europa 09

27/06/2009

Woke to gentle rain and had a slow morning drinking coffee and eating boiled eggs. Clark couldn’t book the bus (missed the one hour before departure deadline by a few minutes, only because they didn’t answer the phone!) so he drove us into Crevalcore so we could catch the train into Bologna. Easy train ride through lots of corn, wheat & sugar beet fields and once in Bologna bought tickets to go to Perugia via Arezzo, checked the luggage (8 Euros) and had about 3-5 hours to check out Bologna…

Just started walking toward the centre of the old city through a slight drizzle and chanced upon a market. Lot’s of clothes, shoes and house-hold goods all packed in under umbrellas. We crossed the canal/river and it looked quiet medieval. We’d missed the Church/Duomo as it was closed from 1 – 3, so wandered around a little following the map. The covered collonades of Bologna (each town seems to have its own special feature) are special and handy in the rain, although the brolleys came in handy. Headed back to the station via the market as Wendy had spied a scarf she wanted to look at again…

The day was warming up as the rain had cleared and we found out that our train was delayed (retardo) 80 minutes (now what?) Sit and read for a bit outside and went to platform 11 with 10 minutes to spare, but – no train, it was completely cancelled! I raced back to info centre & was told to go to platform 6! Back to 11 and Wendy & onto a train for Florence instead of Arezzo… Because of the changes there were people everywhere, but lots of them had booked seats so it was chaos for a bit with bags and people in a single isle and everyone hot & bothered. I found a conductor and he was great. Told us we had to change trains in Florence and said we could sit anywhere – so we got to travel in 1st Class for a bit!

Rang hotel to let them know we wouldn’t get to Perugia till around 8 pm, and it was all good & they were helpful with directions. Told us to get on the Mini Metro to the hotel in old part (medieval) of town and we were glad to dump the bags and go for a late evening walk and discovered a magical city. We found a great view out over the valleys & fields (it’s an old walled hill town) and enjoyed the dusk and watching the lights come on. Walked back through the piazzas, up (&down) long stairways, saw the fountain, the duomo (will visit tomorrow) and came across a musical performance in the guild hall! Back to the hotel via ancient arched, covered walkway and crashed around 11:30.

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