Bologna · Backpacking

A bus ticket bought on board from the machine is €2.50. The airport monorail is €12.80 one way and €23.30 return. The Ferruccio Lamborghini museum is €17 and a guided visit to the Imola circuit €20. The big churches in the centre cost nothing at all.

The city lists exactly three: Dopa Hostel in the university district, Combo Bologna by the railway station and Nosadillo out towards Porta Saragozza. During fair weeks they fill first and price themselves like hotels, so book before you book the train.

Marconi Express covers seven minutes of track for €12.80 one way; a family one-way is €25.60 and groups of ten or more pay €10.50 each. Flex tickets at least also cover 75 minutes on TPER's city buses from validation, which is the only thing that redeems the price.

The city's own listing has one campsite in Bologna itself, the Bologna Easy Camping Village, plus Camping Le Querce and Riva del Setta up in the Apennines and two more around Imola. With city buses it is workable in summer, if never central.

Bologna is flat and small enough to cross on foot in half an hour, and the tourist board keeps a register of hire outlets — eXtraBO on Piazza Maggiore, ExDynamo at the station, RideMovi's free-floating bikes. Between that, the porticoes and a €2.50 bus ticket, transport inside the walls costs almost nothing.