Bologna, Italy

While we were in Florence, we took a train north to make a day-trip to Bologna, the capital of Emilia-Romagna region. It took only 40 minute by express train. Although it was sunny in Florence when we left there in the early morning, the sky in Bologna was cloudy and sometimes raining. Actually the unfriendly weather didn't affect us so much because of the Bologna's famous porticoes.

In the 12th century, Bologna became an independent municipality (Comune) and the University, the first in the Western world, was founded. These developments attracted new residents from the outside. In order to create new residential spaces, the buildings were bumped out except the ground floor. The additional space was supported by pillars, and a sequence of pillars created a portico. 

I was surprised at how extensive the Porticoes were. Even after the unification of Italy, Bologna continued to build porticoes on both public and private properties according to the architectural principles and regulations of the medieval municipality. Today it has a total of 62 km porticoes, of which 42 km are in the historic center. The sheltered walkways not only looked unique and charming but also allowed us to walk around the city comfortably almost without an umbrella. 

We came to the Piazza Maggiore, the main square of the city, by passing through the Piazza del Nettuno. There was the 16th century Fountain of Neptune, which was commissioned to symbolize Pope Pius IV's power and reign, as he ruled the land as Neptune ruled the water.

One of the main buildings at the Piazza Maggiore was Palazzo d'Accursio that has been the seat of the city's Municipal Authority since 1336. We briefly looked at the outside of the Town Hall of Bologna.

Another main building at the main square was the Basilica of San Petronio, the largest church in Bologna. It could have been larger. The construction of the church began at the end of the 14th century and during the 16th century, the plan to make the church to be a larger than the Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican was on the table although Pope Pius IV blocked it according to legend. 

The church was not consecrated until 1954 while the facade is still unfinished today, which has been partially covered in marble since the 16th century. 

The interior of the Gothic church was divided into a central nave and two smaller side ones with total 22 chapels. The large church was also a good shelter from rain.

We hadn't had breakfast at that time. Behind the basilica was a small square called Piazza Galvani. There was a cafe at the corner that our nice neighbor in England used to visit for coffee and people watching. I saw many pretty pastries in the cafe's showcase! However, the inside of the cafe looked busy and they hadn't set up terrace tables yet. We had to keep walking.

We found a narrow street just off the Piazza Maggiore that was lined with a lot of small food stores. Bologna is know as the Italian gastronomical capital. It's home of Tortellini, Mortadella, Prosciutto, Parmigiano Reggiano, Balsamic di Modena, Ragú Bolognese, Lasagne and more. It sounded like a heaven for us.

After all we skipped breakfast and waited for Tigellino open. It's a small street food shop specialized in small sandwiches made from a local type of bread called Tigelle, filled with local ingredients. We were the first customer of the day.

Tigelle looked like something between a pancake and an English muffin. We chose four different sandwiches: Pancetta and Mozzarella di Bufala; Mortadella and Pecorino; Prosciutto, Mascarpone and Artichoke; and Squacquerone and Rucola. I tried the last one. Squacquerone is one of the most popular cheeses from Emilia Romagna, which I wanted to try in Bologna. The fresh cream cheese is very soft and very perishable, hard to find outside of Italy. It tasted milky and tangy, like yogurt. I liked it. I also had one with pancetta. The meat was so fatty. J seemed to enjoy the other two.

Then we stopped by Murtadela, another street food shop that was located right next to Tigellino. Their main ingredient was Mortadella, which the store front clearly showed us. By the way Mortadella is perhaps the most famous cured meat in the city. Created during the Renaissance, the pink giant pork sausage had a smooth texture and tasted mild. 

We tried murtadela, buffalo mozzarella, red peppers and rocket salad in Piadina, an ancient regional flatbread. It was pretty good.

After the double sandwich brunch, we visited a bakery/pastry shop nearby for a dessert. Paolo Atti & Figli Panificio has been producing bread, pasta, pastry and delicatessen since 1880. Their pastry looked like what Italian grandmas bake. 

