Day in Bologna

We set of from the farm to the train station in Castel San Pietro Terme as I feel my driving skills in a city of 1000000s may nor be appreciated. Catching a local train we arrive T the city centre. Now sounds easy but bit quiet understanding the train system but as long as we were on a train heading west we would get there. The tickets were all self service machines in Italian as it was a non touristico village but a kind local rescued us and all was good. We bought 2 first class tickets for 9.40 euro and when we get on the train we discover there is no first class and we payed to much. 

What an amazing ancient city. The entire city centre you walk on marble flagstones under to coolness of 5 to 10 meter wide covered footpaths all supported by huge ornate granite columns some 2-3 stories high they were vast and you  felt very small. This is a city for walking. So with our map in hand we headed out with our first target, lunch. 

We picked up a guide map of the city done by uni kids as it is a uni city and one of the things that caught  our eye was different food....not that we're not enjoying Italian food but we take for granted the variety we have at home so seeing a middle eastern Arabic food shop we were drawn like moths. So leaving it to our host to select we were presented with a platter of mezze followed by his signature dish of Arabic chicken and cauliflower rice palif.  Leaving like old friend after cardamon tea and baklava we head to the UNI end to check out the second hand cloth shops not being able to miss a bargain and a vintage clothing opportunity.... And well ...bingo ...there it was an Italian jacket olive green, purple and beige checked, very classy and SO Italain so for 8 euro how could I wrong? 

So walking on to the town centre we come across the twin towers and enjoy all the old buildings. Hours later heading back towards the station we find ourselves in the middle of a noisy rally with the riot squad all kitted out and ready and further down the Via Dell Indipendenza there is the waiting ambulances, so we don't end up on CNN we go a few street across and have a beer and wait out before heads back.

Now we are experts at the self service ticket machine we buy 2 second class tickets for our return journey. This place is heaving it is bigger then central station. So we sit on the allotted platform chatting to a Brit waiting for the train...all along a train was sitting at the platform waiting for time to pass. Finally it dawned on us we were to be on it and off we went. On entering the train is was obviously a much better class of train with good seats and air con so we sat and when the conductor came it was obvious we had 2nd class tickets but were on a first class seat but he found it all to hard to communicate so we were left there in comfort ...hey we did pay for 1st class getting here so it equalled out we figured!