Bologna to Ferrara 21 May

21 May

We are now in Ferrara in a very nice shady campground just outside the walls of the city centre. We rode here from Bologna, a flat easy ride of just 54km through lush farmland and little towns. The traffic was not too bad, even getting out of Bologna went well.

Finding our way out of Bologna.

Central Ferrara indeed full of bikes.

On a bike path on the way to the campground.

We rode into the city centre.

And did some shopping ...

As Rod has mentioned, we were planning to stay in Bologna two nights, but we left early because we decided the hotel we were in was a ripoff. We hardly saw anything of Bologna but I think we were all happy to get on our bikes and move on.
Now typing this while guarding the bikes outside an internet point in central Ferrara. There are bikes everywhere, mostly old rattling monsters but they all have big locks. We don't feel safe leaving our modern technological marvels out of our sight here. The weather continues to be good with no rain so far. It is light till about 8:30pm, which is very good for camping.

22 May
Since we missed our two night break in Bologna, and the Ferrara campsite is so pleasant, we decided to stay here two nights.

The castle in the centre of town surrounded by a moat.

Hey Paul - this is a Bianchi!

Wandering through town.

Inside the cathedral.

Taking a shortcut (?) in the way back to the campsite.

Very good campsite, and very close to town.

Today we went in to town and had a pretty good look around. Tracey and Rod joined the local library to use the internet there for an hour.
Ferrara seems like a pleasant city, with the whole central area dominated by people on bikes, sometimes riding in high heels and texting at the same time. It has the (almost) usual massive and ornate bassilica in the middle of town, and somewhat less usual, a fairly impressive castle surrounded by a moat right next to it.
The very rough cobblestones on many of the streets made riding interesting. Along the edge of some streets they have strips of concrete as an alternative, but they are almost as rough.