Blogs from Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, Europe - page 2

Moran Freeman narrating "Yes, the pilgrimage. Today, being March 13th 2008, was the day that we would arrive at the place where it all began..." Disclaimer: Sorry ladies, there's lots of cars and driving in this one. Hoo boy I do love driving! Salzburg (Austria) to Venice (Italy) was the next leg of our trip. 500-odd k's of long highways and longer tunnels. There is still lots of snow on the mountains and I still struggled to keep my eyes on the road. The highways carved between mountains like an ice-skaters blade, seperating everything in its path. Where the mountains got in the way, the Austrians proved their tunnel-building skills with some 8km-long monsters. I can never get sick of this! All these countries - except Germany - tend to have motorway speed limits of 130kph ... read more

Ferrera seemed to be close and there was a trip organised by the school. Nobody showed up. So on the Sunday, I went by myself, a 4.90 euro train trip. I managed to stamp the wrong ticket, and get all the times of the return trains wrong. That didn't stop it being a most memorable visit. Ferrera is consistently voted into the top 3 most liveable cities in Italy. It is not hard to see why. It has about 130,000 inhabitants, and all of them ride bicycles. This city doesn't have car parks, it has bicycle parks. This is the city with the most bicycle journeys undertaken by its inhabitants. It is walkable, surprisingly touristfree, and for any event likely to draw a crowd, free buses are laid on. On the 3rd Sunday ... read more