Continued from Paris Day 6.

We woke up early this morning, did final pack up and left for the train station. We’ve got a 7:30am train to catch to Turin, then we’ll transfer onto Bologna. After our slow getting ready back in London, we gave ourselves a little bit more time to get ready this morning. Look how grumpy CL looks in this picture.

KL points.

I think this is the right platform. This is a train we’ve yet to take before in Les Halles. All the other trains are nicely marked, but for some reason, this one is confusing on which direction it’s headed to. Blah, a little stressed out.

I hope our train isn’t as busy as the one on the other platform. It wasn’t, and we were on the correct direction and only took one stop.

And this is the reason why we’ve got backpacks instead of rolling luggage.

Stairs and more stairs all over Europe.

I’m on bag watch duty while everyone else grabs a quick lunch to bring on the train. We are actually in a bit of a rush this morning as from the subway train to this station is a farther walk than I had expected.

This old man here just walked up with his bike and cut right in front of me like I didn’t even exist. WTF! Their ticket machine scanner wasn’t working, and we were all running out of time, so they just started waving us through and will check tickets again on the train.

Train leaves at 7:30am. This is a little too close for comfort for me.

Made it.

This is kinda nice, a trash can at each table.

This will do for lunch.

Went to dining car to get coffee, but they weren’t open yet. I guess I’ll just wait for the cart service later then.

Must have coffee. The lady sitting across from me got a small coffee, which was the size of an expresso shot, but just regular coffee.

Doing some trip research and seeing how far we are from crossing the border. It’ll be a long trip today, this first leg is about 6 hours and the next leg after we transfer in Turin is about 2 hours.

Their wifi works, so I guess that’s something to celebrate.

Looks like corn.

While on the train, I got this email. Sigh. We’ve got a 30min window to transfer from this train to the next in Turin. I guess this makes it a 15min window. Yay, more stress. It’s just hard to get 5 people (3 kids) to get all of our heavy bags on and then move from platform to platform.

The alps.

It’s a full train, and someone, or many have stacked all their luggage over these two seats and it seemed like others on the train were supposed to sit here and had to find somewhere else to sit. Even the train staff got involved, but at the end, have no idea what happened and the luggage remained.

Oh great, delayed a little bit more. This is stressing me out for sure.

Alright, let’s get all our packs up and stand and wait. Who knows how far we’ll need to walk right away in the shortened transfer time that we have. 3 kid life, yo.

Clock’s ticking!

We scramble down the train, furiously look at the board for the next train…and what do you know…it’s at the same platform we are at now…Well, that was a lot of worrying for nothing.

Another train comes at the platform, but this isn’t our train.

Now this is our train, let’s go!

Man, train transfers are stressful like airplane transfers. I prefer nonstop so much more, but I’m so does everyone.

Italy looks like…well, I guess Italy.

227km/h, I guess it’s going relatively fast.

Cute, kids on their ipad break playing with little figurines that they’ve been carrying along with them in their fanny packs. Sometimes these three are the cutest things ever.

Italian trains are still hot, even with AC.

Really booking it now, 291km/h!

Grapes!

Made it to Bologna! Long day of travel, exhausted. Amazing how sitting on a train for 8 hours can be so exhausting.

Long walk to the taxi stand.

We knew it would be hard for us to get a taxi since most taxis only seat 4. A Prius taxi pulls up…we can’t fit…or can we. The driver said he can take us, and then pulls up the third row seats. Woah. I didn’t know they made a 3 row Prius for ROW?

Look, it’s our 3 row Prius taxi! This is where we got dropped off as we are staying in a pedestrian only zone, so we’ll need to walk another block or two to get to our airbnb.

Bologna is famous for its covered portico walkways. Very much appreciated as it’s hot and sunny here.

Found. To get in, it’s all via an web app on my phone.

Ahhh, tiny European elevator with limit for 3 only and doors that you need to close yourself.

Made it! This is what $538 a night gets you in central Bologna. It’s a deal really considering what we paid in Paris. We came in, and the AC was off and it’s HOT. We are sweating nonstop. Turn on all AC!!!

The house has electric shutters for sun shade. There’s also an in between where the shutters can be down but let in some light between the slats. If you want full coverage, then you keep lowering and the slats will nest inside each other for full sun coverage. Kinda cool design…except…what happens if it break or what happens if we lose power…foreshadowing

Hungry after a long day of travel. Bologna is supposed to have amazing food, let’s go eat! Just somewhere close by and around the corner will do.

Oh, they’ve got a whole allergy list noted on their menu. This will be nice for us.

Hopefully the allergy listing is accurate and we can trust it.

Hot temp means it’s time for some Italian beers. Love how the beers here are so clean and crisp. We both really like Menabrea.

Famous local fare, tortellini in broth. Yum. LKL ended up being a big fan of this.

Of course, tagliatelle con ragu alla bolognese. Sooooo good.

Needless to say, yum!!

We need to pick up some water and snacks. The water isn’t to drink but more for the water bottles to have around the house. We will then fill the water bottles with tap water when we run low.

Let’s see if I can get the TV to work with airplay, nope. Let’s see if I can get it to work with hdmi cable.

Yup. Family Naruto time to close out the day.

Then as I was able to head to bed, I was looking for my phone charger that I had put in my backpack. You know, the backpack that has PL’s epipen and our passports…then I realized I couldn’t find it….Then I thought back if I had brought it back…no, I did not. I had handed the backpack to RL at dinner and that was the last time I saw it. I asked RL if she brought it back…and she did not. FUUUCCCCKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!! The backpack got left at the restaurant and that was HOURS ago. We looked up the hours of the restaurant and they close at 11pm, it’s 10:45pm. I threw on my shoes and ran down the stairs to the restaurant. Hopefully they found it when they cleaned our table and kept it…Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!!!

Sweet relief!!! OMG, they had kept the backpack safe and everything is still inside. OMG, what a fucking near miss, again!!! So glad we were able to get it back tonight. Imagine if I had remember after they had closed, and had to wait all night to go back without knowing if they have it or someone else took it. What a nightmare, but averted. We are usually very careful, but obviously, we can still be more careful about this. I don’t want to think what would happen if we lost our passports and our epipen….it would mean we’d spend the rest of the trip trying to get new passports instead of traveling on. Phew.

Walking back to our airbnb with backpack in tow.

The fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree. I come back home and find LKL sound asleep like this. One hand on his nuts and another hand down his pants. Just like his dad.

Recovering the backpack with our most important essentials deserves a beer.

Oh man, it could have been so bad and such a hassle. That sinking feeling is terrible. Thankful it worked out.

To be continued at Bologna 2026 Day 2.