Our wonderful food tour guide on October 10 had warned us to not use a GPS in Bologna---they were notoriously wrong----use a map, any map, he advised. Just over 2 hours after picking up the car, we came to realize how wise was that council. Instead of guiding us out of Bologna to San Matteo Della Decima, it directed us into the middle of Old Bologna and seemed to send us in circles. "Didn't we already do this?"
The section of Bologna we had walked for the 2 days before with very narrow streets, we now were driving with a GPS that gave two arrows back at our location as directions. And, there seemed to be no sense to the diections except to move us deeper into Bologna. Leaving did not seem to be part of the plan.
Command decision time. We put the GPS away as a source of annoyance and frustration.We got out the minimal map we had from our hotel. Now we had to find a street with a name we could find on the mini map.
Got one. Now for the real test. We picked a spot to get close to the side and stopped! Just like the Italians we put on our flashers. Remember we are using a mini map. Most streets unnamed. Many not there. Then, we determined where we thought we were and how to get out of Bologna. Got a route that was to the wrong side of Bologna, but it was out and to a major road that appeared to go around the city. Flashers off. Back into moving traffic. Everyone stopped blowing horns at us
As we were within sight of what we believed to be the access road to the Italian Autostrade (Turnpike), which we thought we needed to get to San Matteo, What do our wondering eyes behold-----a road sign telling us we had just 5 km to go to get to McDonalds. Forget all GPS directions. Forget the mini map. Follow the directions to McDonalds. Yes, sir! To Mcdonalds with a big sigh of relief!
There we would re-group. Get an Americano coffee. Visit the rest rooms. Find our cell phones so we could call our genealogist and tell him we were lost but coming. Find a map that would help us get to San Matteo, maybe someone who could tell us how to get there from here. Forgetting we might not be able to get there from here.
We parked our vehicle. Made sure we had Euros. Locked the car and headed into our first Italian McDonalds. Opened the door and..................it was not like any American McDonalds. The rest rooms could be found without help, but.....................
All the signs were in Italian. There were two counters......the first, and most prominent, was the McCafe counter. All coffee and other drinks were served here. Italian Espresso or Cafe Americano or Capucino. And, real Italian pastries. Espresso, 1 Euro. Cafe Americano, 1.5 Euros. During our 3 weeks in Italy, we never got to the second counter.............the one we all see as McDonalds in the USA.
Next discovery............free wi-fi! Just like the US. But, you need to get an ID and password to use it. Easy to do, except the instruction screen is in Italian and the local employees do not know how to do it, especially whereas they only speak Italian. We need the access, because we can get a map that will tell us where to go. They know some one who knows what to do. Only she is not at work for another 20 minutes. Wait! She arrives, but it takes a committee of three to establish what is almost correct. Luckily I can decipher some of it by watching. We enter the info to get access............now we have a map.
And, the blue location dot stays with us until we are truely on the way along our route to San Matteo.
10 kms outside of San Matteo we try the GPS.......it works.
We quickly learned that all over Northern Italy and and around Rome there are McDonalds. Bologna RR station, McDonalds. Trevi Fountain in Rome, McDonalds. Napoli anywhere, no McDonalds. We used McDonalds as our compass for much of our trip. Except for Napoli and Avellino.
The dates on the pics are exactly one year off. We set the camera date incorrectly.
 |
| Outside Bologna. The one that started it all................ |
 |
| ..............not the average American McDonalds. |
 |
| Cento....... |
 |
| ..................playground. |
 |
| Note the spinach Bites with the chicken Bites. A big favorite. And, they are good! |
 |
| On the Autostrade. A rest stop. |
 |
| We did not eat McDonalds, but they were ther. For us, Italian pizza is much better. |
 |
| Outside Parma. |
