You may have noticed that pictures were posted for Bologna, but I did not blog about the city. I was totally underwhelmed with it. As the taxi took us from the train station to the hotel, my heart dropped to my kneecaps. The outside of the hotel and all surrounding area was so covered with graffiti, you only knew the walls were there as a support for the paint. The hotel as listed as a 2 star, which was fine with me when I booked it since it was only for one night and it was cheap. However, once we made our way through the scribbles, doodles and drawings, like maneuvering through a spider’s web, the hotel was extraordinary. The lobby extended to two rooms, with modern leather and chrome furniture, a bar fully stocked, an inviting breakfast room, and a snippy young man at the desk.
Having been up since early morning, we were tired and hoped; Ron presumably prayed that we would get an early check-in. Mr. Snippy-Snappy had difficulty finding our pre-paid reservation and then when he did was quick to inform us that check-in was not until 2pm. We had 4 hours to kill, but left the carry-ons behind, but the backpack with my wallet and laptop were still melded on to my back.
It is still not clear to me why I was not crazy about the city, though I honestly tried with exhaustive enthusiasm. It is the seventh most populated city in Italy. Perhaps it was the fact that there was more paint dabbling on the public walls than one sees in a modern art museum. It did have extensive damage from WWII, but still it is proclaimed to have beautiful and significant architecture. Other than the 4 towers that remain from the original twenty, there were some lovely buildings, but none that truly stood out as spectacular.
When we were able to get into our room, it was huge, clean, and ultra-modern. The bathroom was conspicuously recently remodeled. The view was of a side street with truck parking, but so what. The problem came at night. Being around the corner from the University of Bologna, the noise was incredible, but the heat was still such at midnight that it behooved us to leave the window open. By 4am, I could not take it any longer and shuttered the window, which thankfully, blocked all noise.
In the future, Bologna may be on my list to fly in and out of, but not to stay. Photos are in the photo blog if you want to check them out here.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment