Bologna Train Station

You can enter Tutte Le Stazioni, when you enter Venezia Santa Lucia as your destination, the best routing options will show up. It will probably be Bologna Centrale to Venezia SL.

Thanks, Zoe! Do you think the train station is easily walkable from the city center? We are a young, active family with just backpacks as luggage.

Bologna is flat. I do not remember a lot of cobblestones which made it easy to walk.
It is about 30 minutes from the historic center on foot. to the train.
If you know where you are staying already just put that in google maps
your hotel location to Bologna Centrale Train station to get an idea of the walk.
https://www.google.com/maps

Thanks, Jazz! :)
How about the airport? We will be arriving to BLQ at around 3pm. Would it make more sense to take transportation to our apartment near the city center, or just walk and get acquainted with the city? I know I can use google maps to estimate the time, but I was wondering if anyone here has actually done it themselves.

I took the local bus from airport to the city center. If I were you I would checkin and drop the bags off.
I do not know when you are going but I was there July 2016 and it was pretty hot walking around with a 22lbs of clothing I backpacked.

Jazz- we are going this June. I google mapped it, and from the airport, it's 7.1 miles. kind of a long walk for just getting off the plane, I'm thinking.
Do you know where I can find out what bus number to take to the apartment?
Thanks for your help.

This is the bus I took that terminates at the Train station
http://aerobus.bo.it/en

It was easy to find it is on your right as you exit out the airport.
There is a machine where you can buy a ticket also outside

It costs 6 euros one way the schedule is listed.
It is barebones ride but better than walking as you will get lost

Very helpful, Jazz!
Last question(maybe)
How do we know where to get off? Do we tell the driver the address of the apartment, and he directs us to what stop to get off? I am assuming it will be Ospedale Maggiore? It looks like we are about a 20 minute walk from Ospedale Maggiore.

It is a medium sized city.That bus was crowded heavily used.
So you more than likely will not be able to ask the driver and get clear instructions not unless you speak Italian.
So I would email the apartment people to ask them in advance.
We all like to save but if all else fails and you can't figure it out get a taxi once you get off the bus.
I usually use Google maps with the image of the streets to get an idea on how to walk

The first thing you do after deplaning and claiming your luggage is to take a taxi from the airport to your apartment. If it's an entire family traveling together the taxi is not only more convenient and faster, but likely just as cheap. There is a shuttle bus from the airport to the Central station, but it's 6€ per person, and unless your apartment is near the station you still have to take another taxi or a long walk from the station. Therefore take a taxi from the airport. It's always the best choice for a group/family.
I don't know of many cities in the world where the airport is within walking distance of the city center. Pisa (Italy) and San Diego (Calif) may be the only ones I know of, and it's still a long walk. Bologna's is 20 minutes from the city center by taxi.

To Venice you take the train at Bologna Centrale. Regional trains (commuter trains) are slow and cheap. High speed trains (Frecce) are fast and fancy, but also more expensive. Bologna Central station is a double decker station. High Speed trains are underground, all others are above.

Pay heed to Roberto.
I was giving advice as I was at Bologna as a solo traveler.

Enter your locations into the website rome2rio.com, and it will give you all of the information, such as bus #s (click in the left column), how long it takes to walk, etc.

We stayed at the hotel Tre Vecchi, and it was a short 10 minute walk from the train station. But, I remember it was hot that day (Sept.), so we checked into the hotel and headed out for a gelato.

Wear a money belt; Bologna's the only city where we've been pick-pocketed. Luckily, she could only get the 10 Euro in my hubby's pocket that was leftover from lunch.

I am glad Roberto mentioned the layout of Bologna. Escalators to various levels for trains, good signage, but may take a few extra minutes if you don't already know the way to your track.

