The weekend of February 19 we went to Bologna, Italy. Bologna is a 3 to 4 hour drive from Saluzzo. It's in the center north of Italy in a region famous for ragu sauce, parmesan cheese and prosciutto. Oh yeah, and bologna!! The Italians call it mortadella and it's pretty yummy.
We sort of decided at the last minute to go to Bologna. We were getting cabin fever and needed a change in scenery and had been thinking about going to Nice. But the weather called for rain off and on all weekend, so we switched destinations to Bologna which has the most covered sidewalks in the world: 38 km! We found
a cute hotel on Venere.com right in the center of the city. On Friday we dropped Olney off at Fabri's parents house and headed east! The weather was sort of strange and I snapped a few photos from the car.
The Tomtom found the hotel without a problem and we were lucky to find parking right away. Parking seemed to be a problem in the center and every time we went to the car to check on it we were asked if we were leaving. After we checked in it was a bit before 8 so we hit the streets to get our bearing on the city and find a restaurant. The tourist center of Bologona is somewhat small and it wasn't hard to navigate especially because we came armed with a map Maria Pia had form her recent trip there. We walked around somewhat randomly until we found a restaurant that looked popular and full. I had the mixed grilled meat & veggies and Fabri had a spicey grilled chicken. We tried some Bologna house wine which just doesn't compare to our Piemonte wines. The bread was really good though and Fabri had a delicious marscapone for dessert. In fact, I'm going to try to figure out how to make that for dessert this week. I think I'll just whip marscapone with sugar and vanilla and serve it with amaretto cookies.
ANYWAY, the next day we toured the city. Bologna is lousy with towers. The wealthy and affluent families of Bologna built towers to show how rich and powerful they are. The tallest one strategically placed in the center of the city is a bit over 300 ft and we walked up the whole thing! It was worth it for the views, but the stairs were small and worn from the years and inside was humid and sticky. Pretty gross overall. This is me looking fabulous while under these awful conditions!
We had lunch at a cute Naples style restaurant, but we had Bologna specialties: mortadella & parmesan cheese, pasta with ragu sauce and gnocchi. After some more site-seeing we avoided a rain shower with an afternoon nap. That night we went to
the restaurant Bentivoglio which was recommended by some students of mine. It's a jazz club/restaurant with very good food, though the wine list was a little expensive in my opinion. We had the best steaks and were introduced to the delicious San Giovese Speciale wine from the hills of Bologna. We brought home 2 bottles!
Then Sunday we went to the Jewish Museum before a leisurely ride home. It was a very nice weekend! As usual, there are a lot more pictures on my Picasa Web Album (link to the right).
2 comments:
i wonder how many other american blog followers are hankering for some bologna (even the oscar meyer variety)
Funny you should say that, some American friends living in Germany were inspired and are going to Bologna for their Easter break!!
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