Ravenna – My first hitchhiking trip in Italy

Date: 12th of March 2016

Route: Bologna − Ravenna − Bologna

Vehicles hitchhiked: 5

I'm an Erasmus exchange student now, and I've lived in Bologna since the 10th of February. Italy is a very beautiful and multifarious country. That's why I want to travel here as much as possible.

I've heard that hitchhiking in Italy is very difficult (because people are not accustomed to it), and... illegal. I've checked on the Internet if the latter is true; travelling in this way is forbidden indeed, but only on the motorways. Unfortunately, with petrol stations included... That makes it a little bit harder, to be honest, but I've decided to give it a try anyway.

When I'm here, in Italy, I can't hitchhike with Maia ( :( ) cause she's been staying in Tokyo since September. In such a case, I needed to search for some other company (I have to admit that I don't feel brave enough to hitchhike alone). I wrote an ad on the "Foreigners in Bologna" Facebook page, and some time later I found a message from Ola (from Poland), in which she said that she would like to hitchhike with me :-)

We met a few days later, and chose Ravenna as our first hitchhiking destination. The city is situated around 80 kilometres from Bologna; in our opinion it's just the right distance to check how it is with hitchhiking on Italian roads.

Ola and I in Ravenna

We wanted to stay in Ravenna for two days to feel the atmosphere of the city. We looked for couchsurfing hosts who could share a couch with us and show us around; unsuccessfully, unfortunately. In the end, we agreed to come to Ravenna in the morning, walk around the city for a few hours, and try hitchhiking back in the afternoon, or come back by train in case of not-stopping any car before dark.

We chose a petrol station that is a 10-minute walk from my flat as our starting point. It turned out that it is situated too close to the city center. Even though a lot of cars passed next to us, none of them stopped. It's highly probable that the great majority of the drivers didn't drive out of Bologna. While we were hitchhiking there, a guy on a bicycle said that he was heading for Ravenna and offered us a lift, smirking.

After an hour of hitchhiking without success we agreed to change the spot. We walked following signposts towards Ravenna. There was a service station, which was quite close to the motorway heading towards Rimini and Ravenna, on the way. We decided to give it a try and hitchhiked in front of its entrance. 

Piazza Del Popolo

This time less than half an hour passed, and a car stopped next to us. We were so absorbed in smiling to passing drivers that we didn't notice the car at all; the driver tooted the horn to let us know that he was waiting for us. Ugh, so it happened to me again, despite the fact that I had promised myself to be more careful this time, and look behind me more often... (I had a lot of such situations, e.g. then)

Anyway, the driver was really friendly. We shared a nice conversation... in Italian. I had started learning Italian 5 months before, so in my case constructing even a simple sentence required a lot of effort. At any rate, it was a good occasion to make myself speak this language, so I shouldn't complain :-)

We were lucky − it was a direct lift to Ravenna. We said goodbyes near the historical centre of the city; the driver thanked us that he could have a new experience in his life (sic!)

My first ice-cream in Italy - celebration of our success :)

We arrived in Ravenna around 11:30. According to our plans, we were supposed to start hitchhiking back around 5 p.m., so we had just a few hours to sightsee. After having second breakfast, we started exploring the city.

Ravenna is very pretty, and very calm in comparison to Bologna. We wandered around the old part of the city, ate traditional Italian gelati (ice-cream) on the Piazza del Popolo, and visited a shop selling hand-made mosaics and wooden artifacts. It turned out that it was a workshop at the same time. We sneaked into the attic where the products are stored.

A mosaic workshop

A hippo

We wanted to relax and eat lunch on the beach, but we learned that the sea was situated 10 kilometres from Ravenna :-) In such a case we agreed to go near the city's port. It was very pleasant to sit there: the day was warm and sunny, and there weren't many tourists in that area.

The port of Ravenna

What should I see in every city that I visit? A park, of course :-) (check e.g. here) The park we've visited in Ravenna is pretty big and green, and there is the Mausoleum of Theoderic there (Theoderic was a king of the Ostrogoths and a ruler of Italy around the V/VI century).

Around 5 p.m. we started heading for the motorway leading to Bologna, looking for a spot that would be good for hitchhiking. We chose the entrance of a petrol station situated on the city road leading to the motorway.

After several minutes a couple stopped the car in front of us and offered to give us a lift; unfortunately, to Russi only (20 kilometres from Ravenna). They claimed there wouldn't be any problem with hitchhiking to the motorway from there. Well, as it turned out, we were left on a small road in the middle of the town, and  in order to get to any road leading directly to the motorway we would have to walk a few kilometres...

We didn't have much choice, really; we just hoped that someone would give us a lift to Faenza, from where there is a state highway (Strada Statale) to Bologna. Moreover, we started to be worried − the more time we were waiting, the lower the sun was...

Half an hour later we were sitting in a 3-person van, fortunately, with two Italians who offered to give us a lift to Faenza. There wasn't much space inside the car, and my legs were almost touching the steering wheel; because of that the driver had problems with changing gears. Nevertheless, I liked the ride a lot: the men were really funny, and the landscape visible outside the windows was picturesque.

In Faenza we managed to catch a short lift to Castel Bolognese (less than 10 kilometres only). The sun had gone down by then. I generally don't want to hitchhike in the dark; unfortunately, this time there weren't any other sensible options to choose from, so we continued hitchhiking.

Luckily, neither did we have to spend the night on the train station or in bushes somewhere in Castel Bolognese, nor walk 40 kilometres in order to come back home − after around twenty minutes a car stopped next to us, and we were given a lift to Bologna. Hurray! What's more, the driver left us in such a place that in order to reach my flat I needed to walk 50 metres only :-)

Well, in a nutshell, it seems that hitchhiking in Italy IS possible. Time to organise longer trips! :-)

Yoga photo near the port in Ravenna