Exploring Italy by Train

Our next destination was the much smaller city of Ferrara. It was the weekend, and the train was mobbed. We were unable to find a place to sit, so made the first leg of the trip standing in the gangway. Luckily, the ride was short. Once there, we tried a new plan for finding a hotel. We asked a taxi driver to take us to the Tourist Office, which was near the center of the city. There we were given information on local accommodations, and chose one in our price range. They called ahead to make reservations for us, and we walked the short distance to the hotel where we were given a room with a small balcony that overlooked the city’s castle. The Castello Estense is located in the center of the walled-in city, and is open to visitors. The center is closed to traffic, and we relaxed there at an outdoor cafe, where we were amazed to see business men in suits, housewives with shopping bags, and young women with tight skirts and heels zipping past us on bicycles.

We successfully utilized our new strategy for finding hotels at our next few stops, Ravenna and Bologna. Ravenna has a renowned collection of Byzantine mosaics, and is also where Dante is entombed, but I was most impressed by it’s lovely flower market. Bologna is famous for it’s cuisine, and we certainly enjoyed trying out their most famous dishes, but there is much more to appreciate besides food. Its sidewalks are covered with porticoes, many with frescoes. At the Basilica di San Petronio, the biggest church in the city, the ceiling frescoes were being painstakingly restored by art students from the local university. Bologna also has 2 leaning towers, one which we climbed for an overview of the city.

After several days of train travel without any problems, we were becoming increasingly confident. We next headed to Reggio Emilia in the heart of the Emilia-Romagna region. We weren’t sure that we would want to stay here, so we used the baggage depository of the train station to hold our backpacks while we looked around. We took a leisurely walk to the center and toured its 3 large piazzas, churches, and octagonal bell tower. The produce market was set up in one of the piazzas, and we picked up some fresh items for an al fresco lunch by a small fountain. Returning to the train station in the early afternoon, we retrieved our baggage and moved on to Parma. A taxi dropped us off at the Tourist Office, but to our chagrin, it was closed for siesta. We had gotten accustomed to shops being closed in the afternoon, but hadn’t given it a thought regarding the Tourist Office. Not wanting to sit for an hour or so in the hot sun waiting for it to reopen, we set off on foot to try to find a place to stay. Again, I was grateful for the backpacks, since I couldn’t imagine lugging suitcases around the city streets. Fortunately, prominently posted signs indicated the various hotels around town. The first one we reached was full, but the next had a room.

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