B-o-l-o-g-n-a

The goal of getting to each city in Italy was to arrive in time to be able to eat lunch. Why was eating lunch so important? Because we were in Italy and I didn’t want to miss a meal while on a train. Italy still does a fair amount of siesta nonsense, so a lot of places are not open between 3:30 and 7, making it very important to not schedule a tour near lunch, otherwise you’ll miss the chance to eat.

Thankfully all the major train stations have a place called VyTA. They sell a muffin that has jam or chocolate stuffing in the middle. We discovered them in Milan and tried to eat a apricot, chocolate, or berry muffin at every train station we encountered. I don’t think I ever grabbed a picture, but they are decent muffins. The sweet fruity or chocolate filling only enhance how deliciously terrible they are for you.

We didn’t eat too many before arriving in Bologna though, so after we settled in we headed straight out for lunch.

There were plenty of cheap places by us selling day old schwarma or offering the popular afternoon buffet. Loud music was everywhere. Youths chain smoked out in the cafes. Graffiti tags covered any wall nearby. Turned out we were staying within the campus of the University of Bologna. That would explain the cigarette smoke and seedy vibe of the entire area. Sleep would be difficult, especially with the music/food festival and the political propaganda being yelled out on the stage in the square, but it was interesting none the less.

We walked around Bologna with not much to see or do. Like Porto, there is not a lot of pressure to see things in Bolonga. Unlike Porto, thankfully, there is no importance placed on codfish. Instead, Bologna cares about stuffed pasta’s.

As we wandered, we ran into the two famous towers in town, built in order to keep an eye on the surrounding areas to keep the city safe. We also strolled in and around Santo Stefano, a collection of seven churches dating back to 5th century.

Inside the seven churches.

Santo Stefano

A look at the porticoes in the city.

The two towers. They used to be the same height.

We found a place for lunch quite a ways from the busy city center. We had hit the lunch rush. The restaurant was packed, as was the outside, as was the entire basement. We finally got seated in the bowels of the restaurant and made note that places in Italy don’t always go up a level to seat you, sometimes they go down.

Our meal would end up being one of the best we had in Italy. We had a basic panini with proscuitto and cheese and a couple of pasta dishes, ravioli and a ragu with wide noodles. Every thing we ordered was very good. It was also pretty cheap. Good pasta dishes in Italy ran around 8-10 USD.

As we continued to walk around the city, we decided to try out the walking tour from the Bologna Tourism Office. Normally, we only do free walking tours to learn about cities. Up until Venice, every single tour had exceeded our expectation. We could not find one of these in Bologna so we went with a regular tour provided by the city of Bologna.

The first half of the tour never even left Piazza Maggiore. We covered all the old buildings in the square, with a particular focus on the cathedral. Folks in Bologna wanted it to be bigger than St. Peter’s in the Vatican city and it was on track to be so. Then they ran out of money. It was so under-financed they couldn’t even cover the entire facade with marble, much less add. Later a pope decided to build a college next to the church, squashing all hope that the church would be extended any further.

Ohhh were halfway there…

Scaffolding

Where the side of the church stops.

They made it into a lovely window.

Each chapel is decorated in their own way. This was one of the most beautiful.

We walked around a bit to see the University of Bologna (the oldest university in Europe)…

the markets of the city…

the worlds longest sundial…

Where the sun hits the floor telling the time of year.

The whole in the ceiling that lets the sunshine through.

a famous painting of the Divine Comedy…

The whole wall.

Heaven

Purgatory

Hell

… and a group of terracotta statues.

The statues, housed in a quaint church that was once part of the hospital of the area, were some of the best art we have ever seen. Not just on this trip, but ever.

The statues known as “Compianto sul Cristo morto” (Lamentation Over the Dead Christ) was made up of six separate individuals standing in a semicircle overlooking the dead Christ. The most moving of the figures is Mary Magdalene who looks as if the air from her screams are blowing her garments away. The expressiveness the artist was able to give the figures is incredible. It is an injustice to only call them amazing.

After our tour, we strolled around the city unsure of where to go, but excited to be wandering. Music was alive and in the streets. Bands seemed to be parked in the road, playing songs from all over the world. Some we knew, most we didn’t. We managed to find a canal in Bologna (not sure why Venice has such a monopoly).

At we decided that we are stuffed pasta family. The best pasta dishes we devoured are the one’s with meat, cheese, spinach, etc. inside the pasta. I guess we love surprises.

We headed back to our place, unsure if the scene had toned from earlier in the day. It had not. Instead, they had ramped up the racket. The food part of the “festival” was comprised of a rather eclectic cuisine. Our favorite was the Spanish place serving “traditional” Spanish food. Its menu included paella, but also tacos and nachos. Not as authentic as we thought.

Our terrace at day.

Our terrace at night.

