Stazione Bologna Centrale

It’s good to know that there are two levels of platforms– one for local and one for national.
There seemed to be building work going on so I found the whole place a little confusing and sprawling.
There wasn’t a huge amount of places to sit either!

Coming from a non public transit city such as Los Angeles, this place awes me in its organization and easy to read directions when tryin to locate your platform so you can board the right train. It is so damn clean compared to the crap I have to deal with with the lack of public transit in LA. I couldn’t believe how friendly everyone was to help me find my train because the place was bustling with travelers from all over italy. You will see that during the winter holidays, a lot of people are moving around cities to visit family or friends.
I took the TrenItalia to Florence and it was only a 30 min ride! It goes at speeds at 200mph and theres even food/​drink service on board. It was so easy to buy the ticket online and save the PDF from your email to your phone in case they check your ticket. Man I wished they had something like this in LA… i mean its so convenient and cheap!
I highly recommend using the train if you want to visit other cities during your stay in Bologna.

We were here for quite a bit, during our stay in Bologna. It was relatively large, but signage was rather adequate, and it was well-​patrolled by police. In fact, we went there the night before we would take a train to Rimini, simply because we wanted to familiarize ourselves with the station, as it was our first time taking a train in Italy. Soon enough, two police officers approached us and very politely asked for our identification. After a quick polite check, they let us go.
Anyway, it is a very organized station, and very clean as well. Not bad for a first impression on Italian trains.

Conveniently located, medium-​sized train stazione that’s light on the amenities. Don’t have super high expectations and you’ll be fine.
I arrived here first from a high-​speed FrecciaRossa from Milano — — that platform stopped underground in very, very nice & modern looking area. Then lugging my belongs up to the open-​air part you find the «normal» stazione looking old and out-​dated. (But that’s what I think give it some charm…)
The other remaining times I used this station was to daytrip to Florence, and to head back to Milano. Both of those times I just used the «main» platforms — — so I didn’t go all the way to the bottom to where the really nice part was. So I suppose, if one didn’t go there you might just think this is an old, plain station (but it’s really not «that» bad.)
It was easy to find the lifts so that I didn’t have to lug my heavy suitcase up/​down the stairs either.
I just used the self-​service ticket kiosks. No worries there.
And i do kinda agree with Donald P — — make sure you look at your ticket if your platform is «West» or just normal. You don’t want to be waiting in the wrong platform area. (I think it may be safe to say that the «West» area was for the slow, regional trains). I used the main area for the daytrip to Firenze and the FrecciaBianca to Milano.

Not so far from the heart of Bologna, this station is still in the needs of upgradings and more important needs more security to provide that people who are not interested to take a train bothers you begging for money of improvising as luggage helper in change of spare changes.
This station has a difficult system of platform location where usually even Italians get confused. in fact they have not only a platform number but the same number can be East, Central or West. Let say for example that a platform can be 4 East but also 4 West so that who is not accustomed to this system usually goes to platform 4 which is not the right one.
Vending Machines on each platforms can sometimes help to enjoying the waiting, maybe having a coffee or a Tea. Liftings on each platforms help you if you have extra luggages. Taxi ranks and buses are located just outside the exit and some shops are into the entrance hall with currency exchange service.