Italy 2013 by bogdymol

[bogdymol]

Hello

In this thread I will share with you my experiences from my 7-days vacantion to northern part of Italy. It was an exhausting trip with a lot of driving, a lot of walking and not enough sleep, but it was one of the best trips I've done so far. This is the map of my trip.

In this thread you will find pictures from:

Gorizia

Cortina d'Ampezzo

Bologna

Pisa

Firenze / Florence / Florența

Republic of San Marino

Rimini

Maranello

Modena

Mantua / Mantova

Sirmione

Verona

I will update this thread with new pictures when I will have time, so it might take some time until I will show pictures from all this locations.

PS: I will write in English because I'm sure some of the viewers don't speak Romanian, but feel free to ask questions in any language.

[bogdymol]

I start with the small town of Gorizia. It's not a touristic town, but there I booked a night of accomodation because of the long road-trip.

I start with the Piazza della Transalpina (now Europe Square). The border line between Italy and Slovenia is in the middle of this square and before Slovenia joined the Schengen Area the border was fenced and it was forbidden to cross the border here. Now it's open and everyone can cross it without any controls.





The railway station in Nova Gorica (Slovenia) is right near this square:



The former border crossing between Slovenia (Nova Gorica) and Italy (Gorizia):





And the town of Gorizia:

[bogdymol]

In Gorizia there is a hill with a castle on the top, castle that is now going through rehabilitation works:



The pictures were shot on a Sunday afternoon, so nobody was working on the site at that time. As you can see, the crane had a cement mixer attached. I bet they left it this way so that no thieves could steal the mixer from the site during the Sunday brake.



Under the hill there is a tunnel that is now used only by pedestrians and cyclists:





More pictures from the town of Gorizia:











Next pictures will be from Cortina d'Ampezzo.

[bogdymol]

I also posted on the forum some pictures with the road from Arad (RO) to Gorizia (I) / Nova Gorica (SLO).

You can find the pictures from Hungary here.



And pictures from Slovenia here.

[bogdymol]

This evening I uploaded some road pictures from my trip to Italy. They are from my journey from Gorizia to Cortina d'Ampezzo. I don't want to spam this thread with road-related pictures, so I leave here just the link to the pictures on the Europe roads thread, a google.maps link, and a 1-picture preview. Enjoy!

Raccordo Gorizia - Villese, future A34 motorway - pictures here



A4 - A28 - A27 (Villesse - Belluno) - pictures here



SS51 Belluno - Cortina d'Ampezzo - pictures here

[bogdymol]

Next pictures are from Cortina d'Ampezzo. I didn't have enough time to climb up the mountain so I just visited the city-center area.





@cinxxx: Luigi's brother Abarth was there:









Some grandmothers dressed elegant having a tea and a gossip:

[bogdymol]

I was surprised to find in Italy a lot of small petrol stations that were completely automatic. We don't have this in Romania.



Next pictures I'll upload will be from Bologna.

[bogdymol]

Untill I will publish pictures from Bologna, you can enjoy pictures from the road between Cortina d'Ampezzo and Bologna (SS51 - A27 - A4 - A13) in this thread.

[bogdymol]

Moving on to the next city, which is...

Bologna

I arrived in the evening at Bologna and I didn't had to much time to walk around the city. It's not a very touristic city so it was enough for me. The pictures might not be perfect because they were taken at sunset.

I choosed to walk from the hotel to the center because in most Italian cities it's forbidden to enter the ZTL (center) area without a permit.



I was surprised to see in Bologna people washing your car's windscreen and asking money for it. We don't have this anymore in Romania (at least not in my town):



Bologna railway station:



Old city gate:



There were a lot of buildings with colums like this in Bologna:

[bogdymol]

Piazza Maggiore, with San Petronio Basilica and the City Hall.

[bogdymol]

Maybe you didn't knew, but in Bologna there are also leaning towers, not only in Pisa. Bologna's symbol are this two leaning towers built in the 12th century:









Next pictures will be from Pisa.

[bogdymol]

Next town is...

Pisa

As soon as I arrived there I knew that this town is a tourist attraction. There were a lot of tourists (like myself) and a lot of people selling everything on the street.



If you get by car in any Italian town be careful not to go inside the ZTL area (usually ZTL area = city center) without a permit or you will get fined.



Few pictures of not-so-touristical streets in Pisa:











In Italy I had big problems finding wi-fi internet. I mean, finding free wi-fi networks was not a problem, but after you connect and try to access any page you have to register to that wi-fi network. Registration is free, but you need to give your phone number (Romanian phone number doesn't work) and get a confirmation SMS with a code to access the internet. Other 'free' wi-fi networks were asking from you your full credit card details to let you access the internet. Why is this? In Romania if there is a free wi-fi network you just simply connect to it and you can surf the web. But in Italy...

[bogdymol]

Some more pictures from Pisa...

[bogdymol]

Some more pictures from Pisa...

[bogdymol]

And the main reason that everyone goes at Pisa: the leaning tower of Pisa: