We’re in Bologna for two nights, but let me tell you about the night before when we got here.
Because of our packed day, it was already getting late.
Then Bologna is one of those restricted cities were the instructions for driving in are, to say the least, dicey. There are traffic zones everywhere that you are not allowed to drive in – even worse, they fine you and you don’t even know it till years later.
We didn’t want to run the risk so we tried our best to follow instructions as well as we could, be really instructions were wanting. This makes it look way simpler than it actually was.
What this map fails to show are just how narrow the streets are. It does show all the no go streets, but because of the fact that we were driving a ‘large’ SUV to fit all 4 of us and our luggage, just because a street wasn’t no go didn’t mean we could actually FIT down that street.
Nicholas was not having fun trying to figure out how to get places. Sometimes we’d be trying to fit down a street, when a car would come the opposite direction and then it was a stalemate. Who would try to reverse into a little crevice to allow the other to pass. Stress levels were high.
We follow the map until we get to a large city square, blocked by police. Oh great. We pull up to the police and notice they are blocking the way because there is a giant mob of people in the square, obviously celebrating something. I assume they must be here to celebrate my arrival, but nobody seems to agree with me. We try to tell the police where we are trying to get to – a hotel that should be nearby. They point directly ahead, towards the mob of people. “Really?” we think, “through this crowd?” – Nicholas starts to drive. We notice in the rear view mirror the police officer chasing after us. No, not through the crowd, ahead and to the right he corrects, down a dead end alley way that looks like it shouldn’t fit our car, that is also blocked off by people in chairs.
After narrowly escaping mowing down a celebrating crowd of locals, we find the hotel and thankfully pass the keys off to hotel staff who is able to drive the car to wherever it’s supposed to actually go. Phew.
We’re in an Art hotel, it seems neat.
But hold up — what exactly is happening outside? We decided to check it out.
It turns out it’s a festival or something for the church, and the local bishop is visiting with a procession and a whole big celebration. Stupid. I’m just going to pretend they actually are here for me.
