Fashion (Milano - Bologna)

And so begins a transit day dear reader. So far they have been benign, but you never know what's ahead. Today is also October 2, the day of the national rail strike. Well, according to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport site where all strikes must be logged.

We checked out of our hotel at 10am as required, facing a 90 minute wait for our train. Down one side of Milano Centrale is Mercato Centrale. Unlike Firenze, it doesn't sell a lot of unprepared foods, but there are numerous tables where you can sit and eat what you have purchased. Centrale itself does have more sit down food options than Roma or Firenze but we thought this would be more of a locals' haunt.

This proved to be correct and we easily secured a table in a quiet area. I did a quick reconnoître of the available food that we considered breakfast. No, dear reader, pizza is not a breakfast food. One establishment sold coffee and pastries. I suggested to Jayne that was the place to be and she went inside to see what they offered and place our order.

Would you eat here? Navigli.

That was not as easy as it would sound. It is the second time we have been confronted with the backward system of order and pay at the cash register. They provide you with a slip of paper that you hand to someone behind the counter. System mastered, Jayne ordered only to told there were no plain croissants despite a tray of them sitting on the bench. Whatever.

The coffee was good, the pastries, not croissants, were also OK. A quick check on the Trenitalia App showed our Frecciarossa was still scheduled to leave on time. Just prior to 11am, we decided to brave the crowds inside Centrale. Fortunately the App provided us with a platform even though the Departures Board did not.

Another fashion shoot in the Galleria.

At Platform 13 a Frecciarossa train stood waiting. We walked a little way toward our designated carriage and asked the Trenitalia staff if this was our train. It was and we boarded and stowed the bags. We pulled out of Milano 5 minutes late but clearly the strike information was on the website was inaccurate.

We are leaving the fashion capital of the world having carefully avoiding fashion week. Fashion by the brilliant David Bowie is our song title for today.

The journey to Bologna was about 70 minutes and we would be there well before our 3pm check in time. A quick message to our host requesting early access to our accommodation was met positively. Everything was progressing smoothly. And then we stopped in the middle of nowhere for 20 minutes. No major issue for us as we were not trying to make a connection to somewhere else.

Underneath a chandelier in La Scala.

Bologna

We arrived in Bologna around 1pm and headed to the Food Hall for a beer before wheeling our bags to our new address for the next 6 days. How easy it is to manoeuvre my new suitcase. It has functioning wheels and handles. So good.

We completed the check-in process while enjoying our beer and then walked the 6 minutes to our apartment. The apartment itself is everything you want. It is spacious and well appointed and extremely well equipped. Barbara, our host, left us a welcome bottle of wine, mortadella sandwiches, fresh fruit and pastries. We won't need to leave for days.

Our little street is a part of a larger market. The area across Via Independenza mainly sells clothes. Our side is more artisan. Hand made jewellery, wooden toys, woven woollen scarfs and the like.

via San Guiseppe artisan market.

Tomorrow we have a walking tour booked. It leaves from somewhere near Piazza Maggiore so we went for a walk there to see where we are meeting Riccardo and on the way home, we checked out dinner options.

Back at the apartment, I decided to book the restaurant because it seemed quite small. That turned out to be a good move. We saw a number of people turned away as we enjoyed our meal, a caprese salad, a pork cotoletta with potatoes and tagliatelle al ragu bolognese. 

There was too much food. It is easy to see why Bologna is referred to colloquially as the 'fat one' although it is also known as the 'red one' because of its terracotta rooves and 'the learned one' because it is a university town. Jayne has taken an instant shine to Bologna. We often say we will return to places we have visited but seldom do. I feel Bologna may be different.

On the way home, there was a protest march escorted by many police and a helicopter. Explaining the nature of the protest is not simple as it's roots go back to the death of a Moroccan migrant last year. The movement has now morphed to cover control by the state and other social issues.

The sun sets over Bologna.

It was Friday and night birds partied on until the next morning. Despite the double glazed windows I could still hear the revellers from time to time. The 1am fireworks were unexpected though and unrequired at that time of the morning.

Alla prossima.