Bologna at night

Bologna is not the cheapest place for travellers to stay, that is for sure. There is a range of hotels, which costs 50 euros per night for two people - if you are lucky, book in advance and that is not the high season. There is a hostel with beds to rent, but this is 7-9 km far from the city and not really worth the trouble. 

Some people from Bologna take advantage of that and convert one or two rooms from their flats in a bed and breakfast (b&b). One of them, where I stayed at is called Dolce Vita. Finding the place is a bit more challenging than I thought, keeping in mind it is placed on one of the main streets in Bologna. You have to enter the passage between banks and a shop which sells luggage. I finally found the sign indicating that the bed and breakfast is on the third floor and called the intercom. A grumpy voice answered and let me in. I went 3 floors up and risked by knocking on a door with a sing b&b outside. I heard barking of a few doors and I thought I was knocked on someone's private flat. An older woman opened the door with three dogs jumping and barking around her. She didn't seem very happy seeing me for reasons I don't understand. I am paying 50 euros (plus 3 euros city tax) for one night. I showed up on time and I don't think I was smelling of long distance travel... Finally, it took me one hour to get there from Cesena. 

She wanted the cash immediately. I asked if I could see the room. She showed it to me showing impatience and saying it didn't really matter if I like it or not, as I have booked it in advance and I would need to pay anyway. Well, luckily enough it wasn't the worst place I have seen when it comes to accommodation, so I stayed. It was clean, although it smelled of cigarettes (the old lady is smoking in the kitchen). There was no noise coming from the street, just the TV that was on till past midnight. 

The rooms is very pink to say the least... If you don't mind the pinkness and artificiality and smell of smoke of the place, nor the unkind old lady, it is a clean place not too far from the station or from the city centre and it does offer a coffee in the morning (between 8 and 9).

The corridor

Fake cakes

The pink room

After dropping my bags, I was off to the University Quarter. Even though it was Thursday night, Piazza Verdi, in the middle of the Zamboni street, was full of people. 

Zamboni Street

People are sitting either on metal cubes provided by the city or just simply on the floor. If you have to spend an evening or some of the night somewhere and you are on a very tight budget, you might consider it as an option. Just buy a beer from a shop that is not far from there and join the local and international students in their discussions about life. 

Bologna is a very student city and people are friendly. And the students do speak some English, even if not all of them are fluent. So - you can always ask for the way to somewhere. If they understand what you are looking for, with their world-famous gestures will show you where is what you need. 

The city has 40 km of arches, where you can hide from the rain (and it does rain a lot in this part of Italy) or from the sun (during the summer it can get very hot and since it is very humid, the temperature feels even higher; the arches will not protect you from getting sweaty, but they might from getting sunburnt). 

A cafeteria at Piazza Verdi

Piazza Verdi at midnight

Zamboni Street in the University Quarter

An example of the arches

Different arches in different part of Bologna

If you go along Zamboni Street towards the centre you get to Via Rizzoli that will lead you to Piazza Maggiore. That is the main square in Bologna, with the Neptune fountain. 

At Piazza Maggiore

Neptune's Fountain

The shadow of Neptune

At Piazza Maggiore

Funny cats

I haven't been anywhere today, and I feel sick but a few pictures made me smile:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/alexrees/27-cats-who-could-clearly-be-male-models

An unplanned day in Ravenna

Lost in the search for a decent beach

The sun was shining and it air was warm. What a great day to go to the beach! We were thinking of going to the beaches near Ancona (Sirolo, Numana, Portonovo) which seemed quite nice on pictures I have seen on internet and the locals in Cesena were confirming about their worth experiencing charm.

But since the weather forecast wasn't very optimistic for that day (it was supposed to rain), even if all the signs on the sky were not confirming the negative expectations of the weather prophets, we decided not to risk the excursion to a place where the only option was a beach and enjoying the sun and nature around. We agreed that we will go to a nice beach next to Ravenna, which was much closer to Cesena. And then if it rains, we will go to the city of Ravenna and shelter from the rain in a cosy cafe or "pleasure up" our time with some local food specialities. 

That seemed like a good plan. But...Then we got lost with our chic white Fiat 500 and instead of ending up on apparently the best beach around the area (Milano Marittima) we found a not very popular Lido di Savio. What a shame we didn't check Milano Marittima was only a few kilometers away. But what can you do without GPS and with the "italian way" of placing indicators along the routes? My friend from Bologna (who is Italian) taught me during the hikes we made around Bologna that I should never trust Italian indicators. Just later on I understood the wisdom of my friend's words:)

On the way to getting lost

The good thing about the beach was the fact that it was almost empty. There were some kitesurfers a couple of hundred meters further from us, and they were actually enjoying the windy conditions that weren't that much to our liking. 

