Bologna
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Tuesday, April 22
Another day, another train trip. This one to Bologna, to catch up with
another of Rob's friends, Goliardo Tomassetti, commonly referred to by
his last name "Tomassetti". We caught the fast train, which goes via Firenze
(Florence) thence to Bologna. My Italian geographic knowledge is not great,
and we were both surprised to discover a number of long tunnels after Firenze.
And also the snow on the ground after one of them. The train must have
climbed quite a bit. Fortunately, by the time we reached Bologna (NE of
Rome), the rain had almost stopped, and indeed did stop later in the day.
We went to a restaurant which Rob remembered (he spent his time in Italy
in Bologna) and had a most enjoyable lunch. In fact, we had adopted the
strategy of making lunch the main meal of the day, with just a light dinner,
if at all. Just as we were finishing lunch, Tomassetti came in, so we finished
off lunch, and then had a 10 minute walking tour of central Bologna. A
nice place, and certainly worth another look. We also went through their
University, which has just celebrated its 900th anniversary. (That's not
an error, it is 900 years old!).
Then Tomassetti took us to the radio telescope, which used to have a
web site, but the old one is no longer there, and searches have turned
up nothing specific to the telescope.
This is not on the usual tourist route! Of course, having
the director as a tour guide is most helpful. We also spoke to some of
the people there, and they are doing some interesting things. That type
of research is often an area which pushes technology to the limit, and
people involved think up clever ways to get around problems. I think if
I wanted a job in Italy I could get one there right away. But not for now.
Although Italy strikes me as being a nice place, especially outside Rome,
I don't feel a strong desire to live there.
There was a little drama on the way back. When we got to the station,
the fast train we wanted was not running. It's a Sunday only train, apparently.
And there was some doubt about whether the next express train would come
at all. It did. And it turned out to be only slightly slower than the fast
train - about 10 minutes difference in a 2.5 hour trip!
And we learned a little more about Italian Railways. When you go on
the fast train, you also need to book a seat on the train, which is an
additional cost over the ticket to get on the train! Of course, we didn't
quite figure this out, so again there was a discussion with the ticket
collector on the train. This time we had to pay for the seat, and a fine
for not buying it before getting on. In fact, we did try to buy the seat,
but that has to happen 20 minutes before the train leaves, and we left
it too late! The fast train was quite nice - queiter and smoother than
the express train. And the crew came along with a little cart and offered
us a minute cup of coffee and packet of chocolates - like the airlines
do, only the cup was much smaller, and there were no free refills! There
was a dining car, but we didn't want to fill up before lunch.
Sienna
Ancient Rome
Updated at 17:19 EST on Mon Apr 24, 2006
Copyright (C) 2001 - 2006, Lindsay Harris
Then Tomassetti took us to the radio telescope, which used to have a
web site, but the old one is no longer there, and searches have turned
up nothing specific to the telescope.
This is not on the usual tourist route! Of course, having
the director as a tour guide is most helpful. We also spoke to some of
the people there, and they are doing some interesting things. That type
of research is often an area which pushes technology to the limit, and
people involved think up clever ways to get around problems. I think if
I wanted a job in Italy I could get one there right away. But not for now.
Although Italy strikes me as being a nice place, especially outside Rome,
I don't feel a strong desire to live there.