the Grand Tour blog

Bologna arrival

I am now installed on the 7th floor of the Best Western Hotel in Bologna. Arrived here feeling very hot and sticky after fighting through the Bologna rush hour in the bus – and before that fighting in the chaotic station to find the loos, buy a bus pass, try to check some bus information but failing – and waiting at the bus stop as it started to rain. There is much hooting and crazy Italian driving at the busy junction below. I have air conditioning, but I think I shall die of dehydration if I leave it on overnight, so I may have to put up with the traffic noise.

Everything in the room is perfect, and bears the hallmark of many focus groups. I have a sewing kit, a bath cap, a sponge shoe cleaner, three biscuits, two tea bags, two stirrers in sealed bags, one shot of coffee whitener, three towels of different sizes, some bathroom scales, and not quite enough room to lay out my suitcase.

I also have a wireless internet connection, so for the first time on the trip I can post to the blog from the computer; all the earlier posts have been from my iPhone. But the internet connection is one of the awful hotel systems that require constant logging in through a special webpage, and won’t allow me to use my SMPT server to send email. I can read email without difficulty.

Catching up: regular readers may notice that I’m starting to ‘back fill’ a few posts where it’s been impractical to post from the iPhone at the proper time; that really is quite hard work! That will probably continue, on occasions when I have a proper connection. I feel it’s best to try to keep reports in chronological order.

Check list checking

A week of final preparations, adding things to my multiple to-do lists as fast as I check them off. Confirmed all the images have been transferred to the computer from the Nikon D300 and P5000 memory cards, backed them up and deleted everything from the cards. Charged the camera batteries. Finalised the printed backup information and tickets, and taped it all in two envelopes under the lining of the case so it doesn’t get left anywhere.

Fiddled with packing, though some difficulty making final decisions on clothing. And no way I can carry the Epson P2000 [a portable disk for image storage] as backup, so I'm a little concerned in case anything happens to the PowerBook. I guess I’d just have to shoot JPEG only, not RAW+JPG as I normally do, and probably buy more cards.

Phoned the hotel in Milan to say I will be arriving late; the train is due in at 10:30pm, and I’m told that some TGV-Artesia trains can run quite late. Relieved to hear the hotel has my reservation – I’d had a slight fear I would arrive in the middle of the night and they’d know nothing about me!

On Grand Tour 1 I carried the Rough Guides to Germany and Austria, but never referred to them except to look up restaurants a few times. And the books are heavy. So this time I’ve scanned the restaurant pages for Bologna, Florence, Rome, Lucca, Venice and Vicenza; no problem with copyright, I think, as this is strictly for my personal use. Adjusted the scans, saved them as JPGs and also combined them into a PDF for easier 2-up printing (which I almost forgot to do).

Transferred the restaurant JPGs to the Files app on the iPhone, together with a PDF of the Cremona-Busseto-Bologna train timetables from Trenitalia. The timetables now show fares for these regional trains – just €2.80 for Cremona-Busseto. Files was behaving itself, and not causing the Mac Finder to hang as it has ever since I upgraded to the full app; I did quit most other applications on the Mac first, which might (or might not) have made a difference.

Even spent some time relaxing in the sun today, between sorting out paperwork and fettling the suitcase.

Other things to do

Two months of almost no planning activity! Apart from Christmas, my lack of action is mainly accounted for by quite a lot of work on some of the Grand Tour images (260 of them), plus a long Mac Keynote presentation (with nearly 800 images!), for a talk I'm giving later this year. It's the first time I've used Keynote seriously – a brilliant program, very powerful and surely a Powerpoint killer.

In fact in early December I did some research into the London hotel: the three Travelodges near Kings Cross are universally condemned on TripAdvisor, so although their £45 offers were interesting I decided against. Eventually Venere came up with a hotel in Cartwright Gardens, at £55, about 5 minutes walk from the British Library which is itself 5 minutes or so from St Pancras. Pretty well reviewed both on Venere and TripAdvisor, with no-one saying anything very bad. Still available at this price today (I’d been worried it might have gone since I first saw it) so I booked; the fourth Venere booking for this trip (I hope they're reliable!). The price includes breakfast, which I shall have to miss as my Eurostar will be an early one.

Hotel confirmations

Have now received booking confirmation from Hotel D in Vicenza. Enquired, booked and confirmed Hotel T in Lucca. Everything is now booked from Bolgna on. I need to make a decision about Cremona, then I will just have London and Milan.

Booking hard!

Booked and confirmed the Rome B&B near the station. Spent some time on Google Maps and Street View – it’s very close to the station! Slightly concerned to see ‘Discoteca Laziale’ on the ground floor, but it’s actually a record shop.

Booked Best Western Hotel Maggiore in Bologna through Venere. Instant confirmation.