Since there was nobody around and the sunbeds at no cost were available, we decided to take an advantage of them, even if I am not a type of "sunbed" person. They were actually quite comfortable so all us fell asleep peacefully on the abandoned beach. 

Having a nap & kitesurfers in the background

After a couple of hours the weather prophecy was fulfilled and it did start to rain. We packed up and left to the city of Dante.

We managed to park our gorgeous car just 10 minutes walk from the city centre on a free parking lot and we started our stoll in the direction of centro storico. First, we passed by the Battistero Neoniano with the bell tower. 

In front of Battistero Neoniano

 And then we entered the Cathedral.

Inside the Cathedral in Ravenna

After five minutes walk we got to the centre. We were welcomed by the Piazza del Popolo and its two columns.

Piazza del Popolo in Ravenna 

A column in Piazza del Popolo

At one end of Piazza del Popolo we entered a cafe. At 16:30 the only thing we could order was pizza and salad. For us it was enough. For me even more than enough as I didn't stay in. I ate my banana and half of a cracker I found somewhere at the bottom of my backpack. A bit squashed and a bit powered but still edible and didn't cost me 8 euros as the pizza would.

Caffe Silvano just next to a market at the side street of Piazza del Popolo

Instead, I set out in search of the Cathedral of San Vitale. As wikipedia says, "The Basilica of San Vitale is a church in Ravenna, Italy and one of the most important examples of early Christian Byzantine art and architecture in western Europe". It does look nice from outside. From inside, well... I cannot really have an opinion on that as I didn't enter. The entrance fee was 7 euros...

When you pass the monument of Garibaldi, you can get to Dante Alighieri's Thumb. Dante lived in Ravenna for 19 years, the last years in his life after he got kicked out from Florence (Lonely Planet reports, that the oil for the lamp that burns in the thumb is still provided by Florence). He wrote a big part of "Divine Comedy" in Ravenna.

Dante Alighieri's Thumb from outside

Dante Alighieri's Thumb - inside

After getting lost thanks to the Lonely Planet map and discovering Battistero degli Ariani on the Via degli Ariani (a picture below). I found a more useful map on the wall next to the above mentioned Battistero. Thanks to that map that I have photographed, I was able to find finally what I was looking for just within 10 minutes of walk - Basilica di San Vitale.

The map of Ravenna which really rescued me! As much as I like the Lonely Planet guides, I do think their maps are not as good as they should be... 

If you are into mosaics and Roman Art, you can pay for the entrance 9.50 euros and enter the Basilica. Some details as to the Basilica, as well as to other historical buildings are briefly described under the official website: http://www.ravennamosaici.it/, available in english, spanish, german, french and of course italian:)

Basilica di San Vitale 

I decided not to pay 9.50 euros to enter, as I didn't have neither the money not enough time to really enjoy discovering the beauty of the Roman Art.

Basilica di San Vitale in Ravenna

at the Piazza a Costa

Piazza a Costa in Ravenna

The two colums on Piazza del Popolo in Ravenna

Piazza del Popolo with a brave dog on watch garding the city from any potential  invaders

Military unit where we get by mistake while looking for our car

The free parking lot 10 minutes from the city centre with the name of the street  to put in GPS if you  have one:)

Manarola

Below I am posting two pictures that I personally find very nice:) Maybe it is an effect of freshness, but not that one known from psychology. I mean an effect of me being fresh with my new camera, which is able to do such effects just by me pressing a button. Such fun! For those of you who do not know the expression "such fun" in a way I mean it, I recommend to take a look at the british series: Miranda and the way her mother says that. There is a bit of it on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIDquJbDFf0
I am absolutely in love with this series:)

Manarola - looking at the buildings towards the sea

Manarola - looking at the buildings towards the town

Unfortunately, in Manarola, the first building the closest to the sea was being restaurated, so it was behind a scaffolding, which still doesn't look too bad on a picture with a special effect, but was a bit of disappointing when we went there. Of course, they do need to renovate those houses some day. Finally, someone lives there:) The picture of the scaffolding I am posting below:

Manarola with scaffolding

Tomorrow I will upload some nice pictures from each of the towns, as well as from the coastal hike you can do. It was really quite something:) As I "trailer" for what is coming I am posting a picture of the boats in Manarola, with the special effects thanks to my camera.

Boats in Manarola

There is a very useful website if you are planning to make a hike in Cinque Terre. I really recommend the Coastal line between Monterosso and Vernazza. It does have stunning views.
The website is: Parco Nazionale Cinque Terre

It is always advisable to ask locals for the routes, as sometimes some of them are closed. At the time we were there, only the Coastal Route was available, so we were lucky:) This is the hike we made: Scenic coastal hike between Monterosso to Vernazza. It took us exactly 1hour and 40 minutes (10 minutes we spend to take pictures of Vernazza from the place along the route, that you might know from the pictures on internet, and which one I post below).