Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Ferrara

This is what happens when you don't have everything planned out to the last detail. You end up in a place like Ferrara for three days, a quaint, georgious, bike city. I didn't know this place existed, and now I would reccomend if anyone is traveling through Italy to stop by at least for a day.

How I ended up here is a good question. Basically, I set out from Napoli without a real destination in mind for the night. I was on my way to Venice, and however far I got on the trains that day, I would stop for the night. Unfortunatly, the regional train I was going to take to get to Rome didn't run on a Sunday, so I had to reserve a seat on a Eurostar train. Eurostar is the speed train of Italy, although I have to say I was a little dissapointed by it's final speed (as fast as it was going through the country side). Looking on the map, Bologna was the closest large city to Venice, so I figered I would stop there for the night. But, Bologna only has on hostel, which is 6km out of the city and not very good at all (and it was booked up that night). So I had to venture onward to the next city, Ferrara, where I found a nice hostel to stay in. Before I knew it, I had booked three nights.

Ferrara is a bike city. It's almost as though they took all of the motorcycles and turned them into Bicycles. So I spent my first full day here biking around town, and quite literally I biked around it. At least the old walls of the city. It took about an hour, but it was a nice peaceful, relaxing bike. I also biked to all of the main highlights of the city, again with everything being so close, it was easy to see it all in one go.

Yesterday was filled to the brim with things to do. I took a day trip into Bologna, since what I had seen of it in 2 hours a few days ago was nice, so I figured it would be good to see the rest. I spent the day leisurely walking through the city streets, visiting the many cathedrals, and popping into the odd museum here and there. It filled the day nicely.

The night was filled with a concert, as Ferrara was having a concert series here. I never thought I would see Animal Planet and TV on the Radio in Italy, lest in a small city, and in a castle courtyard. It was a good concert, which I needed as I havn't been to one in a good while. But alas, my time in Ferrara is up, and I head now to Venice (a city that intimidates me a bit at the moment).

I'm officially two thirds of the way through my travels today. I'll do a post on it later.

4 comments:

Jordy,
I would love to ride a bike around Ferrara with you.(I found Ferrara on the map)
Enjoy Venice! It really is a wonderful city!!! the cobblestones can tell you so much by the way they are worn down. And the mosaics are just gleaming with 'glory'.
If you have time, try to find a pastry shop. I also remember they make delicious confections.
LOVE YOU!!
silverstreak

Jor,

You've got to love the little places that you never intended to see (hence, Santorini for me). And you're going to love Venice––It's magical. I remember reading a funny piece of advice: get lost. Because you can't really get all that lost on that Island and the whole idea is to explore all the little bridges and nooks and crannies ;-) St. Marks square is super cool too.

I remember finding a hostel outside of Venice (you had to take a bus to get there). But it was more like a camping ground. You could rent a tent with a bed in it for super cheap, and they had their own pool, internet cafe, supply shop and bar. But I also know that there was a hostel right in Venice somewhere.

Look forward to hearing about it!

It seems I've followed in your wake...I'm a blogger! Anyways, hope your adventures are still going very well and don't live la vida a little too loca.

Thanks Tim, I will take your advise and run with it *runs away.

Brendon, I'm actually at that camp ground now. It's a pretty sweet deal, dirt cheap. I'm a bit tempted to stay another day and relax in it by the pool. But I started right off in Venice by just going wherever I felt (and have continued to do that for the most part).

And Silverstreak (hi mom), St. Marks is amazing, you should see how the floor has been worn and warped, as well as all of the various patterns used on it. I'll have to check out one of the many pastry shops I've seen.