other people in the entire museum when she came out to shush us). I smiled at her as I walked by her. She was not so friendly. As I left, I thanked them again for a wonderful time. They apologized for keeping me so long. I told them that it was not a problem for me and that I really enjoyed talking to them.

The walk to the train station was another 15 or 20 minutes. I then had to wait about an hour for the next train. The train station was packed. There was a huge crowd waiting for another train (everyone with luggage) and when I returned to Bologna, I could not believe how crowded it was. At 9pm until the following night at 9pm all trains and buses were going on strike (lo sciopero) and so I guess everyone was trying to travel a day earlier.

I was not able to figure out the bus schedules yet and could not find any Tabaccheria shops so I ended up walking back. My feet were soooo tired when I got back to my hotel 30 minutes later. Because it was Sunday night, many restaurants were closed. The hotel recommended Le Mura, an osteria across the street from my hotel. That sounded wonderful to me since I don't think I could walk much farther.

The restaurant or osteria was ok but not one of my favorites. First it was very smokey inside. No one was actually smoking when I was there but there was no air circulation and either the people that ran the restaurant smoked inside before the restaurant was open or the smoking right at the doorway left the smell. The menu was meat based. The waiter and perhaps the owner was extremely nice. He offered to make me some penne pasta with a tomato and cream sauce. I also ordered some grilled vegetables. The food was good but not anything to rave about but I was too tired to really care.

My day in Modena was wonderful. I definitely would like to return there again someday. Leslie, I thought of you and even re-read your posts about Modena before I left for Italy this year. I expected to like Modena, but I really did not expect to love Modena.

Monday, July 7th

As advertised on the strike website I have been checking, in the train stations Sunday evening, and on the news, both the trains and the buses were on strike (lo sciopero). In addition it was Monday, so many of the stores and most of the museums were closed. I decided that it would be the perfect opportunitiy to walk up to Il Santuario della Madonna di San Luca (Sanctuary of the Madonna of San Luca).

A couple from Santa Barbara (who just spent a week in Bologna and had to hire a car to drive them to Ravenna since there was a train strike - bummer for them) were sitting in the lobby when I inquired at the desk on information regarding how long it would take to walk up to San Luca. The woman at the desk said it was only about a 10 minute walk to the start of the 666 portico arches to the top. The couple from Santa Barbara said they thought it would be a much longer walk since it took the bus they were on from the hotel 10 minutes to reach the start of the walk to the top. The couple from Santa Barbara was correct. It took me 45 minutes to reach the start of the 666 porticos and then 40 more minutes to reach the top. Of course I stopped often to take photos along the way.

The couple from Santa Barbara was also very helpful providing me information about where to catch a bus near the hotel. Unfortunately because of the strike, taking the bus was out, but it was helpful for me later during my stay in Bologna.

On my walk to the start of the walk up to San Luca, I saw a tiny yellow car. I first thought it was a Smart Car but then realized it was even smaller than a Smart Car. It was an electric car. Just as I was about to take a photo of the car, the woman, who I assume was the owner of the car showed up. I asked her if I could take a photo. She seemed pleased that I was interested in her car. After I took a photo, she showed me where the plug was and explained how she charged the car.

Tuesday, July 8th

My plan for Tuesday was to take the train to Florence, spend some time there walking around, taking photos, and then take another train to Empoli to visit with my friends Francesco and Irene and their family and then after taking the train back to Florence, spend more time in Florence before heading back to Bologna for my dinner at Ristorante Teresina. I had not been to Florence since 2001 and have not seen my friends in Empoli for two years.

After breakfast, I asked the man at the hotel desk where I could find the bus stop for the 32 or 33 bus. He told me that I should take the 29 or 30 bus since it was much faster. I went in search of the stop for either the 29 or 30. I was close to one of the stops when the bus drove by. Because the woman at the bus info place did not mention that either of these buses went to the train station and said something about having to change buses if I took a different bus besides the 32 or 33, I decided to look for one of those bus stops instead.

