masterstrack.com

I have not been able to find any info on the shuttle situation but I can share with you some ways to save $ on the trip. I booked my hotel direct through www.ecohotelriccione.com and the selection of hotels right on the beach is great and you can choose from 1,2,3 or 4 star hotels. This site offers a special free train (refunded on hotel bill) to and from Bologna or other airport cities and the promotion is called trenogratis da riccione and you will find the info on the ecohotel website (click on the icons for english) or the trenitalia website. I am staying directly on the beach at the Hotel Montecarlo, w a/c (be careful to check) for 49 euro + 5 euro per day single add on and it is full board (food and local wine etc). There are even better rates for properties a few blocks inland but w/in a short walk to the sea. Being right on the main drag on the beach I am assuming the shuttle bus will pass by and I had great luck in san sebastian in the same situation. I found much better airfare by flying into Bologna rather than Riccionne and saved about $500. Hope this helps someone else.

Thanks for the info. The booking thru the official travel agency is a 4 night minimum and I can only be there 2 nights due to business (which is why I am able to go at all!).

Did you book your train already and where did you do that? I will be flying into Bologna on Thursday and will need to get to Riccione. I compete on Friday then I've got to leave on Saturday, hopefully via train to Rome.

The hotel looks nice and I'm going to try to stay there.

Jim Burgoyne

Hi Jim,

You can find infomation about the italian train service at www.trenitalia.it. Accordiing to the hotel booking agent the train schedules will change in July, so you can't book anything for September yet. However, according to the current schedule the trains from Bologna to Riccione leave about once every hour and take about an hour and 20 minutes to get to Riccione.

Incidently, I will also be flying into Bologna on Thursday September 6. My first event is the 5000 m, the next day.

Jen

Excellent...

I booked my rooms today on priceline.com europe. Found 240E for 3 nights!

Thanks for the train info....If you see a lost Boston-Irish looking guy roaming around the airport in Bologna it will probably be me!

There are large differences in price between travel web sites. I found a ticket for $1200 from Sacramento to Bologna on Cheaptickets.com. Air Canada has a cheap fare to London ($750 from Sacramento). You can fly from Gatwick to Bologna for about $250 round trip. Another option is to fly Aerolingus to Dublin and then fly Ryanair to Rimini.

I booked a room at the hotel across from the stadium at Misano Adriatico. It is out of the way but should help my performance. I am only entered in the discus. If all goes well, I will qualify in the morning, walk across the street to my hotel and take a nap, get up about 2 hours before the final, throw really far, collect my medal, and fly back to California where I am playing hooky from work (I think my excuse will be that I have antibiotic-resistant TB). At least, that's the plan.

That plan worked for me in San Juan. I booked a hotel across the street at Paris Hilton's place. I was napping in an air conditioned hotel when the other guys were wilting in the tropical sun.

Tom Fahey M59