June 29, 1997 - Sunday 

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Our day starts out eating breakfast at the Gambrinus hotel.  Even though I have been paying for breakfast all along this is the first time we are around late enough to take part since we are not out sightseeing.  The food is typical european fare for breakfast, choice of one cereal, croissants, chess/bologna and good bread for sandwiches.  The coffee they served was nice and strong too.  We met an older couple with what sounded like a Scandinavian accent.  And there was a young couple at breakfast from the states that we met later as we were leaving the hotel.

The total bill for the Gambrinus was more per day than I was originally told.  Matter of fact, it was 16,000 Lira more per day.  But, too tired to argue (I had woken up around 04h30 this morning!) and it isn't all that much money to really sweat about, we simply called a taxi and headed out for stazione Termini, the main railway station in Roma.

Again, I had read about rampant crime in the Termini vicinity.  But I didn't see anything happen nor did I feel unsafe.  There is a heavy polizia presence in the area which must deter whatever crime problem existed.  The hardest part was figuring out which window to purchase our tickets to Bologna.  There must be five categories of windows to purchase a ticket from.  After asking around (i.e.; waiting interminably at the information line) we finally found a window.  And sure enough, it was about time someone tried to cut into line ahead of me.  I was wondering how long it would take for that to happen.  Some man dragging an old woman cuts right up to the window in front of the gentleman before us.  Needless to say the gentleman tried to explain to them to stand in line but it seemed fruitless.  After the brief delay, we had our tickets for Bologna.

We find a caddy (carousel) in the foree and set our packs down on it.  I'm meticulously watching the boards for our train's binario to be announced.  The ticket man told me it would be binario 8 but I wasn't taking any chances.  We're waiting and waiting, when finally something changes to our train, but not in the binario column.  Instead a 20 pops up in the RIT column.  Huh?!  No other trains had anything in their RIT column.  From listening in to some of the people standing around binario 8 it stood for ritard, or late.  This is not the end of our train hassles.

The train finally pulls in.  And I'm noticing something odd about our ticket, there is no carozolla number or seat numbers.  This is odd since everyone else seems to have their car and seats assigned.  I finally track down the conductor and he says that there is no seat assignment with un-reserved tickets.  Great!  and this train looks packed!   Making the best we can we set up camp best we can.  You can imagine how much space we took up with all the packs and bags we had.  At one point a man with a refreshment cart came by.  I moved my pack (the biggest) out of his way.  He told me he would be by at least 4 times.  Well, it could be worse.  About 15 minutes later he is coming back down the hallway with his cart.  I stop him and buy the kids a coca (cola)  and coffee for me.  He says that there are no people a couple of cars down.  We drink our drinks, slap the packs back onto our backs and make way for the cars forward.   Sure enough there are empty cabins here right next to the locomotive.  So we settled in for the ride to Bologna.  We did end up sharing our cabin with a couple of young Italian girls that were on their way to Milano.  They were kind enough to help get the packs on the kids when we pulled into the Bologna station.

First thing you notice about Bologna is how much cooler it is than in Roma.  Not chilly and still comfortable.  Wanting to avoid a fiasco on tomorrow's train, I made sure to go and purchase the tickets for tomorrow's train ride into Trento.  Train prices in Italy are relatively inexpensive, I've noticed, moreso than French ticket prices. I take the tickets from the man and check, no carozzola or seat assignment.  I mention this to the ticket clerk and he says that there are no seat assignments on that train.  Great.

I had made reservations at Alberga Gariscenda which in the Lonely Planet guidebook was listed as the pick of the cheap hotels in the city centre.  Sure enough, the taxi pulled up to a rather elegant looking building (with a McDonalds on the ground level).  We made our way up into the albergo on the 3rd piano (floor).  An older gentleman is manning the desk and leads us to our HUGE room.  This place is really nicely done.  The furnishings are sparse but it was nice to have some room to turn around in.  We don't have our own private bath or toilet but otherwise this one star hotel is a great bargain.   There is no television in the room, nor a telephone.  Which is just fine by me.  The floors are hardwood and in excellent condition.  The furnishings in the hallways look old, including the glass lamps on the walls.  And it is right next to the leaning towers of Bologna!  One doesn't need to go to Pisa to see a leaning tower in Italy!  It turns out the architect of the building you see leaning over on the left was Gariscenda.  I'd have to look up the exact date it was built, but trust me, it's old.

We threw down our packs and started out into town to try and find something to eat.  Ah, but it's Sunday and nothing is open except for McDonalds.  We walked around and found this magnificent statue of Neptune.  Of course, it's overcast and drizzling every-so-often so you can't see it too well in the photo.  Further down via Rizzolli we came across a fortress like structure in the center of the strada (street).  I'll have to read up on what exactly this structure is.  We also came across a merry-go-round.  The kids did a ride around that once.  Now that I think about it, we didn't see any in Roma itself.  Paris had quite a few around at different spots in the city.

Bologna itself seems to have a younger population.  Most people I have seen are in their 30s or younger.  It is just possible that the city centre is the place to hang out on Sunday's for the young crowd.  Also, there is a university near by just a little further west too so that might be another explanation.

We made our way to McDonalds.  I will have to remember about traveling around Italy on Sundays and how things are all closed.  We ate dinner and headed back up to the room.  The kids and I all went to bed early, around 20h00.  Then I woke up around 01h00.  The traffic noise here is loud and I think that is what woke me up.  But I did have the window open.  I looked out the window and the leaning towers were lit up (yes, we have a view of the leaning towers if you look out the side of the window).  I haven't taken any night pictures with the digital camera so I thought I would try one.   As you can see, you really can't see much.  The towers are lit up.  So the lack of a bulb setting to take photos will eliminate a lot of nighttime scenery photos.

Tomorrow's plan is to do some more walking around town.  We will try and get to a market and sample true bologna before we leave.  Our train is not scheduled to leave until 15h35 so we should be all right in getting to the train station.  It's only about a 5 minute ride from the hotel.  I guess we should arrive in Trento some where around dinner time.  We will check into the hotel there.  I need to give my contacts a call too to see where we are at with the childcare for the kids.  I don't know how I'll get around to doing that during the day without a telephone in the room!  I may have to wait until Tuesday morning to call them.

Well, it is now 03h00 and the traffic seems to have finally died out.  I'm going to try and catch some more sleep before morning.

 Click here to see all of the day's pictures - Warning! This will download almost 2M of data!

Copyright @ 1997, Alexandre POLOZOFF.  All Rights Reserved.