For Friday, we were going to the Ferrari Museum in Modinello and then eventually make our way to Milano. We knew the Museum was out of the way and it would be a bit of a trek to get there, but we had no idea what we were in for. First I should start out by mentioning that there were 14 of us travelling together and organizing that many people is not an easy feat. We left Castiglion Fiorentino at 8:25 by train and went to Arezzo. There, we had to wait two hours to catch the train to Bolognia because the first one was too pricey or something. There wasn't much to do in Arezzo that morning, hardly anything was open so we walked around aimlessly, kicked pigeons, and sat in a park for awhile till it was time to leave. Once we made it to Bolognia, we had about 45 minutes to scarf some lunch. The Bolongia train station was a lot larger than we realized- we had no idea what was there so I guess we assumed it would be small. Two eatery places were available- a fast food pizza place with some outdoor seating and McDonalds. Given that I don't eat McD's in the states, I passed, but some of our friends ate there and it ended up being close to $10 American dollars for a meal! Who knew McD's was practically gourmet here? After lukewarm but yummy pizza we scarfed some limone e fragola (lemon and strawberry) gelato and made our way back to the station to hop on the train to Moderna.
Oh, Moderna. Moderna = hell hole. This is officially the ghetto of Italy. We got off the train and entered into a dilapidated city, which obviously used to have really nice buildings and spaces but has been abused over the years. Now, it's just graffiti filled and filthy. We knew we had to take a bus to get to the museum, but what we found out was that we had to take a bus to the bus that would take us to the museum. Here we go. So first we figure out we have to take the number 7 bus to the bus station. Easy enough right? We all get on the bus and start looking for the station. We saw a small stop that was near a couple of buses, but it wasn't labeled like we were told it would be so we stayed on the bus and kept riding. And riding...and riding. Finally, we make it to the end of the line and have to ride all the way back to the original spot were we got the bus. Come to find out, we were supposed to get off at about the third stop. In case we're counting, we are up to three hours wasted due to transportation on this trip. We bought tickets for the new bus and had to wait awhile for it to come plus the 30 minutes or so that it took to get to the museum. While waiting, a few of us had to use the bathroom and we were super thirsty so we went to a bar/cafe across the street. On the back wall was a door marked "Toilette" that was obviously a unisex bathroom. I went to check it out and inside was a trough for a sink, a hose for a faucet, and literally a hole in the ground for the toilet. This is not uncommon in Italy, come to find out. We are all at the point that if the bathroom has a seat and something papery that isn't completely wet, we're psyched out of our minds. As you can imagine, we left that place asap and just waited for the bus.
The bus took us to Modinello, another sad place that looks like Moderna but much less urban. It's kind of ironic that such an expensive car is manufactured in such a poor, dilapidated area. (The Maserati is made here too, and who knows what other companies). We found the museum at about 4:50 and the museum closed at 6, so we thought we wouldn't get through it all. We definitely did. The Ferrari's were cool and all, but I don't know anything about cars and the gallery was actually pretty small. Still, we took some pictures with our favorites and a lot of my friends bought the over-priced memorabilia. Just a note- it took only 45 minutes for us to get through the entire gallery. Not worth it. By this point we had spent so much time, money and strife getting here that the day had to be funny- because if we weren't laughing we would probably cry.
We had to hop on the two buses back to the train station and sadly didn't make it in time to catch the train that we needed to so we had to wait awhile for the 8:30 train to Milan. Since we hadn't eaten, we decided to look for a place along the main drag. As we walked less than one block down the street, we quickly concluded that this was a bad and unsafe idea and hurried back to the McDonalds/cafe inside the train station. yes, McDonalds again. We ate and played games while we waited for the train. Were the mishaps for the evening over? Of course not! A four person train ticket was lost and had to be re-bought and Cara had coat buttons coming off. Darn you Moderna! The thing that pretty much saved the entire night? 1 euro shakes. Delicious. Finally, we got onto the train to Milan. Upon arriving in the beautiful Milan train station, we bought weekend metro passes and took the metro to our hostel. Finally, success!
Things I learned-
I basically already knew this but I now have first hand experience- The hygiene in other places is not at all what it is in the USA. So, being on an over booked train for a few hours smells really lovely. Almost lovely enough to completely knock you out, but not quite.
I learned how to fully use the train system in Italy and metro system in Milan. Actually the metro is just like New York or Chicago so I probably shouldn't count this....what the hell, might as well!
Again, bathroom many times means just a hole in the floor. I would kill for the loveliness of a Johnny on the Spot at this point. Also, antibacterial wipes are becoming my best friend.
Firsts-
First stay in a Hostel! It was pretty nice actually. Clean and they provided some breakfast. Can't complain about that!
I'd also like to mention that this weekend, we went to 7 different cities in 3 days. quite the feat if you ask me. I'll try to get a blog about the actual stay in Milan soon, and our trip to Lake Como! We leave for Rome for the rest of this week around 7:55 tomorrow morning, so no internet at all for awhile. I can't wait to tell everyone about Milan- which is the best place we've visited so far.
Arrivederci!
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