Bologna for Eleven Days

U may want to rethink 11 days for Bologna. U will be on a train alot to get tomand from. Plan at least 2 nights Florence with Pienza and 2 nights Venice, they are block buster visits.

While you're staying in Bologna, you can make daytrips by inexpensive regional train to Ravenna, Ferrara, etc.

Bologna is a good transportation base, but I like daytrips to be about an hour or two each way. You can get to everywhere you named, but some trips may take a little longer.

I appreciate the thoughts from the 3 folk who responded to my notice. I suppose I could book a hotel for a night in both Florence and Venice and return to Bologna for a day before returning to the US. That seems like it could end up being a rather expensive journey.

Can you cancel your 11 nights, maybe cut it back to 4? Then you have time for 3 nights each in Venice and Florence or Pienza.

Bologna is a great train hub, but train prices can easily add up:

• travel to Florence is something like 40 minutes, but be ready to fork something like 20 euros per person per single trip (fast trains needed, no really feasible alternatives)
• Bologna to Venice is 1 hour and half on fast trains (about 25 euro) and 2 hours on Regionale trains (12,50 euro)
• Parma, Ravenna and Ferrara are on relatively cheap Regionale tickets (for example, Parma is 7,35 euro) and within 1 hour range.

You can spare a bit by buying fast train tickets in advance, but planning multiple day trips well in advance may get complex.

Pienza as a day day trip is not feasible from Bologna (also from Florence you really need a car).

We stayed 7 nights in Bologna and could have added more. We had a car, so we had a great time exploring. We even made a day trip all the way to Venice and also to Lucca. Great memories. I'd highly recommend having a car.

Laurel,
I am with friends for the first 6 days, so don't feel right cancelling on them. I think that I have decided to cancel any ideas of travel to Florence, as I have already been there 3 times in the past 30 years. I may see if I can take a 3 day trip to Venice, however.

Emily,

I think the car would be a great idea, but I don't have an international driver license and would feel uncomfortable driving around unknown territory alone. I may rethink that, however, for my next trip over.

lachera,

Thanks. That is good information!

You don't need an international drivers license. You just go to the AAA and get the IDP - no test, only a few bucks. Driving in Italy is not hard, especially if you have GPS.

Ravenna, Rimini, Ferrara, Parma are all easy train rides. Verona is a little further but quite doable. I've been near Bologna the past 4 months so I've taken some day trips and overnight trips.

An IDP from AAA is $20. We make sure to have the 2 passport photos taken at Costco for $4.99. If you have them taken at AAA, they cost much more.

It is easy and not expensive to take train day trips to Modena, Reggio Emilia, and Parma from Bologna. They all have wonderful historic centers and sites. We especially enjoyed Reggio Emelia, since it was not too touristed and had many wonderful outdoor cafes and bars. We also love Bologna. There often seems to be special exhibits and events going on. Will be great to stay somewhere where you can relax and get to know the place more extensively.

Most of the day trips from Bologna are by regional trains, so they are not expensive. Bologna is a very pleasant place to be based, not very touristy, lots of restaurants. If you can change your hotel reservation, do try to spend 3 nights elsewhere. . . Verona, Ravenna, Venice