We got up too early – our alarm went off a half hour too early, the battery may be going. We’re moving slowly today – as usual, as our vacations progress we get more and more tired (I need a vacation from my vacation).

We’re hoping the recent earthquakes haven’t damaged Ferrara too much; we had to cancel Mantua because it’s been closed to tourists due to damage.

We took a taxi to the train station and the 11:27A train to Ferrara (in 1st class – for 6 € it’s worth the comfort & air conditioning).

A short taxi ride took us to our hotel, Hotel Annunziata. It’s a very nice modern hotel. They gave us a list of attractions that are open or closed – distressingly most of the places we wanted to visit are closed; only half the list of all sites provided by the hotel were open. The hotel is right across the street from Este Castle.

Este Castle

Este Castle

A decoration inside a tunnel at Este Castle

A tower and part of the moat around Este Castle

The hotel recommended a restaurant; it took us a bit to find it, and it was very good, serving traditional food from Ferrara, L’Oca Giuliva. We both had the bread soup, and I followed that with a ravioli stuffed with pumpkin in a meat sauce.

Those are stuffed with pumpkin with a meat sauce

We walked over to the Museo Della Cattedrale; upstairs are a room of illuminations – don’t lean on the wood cabinets! Downstairs and around are some wonderful sculptures of the seasons and the marvelous painted doors from the organ.

The Museo Della Cattedrale

Ticket for Museo Della Cattedrale (back)

Ticket for Museo Della Cattedrale (front)

A postcard of one of the organ doors at the museum

We walked through the Medieval part of town – very interesting, reminded me of Siena a little bit, very small tight streets; one street has regular arches down it’s length.

The statue of Savanarola, who was born in Ferrara

Some earthquake damage

Aviva going into the 99 Cent Store – her mom would be proud!

Aviva entering the Canadian Shop

I’m forever blowing bubbles….

A votive on the wall at a street corner

The Duomo

A cool covered crossing between buildings

One of many buildings closed due to the earthquake

One of the plaques remembering the Jewish ghetto

One of the plaques remembering the Jewish ghetto

The front facade of the Duomo

A cool clock tower

We tried to get into the Palazzo Paradiso – we apparently needed to put our bags somewhere, but the people there couldn’t agree where to leave them.

We found a little bookstore and talked with the owner for a bit – Aviva bought an art book.

We had some gelato and went back to the hotel. Aviva looked up information on Ravenna and we decided to go there tomorrow. We need to find out if there’s still a transportation strike on Friday – if not we’ll stay in Ravenna two nights, otherwise just one to make sure we’re in Bologna for my flight early Saturday morning.

We went out and had a pretty good lasagna at a local bar, Giori, another small gelato (we deserve it) and back to the room to repack and sleep.

The dog was so cute at dinner I needed to take a picture

That spread is bar food in Ferrara apparently

Location:Via Garibaldi,Ferrara,Italy