Yes Zoe that train station is busy chaos

yes, Jazz, I always pay heed to Roberto. :)
We only will have carry on backpacks, so it will be easy to get off the plane and head out to the taxi or shuttle station. For the 4 of us, the shuttle will be 24 Euro compared to ? for a taxi?
As for the train to Venice, I can't buy the tickets until tomorrow since that will be 120 out, but I looked at a few days prior, and for the 4 of us, it would only be 60 euros for high speed train. Is that a better deal than what the regionale train would be, factoring in the time spent on the train?
And thank you, Roberto, for telling me about the layout of the train station. I didn't know that in Naples, and I was horribly turned around and confused. A few very nice military men saw my panic, and offered to walk my family and me to the main station downstairs. I had a great, broken Italian conversation with those lovely gentleman. :)

The pricing is based on customer demand at the time you want to leave. The more demand the higher the price. it does not matter which type of train. Also you pay more for a ticket that you can change or cancel. Just compare all the times and service and you will see all the prices look about the same whether you get there in 1 hour and 25 minutes or 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Bologna doesn't have a flat taxi fare to/from the airport like Rome or Florence, so it will depend on where exactly you are going, the traffic, etc. There are extra charges for Sunday/Holiday/night fares, and a charge for each bag. From the airport the minimum charge is 10 euro, regardless of distance, even if you travel just one km.

Below is the website for the largest Taxi Cooperative in Bologna called COTABO (all taxi drivers in Italy are self employed taxi owners who join taxi cooperatives for shared services like radio dispatch, taxi licenses can be granted only to individuals, not companies, by law).

They indicate 16 euro as the average fare from the airport to the city center (exclusive of extra charges). I tested their calculator from Airport to Piazza Maggiore (Bologna most famous piazza) and it gave me 15.9 euro as a result. If you travel between 10pm and 7am or on Sundays/holidays, it will be a bit more. The bag charge is probably 1 euro per bag. So I'd say that for 4 people you should expect to pay somewhat over 20 euro. Since you mentioned the Ospedale Maggiore (not sure if your apartment is there), that would be even closer to the airport. In any case I wouldn't give up the convenience of a taxi, even if it cost 10 euro more than the bus.

http://www.cotabo.it/?lang=en

jenny,

I'd also recommend taking a Taxi from the airport into Bologna. After a long travel day, using the quickest and simplest option will best.

I certainly agree about the taxi, but I want to suggest that--assuming you are traveling with a smarthphone or other electronic device--you download a mapping app that will help you find your way around. I use Ulmon's CityMaps2GoPro, but there are other options. There's a small charge for the pro version of the app (may be about $6 now). You can then download (while still at home or when you have access to Wi-Fi while traveling) maps for individual cities or regions you plan to visit. Thereafter, when you open up the app (you may also need to choose the appropriate downloaded map), the app can find your current position using GPS, no data connection needed. This allows you to confirm that you are walking in the right direction or reverse course if you are not.

I find the app especially helpful in medieval districts (Bologna's is large) with twisty streets, and I regularly use it for getting oriented when I first arrive and am not sure which way to head from the train or bus station. I actually prefer paper maps, but it can take time to get my hands on one from the tourist office or my hotel, and paper maps are only marginally useful in areas where street signs are lacking.

Bologna Station map: https://goo.gl/images/oRp4Tc

www.bolognacentrale.it/en
Scroll down the page till the Virtual Tour link.

Many italotreno's high speed trains use the surface tracks, not the underground ones. Given the great sales Italo is doing these days, you'd better check also www.italotreno.it/en before purchasing.

Are you going to make some day trips around Emilia-Romagna? If things haven't changed in the last year, note that many local trains use the satellite tracks displayed, for example, as 1Est or 2Ovest on monitors. Est for East, Ovest for west.
https://goo.gl/images/lhQsoS

It may be obvious, but this means that track 1 and track 1Est aren't the same thing.

The pricing is based on customer demand at the time you want to leave.

Not exactly, the BASE fare (trenitalia's walk-up price) is fixed till the next timetable change. It's the number of Economy and SuperEconomy tickets on sale for that route that changes based on customer demand and time of departure.
For instance Trenitalia has almost wiped off SuperEconomy tickets on the Rome-Florence route, but no ticket will cost more than the BASE fare displayed on-line.
Italotreno follows its own rules, but their FLEXI fare works like trenitalia's BASE: that's the max price you'd pay at the counter 15 minutes before departure.

it does not matter which type of train.

Regionale are a type of train with no discounted tickets for advance purchases, as they are subsidized by regional goverments. They pay up to 70% of the running costs, by the way.

darioalb is correct, base fares are set at the time schedules are posted and you will not pay more than that.

darioalb , thank you! I just checked .italo, and I was able to get the Bologna-Venezia leg for 9,90 eu! I looked at trentalia yesterday, and they were 16,00 eu each.
I appreciate everyone's insight and help.