Once I was on the busy road where the circolare buses traveled, I saw the bus stop. It was actually pretty easy to find. I was mad at myself for listening to the man at the desk because the bus drove by before I reached the bus stop and I would have made that bus if I just went to that bus stop in the beginning. Instead I had to wait 15 more minutes for another bus. My next problem was trying to figure out which stop to get off at on this bus since I was told that it did not stop right at the train station. I took out my map and followed along watching the street names. A couple got on the bus a couple of stops before the train station stop. That was a good sign since I figured they were getting off at the train station. After all my anxiety about not knowing what stop to get off at, it was very obvious when we reached the train station stop.

I joined the big crowd of people crossing the street when the walk light turned green. I went to one of the automatic ticket machine to buy my ticket. All the seats were sold out for the train I wanted and only 1st class tickets were available for the next train (just about all the trains to Florence were Eurostar – expensive trains). I bought my ticket and then waited. Since I was there, I also bought my ticket for Friday to head to Coccaglio.

The train ride was fast (1 hour). Because quite a few people were getting off the train in Florence, the line went back into the car. I ended up standing right in the doorway. At one point the electric door started to close on me. I was stuck in the door and couldn’t figure out how to open it. A very nice man pushed the button to get me out of the stuck door. I squished my way out of the doorway for the rest of the wait.

Wednesday, July 9th

I originally thought about doing one more daytrip while in Bologna. I wanted to visit Reggio-Emilia but after my two days on the train while in Bologna, I decided to spend my final two full days in Bologna. I was able to sleep in a little and not worry about the buses and getting to the train station to not miss my train.

Wednesday morning, I leisurely hung out in my room for a while watching Everyone Loves Raymond in Italian and then went down to breakfast. This was when another ewwww moment A man in front of me put his hand into the cereal bowl and scooped up 2 or 3 scoops (with the spoon right there in the bowl!!). Yuck! I was not even going to consider the cereal that day or while he was staying there. I don’t know what he was even thinking. He was not in his own house. It is not like there was no spoon in the bowl. Ewwwww!! Despite the ewwww moment, I once again enjoyed my breakfast. On this morning, there was a type of cake with strawberries and panna (whipped cream).

The first thing on my list of things to check out on Wednesday was to visit the Santa Stefano church. I had heard that this was a very beautiful church. As I turned a corner on a street nearby my hotel, I smelled urine and was not paying attention. I thought I stepped in a puddle of urine. I let out a little scream and looked down. What I actually stepped on was a dried leaf that sounded like it was a puddle. A man walking near me asked me if I was ok. I explained what had happened. He asked where I was going and walked with me part way. He was very nice and showed me the best way to arrive to the church on my map (although for once I understood the map).

I stopped in Caffè Zanarini for the bathroom and then a coffee. I went to the cassa (cash register) to see if I had to pay first. There was no one at the cash register. There was a very nice older woman also waiting to pay. I asked her if she knew if we had to pay first. She was such a delightful person. She joked about the fact that we had to pay but there was no one there to take our money. We chatted for a few minutes until the woman working at the cassa arrived. My caffè macchiato was excellent. At this bar, the barista also gave everyone ordering coffee a little glass of acqua frizzante (fizzy water).

I continued my way to the church of Santa Stefano. When I arrived, once again the sun was in the wrong place for good photos. I now have a theory that all churches were built in a certain way so that the sun will be behind the church in the morning. If this is correct, then planned visits to churches would be better in the afternoon if photos of the churches are part of the plan. Even though the sun was in the wrong spot, I enjoyed my visit to this church, which I later found out was a complex of churches (6 or 7 churches). It was almost like being in a museum inside. There were many rooms and courtyards. I explored all of the rooms and areas until the church closed at 12:30. The best part was again that it was all free!! The piazza where this church is located is also quite beautiful.

Thursday, July 10th

My plan for Thursday was to visit some of the museums in Bologna. The first museum I went to was the Museo Civico Medievale (Medieval Museum). It is located near the Piazza Maggiore. When I arrived, all of the doors were closed. The hours by the door stated that the museum should have been open. I tried opening the doors, thinking that perhaps the doors were closed to keep the AC inside. Neither of the two doors would open. I couldn’t figure out why the doors were locked. I then noticed a little sign saying that on Thursday, the museum would be closed for meetings. What luck!

