Almost everyone tells you to take the bus from Florence to Siena. Do not take the train because of the huge elevation difference between the station and the centro storico. Google maps says it is a 38 minute walk but Google maps ignore the steep terrain and doesn’t account for the effort of dragging luggage.

I did not want to walk to the station even if it was downhill. I planned to take a taxi and had an app for calling a taxi in Siena.

I called early and was told no taxis are available near the apartment. So I walked about 5 minutes to Piazza Indipendenza because everyone says there are always taxis there. No taxis. I tried the app and again got the message there were no taxis in the area. Luckily an Italian guy was able to telephone for a taxi and offered to share it with me since he too was taking the train to Florence.

On the way to the station the taxi driver explained there was a bicycle race going to take place in Piazza del Campo which was why the taxis were busy.

Once on the train I found out that I only need to show the conductor the code on my Regionale ticket. I don’t need to have the app. Things were going well until two stops away from Florence the train conductor announced there was a delay because of technical problems. This made me nervous about my connection to Bologna. But luckily, again, the train got to Firenze Santa Maria Novella station only 10 minutes late. This left 8 minutes to change trains. A one good thing about the station is that all the platforms are on the same level—not like Bologna’s station which has deep underground tracks (that caused me problems last year).

I arrived in Bologna on time.

I’m in Bologna because I wanted to arrive a day in advance of meeting the Art History Abroad group. We have had a lot of nervous moments in our past travels wondering if we will get to our destination. In Japan it was a fire on the track. In Belgium it was a crane falling on the track. We now try to give ourself some wiggle room. I had no plans for Bologna, so I picked a hotel near the train station as I would either train or taxi to the airport for the meet up.

When I walked out of the station I did not need a map to find my hotel.

Just across from the hotel is what looks like a pietra d’inciampo or stolpersteine or stumble block, the Gunter Demnig memorials to people who were deported to Nazi death camps in WWII. The brass covered stones are placed where the people used to live. We have seen them in Frankfurt, Berlin, Cologne, Rome. This one however is not for a victim of the Holocaust but a victim of the “strage” (massacre) referring to the neo-fascists’ terrorist bombing of the train station in 1980:

The hotel says I got a nice quiet room and an upgrade and it was ready although it was only noon.

I needed lunch and wanted to get away from the train station as well as revisit some sights. It was raining but Bologna’s porticoes are particularly useful in such weather.

I had not seen Porta Galleria which was a gate or portal in the old medieval city walls but then given the Baroque treatment in the 17th century.

A kilometre plus walk gets you to the main piazza.

Another city, another unfinished main church:

Via Pescherie Vecchie, as busy as ever despite the rain:

With all the food I had for dinner the night before I thought I would not be hungry but my modest breakfast was not sustaining me. And although I just had a beef ragù, when in Bologna, more ragù. This time with tomato:

Went out again to get some water (and gelato) and noticed more of the rectangular stones for the 1980 massacre. Eighty-five people were killed.