Bologna, Italy

Fountain of Neptune, Plaza Maggiore 

Mama Mia! We're in Italy! Our longly anticipated summer traversing the beautiful Italian countryside has finally begun on the quiet and warm backroads of old town Bologna in Emilia-Romanga. The little, historical but progressive city exudes charm and has a rich food legacy. 

Heard of bolognese? Bolony? And here they lay claim to being the birthplace of the little scrumptious folds of tortellini. 

A little on the tired and worn side and decorated by hooligans, the buildings are a wonderful mix of terra-cotta orange, burnt yellows and rusty red, just like a bowl of aging citrus fruits against the bright northern sun. Bologna the red, Bologna the fat and Bologna the learned is the quirky catch phrase of the city emphasizing its colour, love of fine foods and its scholarly history. 


The city was once long ago, when the region was ruled by strong families, famed for its towers. 

Looking down over the city

Aisinelli and Garisenda towers

Although only about twenty remain from well over one hundred, for 3euro you can climb to the top of the Aisinelli tower and all of its 498 wonky, crooked, narrow and wooden stairs. At a grand height of 97m it is the highest medieval tower currently in the world. Literally, next door like a pesky neighbour is the Garisenda tower which is Bologna's own leaning tower, falling towards its neighbour under the weight of its self. The city's towers were once symbols of nobility and wealth, and families built larger, taller, stronger towers to out do and impress each other.

Decorated Porticos

Porta Saragozza

Porticos across from the gelato shop

Beautiful big buildings

With temperatures exceeding 39degrees in Spain we were hoping for slightly cooler weather over the Mediterranean but to no luck! After a pleasant and short two hour flight from Madrid we arrived and made our way from the airport to the blazingly hot city centre. 
The first thing we noticed as we dived for shade, were the maze of covered walkways which we cowered under and received some relief from the direct sunlight. These walkways named porticoes in Italian were first built over 1000years ago in the Middle Ages to differentiate between public and personal space and to create order and were not only built in Bologna but all over Italy. 

However by the 12th century people needed to be licensed in order to use public space for private use and it saw the rapid decline of the porticoes, except for in Bologna. Bologna was the only city where it was not only still possible, but by law you were required to build a portico! 

Much to our delight they were considered useful enough that over 38kilometers of the inner-city are covered in the arched porticoes, providing a lovely shaded walk to our guest house. The following morning, after a traditional Italian breakfast of a hair raising espresso, croissant and cookies we walked over 10kilometers under the longest covered walkway in the world right up the hill to the Sanctuary della Madonna di San Luca. 

Heading towards Sanctuary della
Madonna di San Luca

Walking down Via Saragozza

The view out across the region was spectacular! Our walk down hill was much nicer and after returning to the old city we climbed up the Aisinelli tower.

Nothing but hills and greenery South of the City

Sanctuary della Madonna di San Luca

Selfie at the top

Climbing Aisinilli tower

After moving around all morning, what better to fill the gaps in our stomachs than with some local tagliatelle, served with a big helping of meaty ragu. This hearty bowl of deliciousness is a local favourite, and was from where the original spag bol originated. But don't confuse spaghetti with this hand-cut egg-based pasta! That's criminal! Other popular dishes in Bologna include the aforementioned egg tortellini, invented to ensure that no meat was wasted and of course their rich, creamy and meaty lasagna! With all this food talk, it wouldn't be appropriate to miss out on local cured mortadella. This prized 'Baloney' dates back to the 14th century and is cheap pork meat flavoured with lard, spices, peppers and sometimes pistachio, cut very thin and eaten with bread. A cheap and cheery cold cut that's quite delectable!

Mr Ross

Mrs Ross

What we find fascinating about Bologna (aside from John's lovely Italian family who reside there) is that the old city isn't really on the big international tourist radar like Venice or Rome is. It's very laid back and has a significant student population. Education in Bologna has a very long history, right back to 1088 even! When the first European university was founded for students who came to listen to lessons of law.

Local artisan breads

Coincidently Bologna also has an array of museums and cultural events regularly on offer. On our second evening in Bologna we met with Johns family for dinner, after a delicious meal of pizza we took to the streets and wandered through the romantically lit porticoes together. 

On a side street a traditional puppetry show was taking place for children and in the main plaza around 500 people had gathered to watch an old black and white film. 

It was just like in the movies, the sky golden from the setting sun cast long shadows across the ground, beautiful dark haired Italian women wore light flowing sun dresses, well dressed young men leaned up against their scooters and the elderly locals sat drinking cafe on the terraced footpaths. The main piazza was buzzing and although it was late a group of classical musicians sung passionately making themselves heard. We all chowed down on creamy fruit gelato trying to lick fast enough so that it didn't run down our fingers on the warm evening.

Bologna the Red! 

Quiet backroads

We met up again with the family the following evening for a picnic meal and tried some quite interesting local meats. It was great to hear their stories about life in Italy and we wiggled around the language barrier quite well! It's an advantage that one of us is quite good at languages! We feel very fortunate for their hospitality and having the opportunity to meet them!

Tot siens,

John and Kara