The second museum I wanted to visit was the Museo Civico Archeologico (Civic Archaeological Museum). I was told that it was right near the Piazza Maggiore, but I couldn’t find it. I went into the tourist info office, to find out where it was located. A very nice woman was working there on Thursday. I told her that I knew that the museum was nearby but I just could not find it. She smiled and gave me the directions. It was located on a little street to the left of the Duomo. When I arrived, the man told me that it was closed because of a meeting. Ugh!! I could not believe I was in Bologna for 6 days and chose the day that obviously all of the museums were closed to visit the museums. The man told me that the Egyptian section of the museum was open even though the rest of the museum was closed. Although it was not as good as the Egyptian Museum in Torino, it was still interesting.

After leaving the museum, I hung out in the Piazza for a while. Creepy man number two started talking to me. I tried to ignore him. He continued to talk to me trying to use both English and Italian. It is times like these that I wish I knew a rare language that I could use so that it looked like I did not understand. I walked across the piazza, trying to get into the church. I was wearing clothing acceptable for church entries, but had my tiny backpack with me, which I sometimes use as a purse. I was stopped at the entry point being told no ziano (backpack). They would not even let a priest in with his backpack. What a ridiculous rule since my little backpack was smaller than many purses ladies were carrying. I have been in this church before so it was not a big deal, but it still was a little irritating.

Instead, I walked up and down a few of the streets where all the fruit and vegetable stands and some of the fish markets were located. As I was walking up one of the streets, creepy man number two reappeared. He started talking to me again. I ignored him and he finally left. I went into Tamburini to get some lunch. I bought a little plate of greek salad and a little plate of pasta salad. The greek salad was very good, but the pasta was mushy and not so good. I sat in the Piazza Maggiore eating the salad. It was a beautiful day.

Friday, July 11th

After finishing up some last minute packing, I brought my bags down to the lobby. One of the things I liked about Hotel Porta San Mamolo was the family type atmosphere there. When I walked into the breakfast room each morning, I was greeted kindly, usually by name, and by Friday they even knew what type of coffee I prefered. After finishing up my last wonderful breakfast at the hotel, I thanked everyone working in the breakfast room, and then went back to the lobby to wait for my taxi. I thought about taking the bus to save a few euros but then decided that the taxi would be much less stressful.

By Friday, I knew most of the people working there. One of the guys working that day asked me where I was going next. When I said "Coccaglio", he gave me a blank stare. He, as many Italians, had never heard of this little town. I told him it was located between Bergamo and Brescia. He was so curious about this town that he went on the hotel computer and searched on google maps. While he was on the computer, I went onto my blog on the computer for the guests and showed him the Coccaglio photos I had posted. We talked a little bit about Coccaglio and then the taxi driver (I think it was a driver the hotel used since he was not driving a regular taxi car) arrived. I said goodbye to everyone in the lobby area that worked at the hotel and thanked them all for a wonderful stay. The driver was very nice. The ride to the station was quick and cost 12 euros.

I arrived at the station a little bit early for my 10:16 train because I wanted to buy a ticket for my last journey (Rovato, the town next to Coccaglio, to Milan). I forgot to buy this ticket earlier. The ticket window at the train station in Rovato is closed on Sundays and it would be easier to have the ticket in advance rather than to try to buy the ticket on the train.

When I walked into the train station, the partenza board said that the Eurostar train I was taking was on time. I bought my ticket for my train ride on Sunday at one of the automatic ticket machines and validated my two tickets for the train ride from Bologna to Rovato in the automatic ticket machine instead of the regular little yellow validation box. The tickets were stamped in the middle instead of at the end of each ticket.

As I waited for my train, the dreaded "in ritardo" category had a 5 under it, meaning that the train was now arriving 5 minutes late. I was thrilled that the train was arriving on binario (track) 1 because that meant no stairs, but stressed that the train was now arriving late. I originally had 15 minutes and now only 10 minutes to make the connection in Milan. If I missed the connection, I would have to wait 2 hours for another train to Rovato OR buy a ticket to Brescia and pay 20 more euros.

I tried to find the board that showed the train makeup to figure out where my car would arrive. I couldn't find the train makeup board but did notice that there were little yellow signs with the carrozza (train car) and an arrow pointing to that area of the binario up and down the binario. That was a big help since the Eurostar is a pretty long train and if you are at the wrong end, it is a long run to get to your assigned train car or a difficult walk through each train with your luggage.