Monday 14th September Trastevere to Bologna
Body clock beat the alarm clock by about 2 hours, so a little time to linger in bed and catch up with the world until 700am.
Walked the local area where the locals were coming to life with the market operators setting up, local kids heading to school, local gypsies sadly draining beer bottles into plastic cups for an early morning heart starter and like many places in the world the homeless were rustling out of their overnight haunts.
Many a local were out taking dogs for the morning ablution. With a paucity of trees the locals hubcaps were obvious targets for a leg lift. Chained dogs are chained for a reason as we got too close to a savage dog fight that involved both pets and owners – thankfully all finished unscathed.
Grabbed a pretty hearty breakfast then waited nervously for a taxi that in Italian terminology was only 5 minutes away – it turned into 20. Despite heavy traffic encountered whilst passing all of the go to scenic attractions and a very circuitous route we arrived at Termini about 20 minutes before departure . The approximate fare of $15-$20 turned into $35 once the luggage surcharge was applied- just to cement the story about robbing Italian taxi drivers.
The Termini is just a heaving mass of humanity and if you have an aversion to being jostled in large crowds it’s the wrong place to be.
Found the platform, boarded the train and wrestled with 10 other passengers to secure a spot in the tinniest of luggage racks. It was a pleasant trip through beautiful countryside, some of which we had traversed on our Florence to Rome walk.
Bologna station was a maze of tunnels and elevators but eventually we found the bus station, albeit after questioning a myriad of locals, and headed to our accommodation just out of the city centre, but close to a lot of attractions. Our host greeted us and thankfully ushered up to our room via a lift. The apartment had everything we needed and soon headed off on our journey to 25,000 steps for the day.
With Bologna famous for food and porticoes we headed along the shaded streets to the local undercover food market. We passed on the chicken, pastries and horse meat offerings instead opting for a mortadella (Jane) and (proscuitto) with ham roll as long as your forearm. Enjoyed at a stand up table with a band of locals before taking on the recommended walk to the Santa Luca Sancturium.
it is an opportunity to enjoy a fully covered portico walk uphill on path and stairs to reach a hill top Basillica and an outstanding view of the city and surrounds- some 4kms and a couple of hundred metres in elevation.
Whilst the scenery was magnificent getting there was a very tough haul which exercised the limbs, muscles and lung capacity to their limits. A couple of puffing and sweaty campers enjoyed the serenity of the Basillica whilst offering some thanks for the practice for the next few days n Piedmont region and prayers for a safe journey down on rubbery legs.
It is an interesting phenomenon that only those going down hill seem to be able to talk and crack a smile whilst those coming up do so in relative silence with a grim look on their faces- has to say something about walking uphill.
Made our way down and first port of call was the local cocktail lounge where the $5 beers and $10 Hugo Aperitivo eased the dehydration but increased the level of insobriety. Despite the level of delirium we managed to use Maps Me App to get us home safely
A cold showet and laydown was the order of the day to regain the strength and determination to attack the evening walk into the foodie heaven the district around the famous 600 year old unfinished Badillica offers up.
As like the Rome Termini the major square was packed with people enjoying the buskers and simply people watching over a quiet drink and aperitivo.
We found a great little restaurant serving typical food of Bologna and washed it down with some local wine and beer. Finished off with a stroll to the local gelato store and licked our way home to find the pillow on the eve of Jane’s 70th birthday.
