Bologna, Where Everybody Knows your Name
Well, not our names, obviously. But people would constantly greet each other on the street, on the bus, in restaurants. Diners and café patrons would shout to passersby who would whip around, instantly latch their bikes and run over to join the shouters at their tables. On weekend evenings, the main street in the center is closed to traffic and is full of people strolling through, punctuated liberally by surprised greetings (you would think they would eventually come to expect meeting acquaintances on the street).
This is only possible, of course, because compared to Venice, Rome, and Florence, Bologna is still for the most part populated by locals, at least, if you include the students. Naturally, Venice, Florence, and obviously Rome do have areas not overrun by tourists. But in Bologna, even the city center is enjoyed by the locals, who very reasonably want to keep it that way
As Anton, our driver to the airport said, in the last five or six years, the city has gone down hill with all the migrants. Having been there over ten years, he had an informed perspective on this new influx.
Highlights!
Gelato! - the best places here (though you must seek them out - like Sablé or Cremeria Cavour) outshine Rome, Florence and Venice, and have genuinely some of the best ice cream/sorbet we have ever had! The Sicilian granitas is an epiphany. Sablé in particular is tops - the “chocolate”, pictured below, actually tasted like real cacao beans
Rubik - a tiny bar sporting a glorious collection of amaros that you can taste to your heart’s content cheaply, along with a set of amaro-based cocktails
The stunning Asinelli Tower - built in early 12th century and rising to almost 100 meters - is only 498 steps to the top and affords stunning views of the whole city. But climbing it is a rather vertigo-inducing ordeal
Among many other things, Bologna is famous for its extensive porticos, which run on most big streets in the center, as well as a continuous 3 km portico to the church of San Luca outside of town (reachable by tourist train from Piazza Maggiore and walkable down) , and vary all over the place in style
Graffiti seems to be endemic to Europe, but Bologna at least can boast of a tradition of skillful store door art
There are a number of specialty coffee establishments in the center, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Allegro Cafe, not only for its excellent pour over, but also great cappuccinos and freshly baked pastries
We had a few pizzas in Bologna, but the best was definitely at L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele, a pizza chain from Napoli (also saw one in Florence) - the Vesuvius pizza (with the red & yellow tomatoes) is one of the best I’ve ever had
One of our favorite moments of our stay came on the last night, when we went to the Piazza Maggiore (central plaza of Old Town) in the evening. It was so alive, with a guitarist playing requests and people visibly enjoying the warm night; we will really miss these vibrant venues (never came across one in Rome, much less Sorrento)
During the day, there are also some amazing performers at times, like Damien Zantedeschi and his virtuoso electric violin
People would freeze in mid step to listen
One of the reasons we picked Bologna was for its proximity to other interesting cities (Parma, Modena, etc.). Ultimately we only took one day trip out to Dozza and Faenza. Dozza is a tiny village notable for its annual art festival that paints permanent murals on the village buildings — so that now there are over a hundred rather imaginative and memorable frescos
Dozza also has an amazing wine tasting room in its castle (warning: they close earlier than you expect) and one of the best restaurants we sampled during our entire stay in Bologna - “La Bottega”
Our stop at Faenza was very brief, with lunch and a quick tour of their enormous ceramics museum, spanning both classic ceramics from across the world to modern art ceramics like these (including Picasso!)
Honorable mentions
One of Bologna’s claims to fame is of course their oldest-in-the-world still functioning university. Unlike American universities, it does not have a contained campus, but is rather spread across the historical city center. Each department has its own building, and two of the coolest are medicine, hosting a really old anatomical theater (Teatro Anatomico) where they used to hold anatomy (dissection) lessons (the marble slab has been replaced since last use) and an infinite library —
— and the paleontology department, hosting an awesome museum with full skeletons of a ludicrously tasked mammoth and one of the largest dinosaurs. The giant turtle was really cool too! Worth it.
Basilica of San Petronio is one of the largest churches in the world. It was slated to be the largest, but the Pope nixed that idea, and then the money ran out, so it’s only got half a facade 😝
Finally, standing far above the city center, and reachable by a painfully touristy cart train, is Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca. Part of the attraction is walking down (or running up?) the 3km continuous portico leading to it and walking past the hallowed portrait of the Madonna
One glaring lacuna here is the gelato museum. You have to book way in advance - we tried to do it when we got there, and over the course of two weeks staying weren’t able to make it.
And yet…
And yet, as our time in Bologna stretched to a week and beyond and we got more accustomed to it, something never quite clicked. Why? Well, one unusual aspect of Bologna is that it has no body of water in the city -- no lake, river or sea coast. Until we got there we didn’t realize how much we unconsciously need that.
There are also no real parks in the city proper. The outer areas have some token green spaces. But the historic center has almost no greenery at all. Coming from Slovenia, or even Paris, that’s a sharp change.
Also, all restaurants are now Taco Bell pasta. Ok, not quite, but most moderately priced, well ranked restaurants have roughly the same pasta-centered menu. They may be really tasty, but after a while, one really starts to crave variety.
Yet another aspect is the flip side of the relative lack of international tourists. On the one hand, it’s great to see a more authentic city, on the other, it means certain amenities are lacking — such as craft cocktails bars: aside from Rubik, the craft cocktail scene in Bologna is rather barren. I tried the most promising candidates - Guero, Nu lounge bar, Blue hush — all quite disappointing. People say good things about Sour, but since it’s only open a few days a week after 9 on the far side of the city, I never made it.
Finally, the architecture in the center can be oppressively homogenous
Yet, simultaneously, Paris, with its harmonious facades, this ain’t
With time, I also came to understand that while narrow streets can be cute when the houses lining them are small and homey, narrow streets with continuous three to four story yellow-brown buildings quickly lose their appeal.
While I am ending this post on the “and yet” note, Masha wants to note that on the last few days we still did not want to leave… there is an air of calm around Bologna that brings peace, and we left many museums, restaurants, and great towns around it unexplored. It was a nice change of pace to have our own bread monger and cheese monger, it was nice to be repeat customers in cute local shops, and the main plaza is a place I’d visit over and over. There are rich in libraries, including a great multi-floor kid library (Sala Bursa) in which we spent many hours being Air Conditioned and reading books in English. And not least, people were utterly lovely and welcoming! We would come back again - for sure - just not for a permanent stay.
