We started our last day in Lausanne with the customary breakfast and bid farewell to G and O's house when they drove us to the station. It has been a great way to catch up with friends whom we first met in Greece in the 80s and have somehow maintained contact with over the miles and the years, and a great way to ease into Europe this time around. Switzerland is certainly worth a visit in its own right!

The wait at the station passed in having Görel's customary coffee, at a Nepali restaurant of all places. Having had no expectation of quality, it didn't disappoint! It did give us a great view over the busy station hall though.

We found our reserved seats and settled in for the three and a half hour trip to Milan. It took us through magnificent alpine scenery and eventually into Italy. We had a rather odd French speaker who couldn't sit still and a taciturn Brazilian in our group of four seats so kept pretty much to ourselves. We expected wifi but couldn't get access.

The leg from Milan to Bologna was only an hour, on another Freccia Rossa, capable of 300kph. It sat on 240 for most of the trip. We sent a couple of messages to our landlord, Giancarlo Rocco, to whom we shall refer as Giancarlo 1, given that our Milan landlord is also a Giancarlo. For some reason we didn't get a response, so just followed our noses to an exit and made a quick call and he was there in a jiffy to walk us to our flat. The reason for the walk, other than proximity, was that it was a car free day in many parts of the old town.

We were at the flat in about 20 minutes and we were delighted to find our place clean, bright and with everything we needed at apartment 3, Via Zamboni 18, accessed via the back door of the Jewish Museum, because it is in the area which was once the ghetto.

The photos will speak for themselves in showing how Gianvarlo has turned a high ceilinged space into a two storey apartment - a little like our place in Florence last time, but with more space.

After settling in we had a stroll to orient ourselves and did a quick shop and brought it home, then a little later used Giancarlo's recommendation and went to Eataly. As a shopping experience, part bookshop, part deli, part wineshop, part restaurant it is interesting. As a place to eat, don't bother. The bread was stale, the wine poor and the pasta ordinary. And that was it for our first day in Bologna.