Sunday 15th November 2009 – Castel Bolognese, Italy

We spent the morning in Urbino and thoroughly enjoyed it. There was a frequent bus service from the car park into the old town but we decided that we needed the exercise and walked in. The old town is stuffed with churches, monasteries, other religious buildings, many palazzos and even a few ordinary houses. We wandered around enjoying the architecture and alleyways before climbing up steep streets and steps to get to Parco della Resistenza and the Albornoz Fort that had lovely views both over the town and the surrounding countryside. Urbino was a very important cultural centre in the 15th century producing many famous artists (including Raphael), architects (including Donato Bramante) and poets. We came across many houses with stone plaques announcing that a certain luminary had lived there – none of whom we had heard of. It is still an important university town with different departments of the university having taken over a large number of the lovely buildings in the town.
We moved on, intending to take the Roman road, the Via Emilia, to Bologna but it didn't work out that way. The first part of the journey from Urbino to the Via Emilia was very pleasant but as soon as we got on the Roman road, the weather became very misty and the route became very slow through many built-up areas. We decided to switch onto the motorway that runs parallel to the Via Emilia and got to the motorway slip road off a roundabout to discover that it was blocked off. There had been no warning signs and there was no signposted diversion. We knew that we would be struggling to get to Bologna in the daylight so we changed our minds and picked on Faenza where there were two aires.
It was really not our day. We found the road where the central aire was supposed to be but every car park had signs indicating 'no motorhomes'. There were however signs directing us to an aire and we followed those. They took us into the outskirts and an industrial estate where the dumping facilities had been cordoned off, the car park was strewn with rubbish and there were gypsies in occupation. We identified another aire in the next town and set the sat nav to take us there, hoping that it was open and acceptable. The journey was interesting – it was now dark and we drove down single-track roads reminiscent of the Somerset Levels, with deep water-filled rhynes (ditches) on either side. Fortunately we only met one other car and that was at a point where I could pull in to let him pass. We arrived at Castel Bolognese to find an excellent car park with drinking water, dumping facilities and designated motorhome parking spaces. Very relieved, we chose a pitch and I set to work cooking the evening meal.
Photos: Urbino, Palazzo Ducale – the side facing the main square is rather boring but this view is lovely; The walk up to the Albornoz Fort; View from the fort with the cathedral and Palazzo Ducale
dominating.