Bologna Day 5

It's a short day in Bologna today with an early departure. We have our usual breakfast before getting our stuff packed and the apartment cleaned. Our next destination is Siena! We're taking the high speed train - Frecciarossa - from Bologna (Bologna Centrale) to Florence (Firenze Santa Maria Novella). We're taking a long layover in Florence to have lunch before continuing on to Siena.

It's another very foggy morning in Bologna. You'd think we were on the coast with how thick it is. But getting to the train station is no issue. We find our platform number - 19 - and follow the signs down, down, down. Wow, I had no idea the train station went this far down! I think we took at least two separate escalators further into the earth. Amazing what engineers can do.

We have ourselves enough buffer time so we have about 10 minutes until the train. Every so often one of us checks the board that we're still scheduled for platform 19. Very important to check. We're still good, so continue to wait.

As it gets closer, the train before ours rolls into the station on our platform. No big deal, it was scheduled before ours so we know we're next. But then it sits there. And sits there. And our train is supposed to be arriving now and the other train is still sitting there. Hmm...something doesn't seem right. We wouldn't be the Jeffs if train travel went smoothly.

We continue to obsessively check the board that our platform doesn't change. But now I see an alert message on the web version of the Trenitalia train status checker - because having the app do this is would just be too convenient. A train delay due to a breakdown. Nice. Minutes tick by until we're waiting more than 30 minutes for the other train to depart. After almost 40 minutes, it finally pulls out of the station and our train rolls in not too far behind.

Hopping on the train, we find our seats and finally breathe. This is a very packed train. But thankfully we reserved our seats so don't have to worry. The ride is a quick 30 minutes so we're hopping off the train in no time at all.

Stowing our bags is essential so we don't lug them around the city while we go have lunch. Mom reserves two lockers thru Stow Your Bags. It's a nifty service. Self-service, that is. You can reserve a locker in-person or in advance, which we did. Which seemed like a very smart idea since the place is very small. I mean micro small. There were about 30 or so lockers in a small room and that's it. For security, you use your phone to unlock the main door to the "shop" and then again use your phone to open your reserved locker - or you can manually enter a code they give you. Stuff your bags in your locker and you're on your way! Gotta love the simplicity.

Now that we're a heck of a lot lighter without bags, we head towards our restaurant of choice - Cantinetta dei Verrazzano. We ate at this restaurant when we visited Italy back in 2002, my how time flies! So it was sentimental to visit again. The food was okay, not as seasoned as we're used to at home, but still good. We ordered the onion crostini, ribolita soup, polenta with ragu and salad with pear, artichoke, walnut and pecorino cheese. And I was brought a little crostini with prosciutto since my polenta was "taking a little bit longer".

The server was fantastic. Apparently it was Father's Day in Italy today so to celebrate my father sitting next to me, the server brought us a "taste" of a dessert. His "taste" came out as a full desert! Don't let the picture fool you...this was at least the size of a malasada. But gosh was it delicious. He explained it is fried choux pastry with creme patisserie with an amarena cherry on top (the best cherries ever!). Yep, delicious.

Bellies full, we make our way along the streets towards the Arno River and the Ponte Vecchio. Oh my word, Florence is a mad house. So many people. It's sort of hard to stop and look around you because you stop and you'll bump into someone. It's a beautiful city so I can see why it's so popular but dang, all these people is a big turnoff for us.

Our time in Florence is coming to a close as the train to Siena departs soon, so we hustle back to the bag storage, collect our bags, and get back to the station. Oh, and the bag storage is only one short block from the station - score!

Now you may think, what's going to be wrong with this train? Logistically, nothing. Amazing, right? Other than logistically, the regional trains tend to be a little warm, but it's clean and there were plenty of open seats.

Arriving at Siena, the platform area is a bit worn and definitely looks like an old station. But once you get to the station - what I would call the "lobby area", it looks pretty new! And has a grocery store called Pam. I think the award for odd grocery store names goes to Italy.

The train station is a bit far from city center so we hop in a car - a nice RAV4 hybrid car - and wind our way thru the small streets of Siena. It's a cute town that looks like it'll be a lot of fun to explore. It sure gets busier as the afternoon progresses to evening and Italians come out in full force for their walk along the main street. A very lively vibe.

More adventures tomorrow!

Ciao!