The next morning we started our biggest bestest (expensivest) tour yet. With not much to do in Bologna, we had set to visit Modena for a day. This region of Italy is home to Parmesan cheese, Balsamic vinegar, and prosciutto. All of which have a designation so these particular foodstuffs are stamped, sealed, graded, approved, what have you to let everyone around the world know where each came from.

This particular tour didn’t visit places that gave you a hard sale. The tour was more informational and learning-based compared to tours which gave you a little info and then shove you in a shop to hawk their wares. We were finally rid of the Moroccan tour standards.

The tour picked us up next to the train station in Bologna. So before we even started a tour devoted to just food, I ran over to the station to grab one (maybe two) of those jam filled muffins. With another successful meal in Italy completed, our bus took off for the Parmesan factory.

Being in an industrial factory is not glamorous or sexy. Our pictures show us in all the regalia of visitors touring a cheese making facility. Our tour guide affectionately referred to our fashions as the latest Gucci spring fashions. So glamorous. While in our hairnets, we learned everything there is to know about making Parmesan. The most interesting bits of info were about the Parmesan during it’s aging process.

Officials visit each Parmesan factory to check the wheels of cheese. They use a small hammer and other tools to ensure there are no air pockets inside the wheel and it has no significant defects. If mold or a hole develops on the outside of the wheel, they can burn that section to insure bacteria does not spread.

Some wheels are affected so much that it cannot be sold as official Parmigiano-Reggiano. If this happens they scuff the outer edge of the wheel and sell it at a discount. If the wheel is in even worse shape, they end up turning it into the Parmesan cheese Kraft would sell for you to sprinkle on your spaghetti and meatballs.

Once we finished the factory tour, we were able to sample some of the cheese. Of course it was excellent and we bought some 48 month aged. The purchase process was to rummage through a box with various aged Parmesan cheese at various weights, find what you want, and drop some cash in the same box. It was quite the no frills operation.

We arrived at the prosciutto factory next. They weren’t working since it was a Saturday, but we were able to tour the facility with the owner and learn about the process. They also have a formal meat shop selling the cuts they produce, as well as cheeses and other products from around Europe.

Our guide tried his best to give a great understanding of how everything was organized, but the owner, in his excitement and enthusiasm for his profession, could not stop himself from interrupting our guide to give us additional information. It was amusing because the owner only knows Italian and our guide would have to calm him down in Italian and then translate what the owner said to us.

The sampling of meat products was fantastic. Various prosciutti were passed about. The specialty of the house was present, prosciutto stuffed with black truffles. This creation of the owner was my favorite of what we sampled. We ended up buying a fair amount of different cuts, excited for what dinner would look like back in Bologna.

The final food stop was the stop we were most excited about, Balsamic vinegar. What you buy in the grocery store is not real Balsamic. Even the $20-30 bottle isn’t authentic Balsamic. The real stuff runs $50 or more and is aged for at least 12 years. It’s like buying a quality scotch or whiskey.

This was our first foray into authentic Balsamic and it did not disappoint.

We learned about the barrels. In the family (because of course this is a family business), when a child is born a collection of barrels is created for the him or her. The barrel collection is made up of 5, 6, or 7 barrels of decreasing sizes in various woods. When the child moves out or gets married, the barrels enter the hands of that person. The gentleman who owns the business had his four year old daughter with us and showed us her barrels. He showed us his barrels. He showed us his grandfather’s barrels.

We learned about the production which is rather simple and about the aging process which is quite complex. Wine is cooked down and placed in the largest barrel. Each year a bit from the largest barrel is moved to the next, slightly smaller, barrel in the line. This continues until it reaches the smallest barrel. Eventually, you take from the smallest barrel and you have finished Balsamic.

It was a fantastic learning process and we procured a 25 year bottle of Balsamic. We are using it sparingly.

The day continued as we headed out to Maranello to visit the Ferrari Museum. There was an option to drive a Ferrari, but a few things prevented it from happening for me. The first was the sparkling wine I had at the prosciutto place. The second was the fact that none of the cars have a stick shift. If I was gonna drive a sports car, I wanted it to be an authentic experience. The third was the price. And number four was that I had not driven a car in three months. Not any car at all. I’d been in a few taxis, but not behind the wheel of anything since the US. Probably not a good idea to start back with a Ferrari.

The museum was filled with beautiful cars. But you probably had that figured out.

We closed the tour with a very long lunch. It consisted of enough stuffed pasta, grilled meat, and wine to sink a battleship. It was an excellent meal and the folks on the tour with us were pleasant company.

We arrived back in Bologna and took naps. Dinner was a collection of our treats from the day’s tour.

Some people would only take a day trip to Bologna or maybe stay a night or two.We are not some people. We spent four days in Bologna and enjoyed every one of them. The next post will cover the last half of our Bologna stay.