We shared a small size of Torta di Riso, or rice cake, a traditional dessert in Bologna. It was like rice pudding flavored with some kinds of spices and citrus. It was pretty sweet but tasty. Later I learned Torta di Riso could contain of cinnamon, vanilla, lemon and candied orange peel, almonds and amaretto. I see how the complexity of the taste was generated.

In the center of the city, two medieval towers, called Two Towers (Le Due Torri) literally, stood as the symbol of Bologna. I could see only one from this angle. Around the 12th and 13th century Bologna had about 180 towers, built by the wealthy local families both as a symbol of their power and as a defense system during the wars between the Guelphs (the supporters of Pope) and the Ghibellines (the supporters of the Holy Roman Emperor). Today only 24 towers remains although many of them are hid between buildings. I would like to time-travel to that time to see how the city looked like with that many towers.

It was Monday. Many museums were closed but luckily we found Archaeological Museum of Bologna to be open. The exhibition “I Pittori di Pompei (The Painters of Pompeii)” was very interesting, which presented over 100 works of the decorations in the houses of Pompeii, Herculaneum and the Vesuvius area during the Roman era. The exhibition focused on the role and status of the artists and craftsmen who created those works as well as their technique, tools, colors and models. The ancient artworks were amazingly still colorful and lively.

The permanent collections of the museum were wonderful, too. We spent a good amount of time there. 

In fact we enjoyed the museum too much and almost missed the lunch timeframe. We rushed to Restaurant Donatello. It's a family-run restaurant that has been preparing classic dishes of the Bolognese cuisine since 1903.

The interior was Art Nouveau style. A lot of photos of celebrity visitors on the wall. 

We both order Tagliatelle al Ragù, of course. So many restaurants in Bologna create their own Tagliatelle al Ragù. I chose Donatello because they open on Monday (many restaurants were closed on Monday), they open for lunch, and they have received very good reviews. If we stayed more than a day in Bologna, I would love to try the Bologna's staple from different restaurants.

Donatello makes their Ragù with mix of beef and pork and without any water or other liquid (i.e. broth) except red wine. The ragù tasted very good. Nothing surprise. Just a nicely mellowed meat sauce. The tagliatelle had a nice chew. I was very satisfied.

After the lovely lunch we wandered in the city center more. We happened to find a store of Bialetti, the original Moka pot "Moka Express" brand. We have their Moka pot and experiment it occasionally. J found out the best way to brew coffee in the pot after our trip to Rome recently. We bought coffee beans for Moka at the store so that J could practice his method at home.

Rain stopped. One of the two towers over there!

Finally I saw the other one! The taller is named the Asinelli and the shorter Garisenda. Their names came from the families who ordered their construction in the 12th century.

Do they look like leaning? In fact both towers were leaning. Not my camera this time.

We walked to Piazza Santo Stefano, another lovely square, which doesn't officially exist because the municipality considers it is part of Via Santo Stefano. So, it's a wide open section of the street. Anyway, the space had what I was interested in seeing in Bologna - Santo Stefano. 

Built on the basis of an ancient pagan temple, Basilica di Santo Stefano is the merger of multiple buildings that built in different times. The unique architecture incorporates Romanesque, Lombard and ancient Roman elements. At some point seven churches interlocked each other, but only four remain intact today. Sadly the church complex wasn't open until the early evening on the day. We couldn't explore the inside. Well, next time.

The porticos of Bologna were certainly open on Monday and entertained us with their own personality - different colors and shapes of columns and arches. One near Piazza Cavour had frescos on the ceiling. 

We went back to the food shops near the central square and bought some local specialties, including Mortadella and Parmigiano Reggiano aged 36 months.

On our way to the station we stopped by at Cattedrale Metropolitana di San Pietro, or the Cathedral of San Pietro. The current building dates back to the early 17th century, which doesn't have the original Romanesque-Gothic elements that was built around the 10-12th century anymore. The Baroque style interior was remarkable.

It was absolutely a worthwhile visit while we were in Florence. It was a nice break to escape from the waves of tourists in Firenze and witness another aspect of Italy. Technically we were only several hours in Bologna and explored only a small portion of the east side of the central square. We have enough reasons to come back.

To be continued...