Back to Italy - Travel To Bologna - July 23-24, 2010

I'm still only 4 days into the trip pictures, but since it was exactly four weeks ago that we were there, I figured now is as good as any to start with the details of our trip.

Some background - We had been invited to travel to Italy with long time friends, Dave and Dawn. Dave has family in north central Italy, close to Bologna, near the ski town of Sestola. Since Dave and Dawn live in Michigan, they flew out of Detroit while we flew out of Chicago, with the plan to meet at the Bologna airport.

We flew out of Chicago on Friday, July 23, on an evening flight bound to Dublin Ireland. The only issue we encountered in Chicago was the strong thunderstorm that culminated after the hot, humid day, and of course, the thunderstorm rolled in 30 minutes before our flight's scheduled departure. I think we ended up being delayed about 30 to 40 minutes, really not too bad, and since we had a three hour layover in Dublin, we didn't worry.

Upon arriving in Dublin, we passed through customs, then back through security and then back to our gate. We passed by all the Duty Free shopping areas and I noticed the Guinness store - and how could one miss it? A store devoted to the love of Guinness. Of course, I was reminded of my former friend and work colleague, Barney, whose PC screen saver was a video of a Guinness commercial.



When we reached our gate, I turned on my cell phone, only to be surprised by the following two text messages.

Sent late Friday night, from Dawn:

Omg. Cancelled flight! We won't arrive until Sunday am. Angry.

Currently plan is to arrive Sunday 11:15 am. Text of call me any time 2 tell us what u will do. Sorry. Call Barbara. U can talk 2 her to make plans.

Ummm, a flight cancellation was not in the plan.....

After some thought, we canceled our original Saturday night accommodations and booked a stay in Bologna, at the airport Sheraton. Our plan - stay in Bologna Saturday and meet Dave and Dawn around noon. Drive up to Sestola to spend the rest of Sunday with Dave's family.

We arrived into Bologna around 6pm. We couldn't pick up our rental car because the "Dollar Rental Car / Thrifty Rental Car" desk was closed! Everything else was open. Well, that's OK, we don't need the car until tomorrow. We can take the shuttle bus to the hotel.

Did you know the Bologna airport sells beautiful cheese and prosciutto? Yummy!


Scott picked up these Ringo cookies because they looked good - and declared that they were delicious!


We finally found the shuttle bus to the hotel, checked in, tried to get the details on the rental car (no luck) and decided to go into downtown Bologna for dinner. The hotel shuttle took us there as the sun was setting:


We ate at a wine bar, Divini's, in the pedestrian district, near the San Petronio Bascilica.






We enjoyed the wine, octopus, salad, bread and dessert. A great start to our Italian vacation.

Unfortunately for Dave and Dawn, they were still back in Detroit....