Bologna (/bəˈloʊnjə/ bə-LOHN-yə; Italian pronunciation: [boˈloɲɲa] ( listen); Emilian: Bulåggna pronounced [buˈləɲɲa]; Latin: Bononia) is the largest city (and the capital) of the Emilia-Romagna Region in Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy, located in the heart of a metropolitan area (officially recognized by the Italian government as a città metropolitana) of about one million. Settlements date back to at least 1000BC.

We arrived in Ancona on time, and after a good nights sleep on the ferry, we were ready to tackle the trip to Bologna. But first we had to get off the ferry. In much the same way as we got on, we were all herded into the 7th floor, and then we had to wait for instructions to disembark. Quite frankly this has put me off travelling on a ferry again. Surely there must be a better way to get on and off boat.

When we exited, and got through customs, we quickly caught a taxi to the train station in Ancona. Dianne had already booked the tickets, but when we went to redeem them at the office, we were told they were no good because there was no "Reference" number to use, to find the booking in the computer system. We tried every which way to get the tickets, but to no avail. Heather and Stuart and all their crew also turned up, and they too were having some issues getting tickets. Finally Dianne was able to hook into some WiFI at the station bar, and in doing so found the original Invoice she used to book. This is exactly what the lady needed, and with just a few minutes before we were due to depart, we got our tickets. phew!

We arrived in Bologna about an hour and 1/2 later. My first impressions of the railway station indicated to me the place was a bit of a dive. Graffiti everywhere you looked, and was certainly not up the standards we had experienced in Croatia.

We went looking for our Hotel immediately, as we had to catch the next train to Modena for our tour of the Ferrari factory. But unfortunately our navigations skills were tested. We did eventually find the Hotel, but we missed the train we needed to take. Finding the Hotel was a little bit comical. Brian and I were walking behind the girls, and they were distracted by all the beautiful clothes in the shop windows. Dianne was dragging her case behind her, and every time she looked in the window, she managed to somehow move her case on an angle where she either ran over somebody or at the very least did gymnastics so they did not fall over. We were too scared to look behind us in case we saw all these bodies lying on the footpath.

We checked into the Hotel, which was great, and made our way to the station again to catch the train. We arrived at Modena expecting to find lots of information on how to get to Ferrari, but really there was nothing. After a considerable amount of searching Dianne saw a bus pull up that had tours to the factory. Funnily enough this was the one we were supposed to catch. Even though we missed our tour time, the lady gave us another tour to the museum. Whilst we did not get to see the factory, we did see the museum which was excellent. Brian and I did a race on the simulator, which was also fun. We also decided not to take a Ferrari for a drive, as our drive on the simulator indicated we would have to crash at least half a dozen times before we got it right!

After seeing the museum, it was back on the bus and back to the train station. We arrived in Bologna about 8. We had a very good meal at the little restaurant which is at the entrance to the hotel. It has been a very long day, and going to bed couldn't happen quick enough.

Tomorrow we are training to Milan.