Booked Hotel C in Venice through Venere.

Filled in the web form for Hotel D in Vicenza, the last of my must-have hotels.

Spent much time on Venere looking for London hotels. A reasonable-looking one opposite Euston at £55, but that includes breakfast which I don’t want as I’ll be leaving early. No cheap offers on Travelodge, but their offer calendar stops at the end of December, so maybe they’re only available a couple of months ahead.

Tracking hotels

Made a Hotel List today to keep track of the bookings, with preferred hotels from the research to date. However some places are still causing problems, but good old Venere.com seems to be helping out:

Bologna: Hotel M, the one that I think might be a student hotel, is not showing any availability on Venere, and I’m reluctant to contact them direct (the website seems so out of date). The B&B I found is not offering singles at all on Venere, but doubles/triples at €90 in the next couple of months; nothing in 2010. I also found some serviced apartments at €39, in the middle of town; downside is a €50 cleaning charge at the end, which rules it out for just two nights, plus it looks from photos as if the bed is actually a sofa bed.

But Venere are offering the Best Western Hotel Maggiore at €49! Includes breakfast (from 6:30) and free Wi-Fi. About 2km out of town, but according to reviews – which are generally good – a good bus route from the station and into town. Sounds like a no-brainer. I’ll arrive late-ish from Cremona and can eat locally, although it would be nice to have a wander round town to get my bearings. If the bus service is really good there will really be no problem getting between the hotel and the city. From the bus website there are loads of buses passing the hotel.

Milan: My first choice shows an absurd price range of €50-€120 and still won’t accept my next year’s dates. But Venere has Hotel G, a 3-star, closer to the station, at €45 without breakfast. They have a dining room and normally serve breakfast, so perhaps I could buy a breakfast when I get there. I’ll be arriving late and checking out first thing, so I just need a decent place to sleep. Venere reviews don’t quite match the 8.2 score, and there are some bad ones on TripAdvisor. Jury still out.

Lucca: Originally looking at Hotel D, not far inside the walls on the station side. But uneasy about the reviews, some of which are good, but others very critical. Most people seem to post about an annexe, which is more expensive. €40-€50 single in the (small) main hotel, without breakfast, €65-€75 in the annexe. Rated #33 on TripAdvisor. One of the moans is that they force you into paying in UKP, to gain on the currency exchange. An alternative from the Rough Guide, Hotel T, is also split over 2 or 3 sites, further north, but it’s a small city and it probably only adds 10 minutes to the walk from the station. This one rated #36 on TA, though the reviews read better than that. Single €50 with bathroom, €35 shared, according to the website.

Rome and Florence accommodation

Have had some correspondence with the people in Rome, and I seem to be homing in on the B&B near the station. The Colosseum is still walkable in about 20 minutes. And all the buses go from the station anyway, so no problem saving my feet a few hundred yards when going into town.

The trains to Pisa leave at 07:58, 09:46, 10:09 (slow) and 12:02. The 09:46 (arr 12:57) looks ideal, especially if I’m living next to the station. For arrival, there are three trains arriving from Firenze between 12:10 and 12:36, which would allow me to check-in or at least leave my case by 1:00, and have a full afternoon in Rome.

Called Florence with CC details and had a pleasant chat with the owner, who is very friendly. Later received confimation of the booking and replied to confirm receipt. I’m on my way!

Rome B&B not

Email from Rome to say that my B&B is not taking bookings yet for June 2010. They suggested a few others, but I replied to say I’d seen them and rejected them already. However I had another look at a B&B near the station. The main problem would be noise, as it’s on the busy street right next to the station. Being on the 5th floor would help a bit. My contact says shut the double-glazed windows – there will be air conditioning by next year.

Replied to Florence to accept their offer.

Florence hotel available

Reply from Florence offering a single at €55. Basin in the room; bathroom shared between five rooms, which doesn’t sound good, but I’ve rechecked TripAdvisor and only a couple of people mention it, and only to say it wasn’t a problem. I’d like to hear from Rome before I accept, so I’m dragging my feet, but really I think it has to be.

Slightly concerned to find a blog by an American woman, who’s lived in Florence for ten years, complaining about the wet/cold weather in June [link lost for the moment]. All the weather and travel sites imply that early June is ideal. Hmm.

Time to start booking

Filled in the web form to book my preferred Rome B&B. Also emailed Hotel C in Florence to ask about availability. Slightly concerned that I effectively have the same time in Rome as in Florence – the more I read about Rome the bigger it seems. But I’m assuming, perhaps wrongly, that Florence will be visually more appealing. I can arrive there later in the day to give me another half day in Bologna, and leave reasonably promptly to have an extra afternoon in Rome – so an evening and three days in Florence, an afternoon and three days in Rome plus whatever is left over from the day in Palestrina.