I had five days until I was due to enter France - this gave me just enough time to make a few stops on the way to visit friends that I'd met on The Way. First up was Paulina and Matteo in Bologna. I last saw them in La Isla, a small beach town halfway across the Bay of Biscay.

Alessia's father drove me to the train station where I had arranged a Blablacar (great ride-sharing app) to Bologna. The driver, Alessandro, asked me to put on some music and I chose the Blues Brothers - he loved them. From the few times I have been a passenger in Italy I noticed that they are a fan of drifting between lanes; granted it's a small sample size, but still... That said I felt much safer than the time the madman ferried me across Slovenia from Ljubljana to Idrija blaring his horn at anything with wheels.

Bologna's streets are very beautiful. The pedestrian walkways in the old town are often under cover of the buildings, so you can go out in any weather without fear of being precipitated on.

I managed to catch Paulina and Matteo in their crazy schedule for a quick stroll through the town. It was wonderful to see them again and catch up four months on.