Hello again and happy new year to you all, hope your 2018 has been great so far!

Today, I’m going to share with you my experience in Bologna, Italy. If you follow me on social media (uhm… you totally should because my Instagram is basically my life), you’ll know that I’m actually already back from Italy and that this Bologna trip took place a few weeks ago… so this blog post isn’t the timeliest thing on earth, but it’s still a fun one and it might be helpful in case you’re planning to visit the city! (which, again… you should, it even made my Top 5 of the best places I’ve visited in 2017!).

To be honest, I had never visited Bologna, though I’ve been to the region of Emilia-Romagna because my grandmother comes from the Romagna side of it, so we still have family there.

However, my good friend Martin, whom I went to school with in Chicago, recently moved to Bologna to get his Master’s degree in Language, Society and Communication. So when I went back to Italy for winter break, I grabbed my friend and favorite travel buddy Giulia – you’ve seen her travel with me here and here – and we made our way to Bologna to see him and the city!

About Bologna

Bologna is one of the most underrated destinations in all of Italy. People usually visit Rome, Florence and Venice, but never Bologna. As I said, I had never been there either, and I’ve spent 16 years in Italy!

Bologna is best explained by using its nickname. People call the city “La Dotta, la Grassa, la Rossa”: la Dotta, which means “the learned one, the erudite one”, refers back to the University of Bologna, which is the oldest university of the western world. Therefore, I’m assuming, it’s actually the oldest university in the world. Bologna actually came up with the word “university”. If you think that’s insane, you’re not the only one!

La Grassa, which means “the Fat One” refers to the delicious food that was invented in Bologna throughout history and the tasty version of these specialties that you can still find at any of the many, many restaurants in the city. Tagliatelle, tortellini, lasagna, meatloaf, mortadella, crema di mascarpone, and one of my personal favorites, ragù (bolognaise sauce) were all created here in Bologna, or in the region where Bologna is located, called Emilia-Romagna. I’ll tell you right now, Bologna is beautiful and everything, but the food is the best part. No doubt about that.

Lastly, la Rossa, which means “the Red One” points out that all of the buildings in the city are brick red, creating an incredibly picturesque atmosphere. You will also see that there are tons of porticos around the city: they are very characteristic of the Bologna architecture.

How to get there

Another reason why I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that I had never been to Bologna is that not only is Bologna super well connected to all the major Italian cities, but it’s also relatively cheap to get there.

You can get to Bologna from Milan, Florence, Venice, Rome and many other cities by train. Giulia and I left from our city of Milan and took a Italo high speed train. It only took us an hour to get there, and we spent 38€ for a round trip ticket. If you were to choose a regular train, you would be able to spend even less. You can also drive to Bologna, or fly to the city airport, which is well connected to all of Italy and most of Europe.

Our Day in Bologna

Here’s our itinerary: you should follow it if you want to experience all that Bologna has to offer in just a day!

The Markets and Quadrilatero

Giulia and I arrived at the train station in the morning, and we found our friend Martin there. He first took us to take a tour of the markets there: first we visited what we call “mercato”, where people set up booths and stalls to sell their stuff, then we walked around the Quadrilatero, a beautiful area full of small bars and restaurants but most importantly any kind of butcher, greengrocer and anything you’d find at a “mercato” or a farmers market.

Piazza Maggiore

After that, we made our way to Piazza Maggiore. That is where the Basilica di San Petronio is located: a church that has never been finished, because its original architectural plan would have made this church bigger than St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, which the pope at the time didn’t allow. (I know all of this thanks to Martin who was basically our personal tour guide, as you can see from the pic!)

We also saw Le Due Torri, “the Two Towers” in the city center, which are a symbol of Bologna. They’re so much taller than everything else that they hardly fit them in any picture!

Basilica Santo Stefano

We then proceeded to explore another church, Santo Stefano, known locally as le Sette Chiese, “the Seven Churches” because the basilica actually englobes seven churches! Here are pictures of the nativity and the cloister:

We then stopped to explore a Christmas market (who else misses Christmas already?!), and got ourselves some Vin Brulé, mulled wine, to warm up.

Lunch at Sfoglia Rina

For lunch, we decided to check out a restaurant that the three of us had all heard about: Sfoglia Rina. Sfoglia Rina has produced homemade fresh pasta since 1963, and according to many reviews online, it is one of the best restaurants in Bologna. Obviously we were intrigued, but so were many people! We had to wait 30 minutes to get our spot at the communal table. But let me tell you, it was worth it.

First of all, pasta fresca is always worth it. Second, this restaurant has all of your traditional Bologna food needs covered. We ordered three of their specialties: Martin had tortellini in brodo – which can be described as some sort of ravioli served in a broth, Giulia had lasagne and I had tagliatelle al ragù, aka linguini-like long pasta with bolognaise sauce. The three of us together spent 29€. 29 EUROS. For three huge plates of fresh, homemade pasta. Oh, Italy.

Santuario della Madonna di San Luca

After eating all of that pasta, we needed to burn it through some physical activity: therefore, we decided to hike our way to the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca, a church located on top of a hill that you can reach by walking up the hill for 3.8km.

We took a bus to get closer to the starting point, then we proceeded to climb up the mountain following a long, long portico – the longest one in all of Bologna.

It definitely was a hike, so if you do want to climb up, be ready! However, the view of Bologna from up there is said to be beautiful. We went up on a foggy day, so all we could see was this spooky panorama.

In any case, the inside of the church up there is a must see. It is beautiful and glorious, and worth the hike!

When we got back to the city, we proceeded to walk even more by strolling around checking out the stores in the city center.

Aperitivo at Zerocinquantino

We couldn’t leave Bologna on an empty stomach: therefore, since we didn’t have time for an actual dinner, we went and got an aperitivo. I’ll probably write an entire post about aperitivo in the future because it’s a big part of Italian culture, but for now, I’ll simply tell you that it’s a pre-dinner drink accompanied by some appetizers and snacks. Some bars serve a couple lighter snacks, such as chips and peanuts, while others pull out some real appetizers and meal courses.

Since Bologna is, in fact, “the Fat One”, we were ready to eat a meal-like aperitivo, and the restaurant we chose, Zerocinquantino, did not disappoint. We ordered three Spritz – the ultimate aperitivo drink – and two taglieri. A tagliere is basically a charcuterie board, usually filled with both cured meats and different kinds of cheese. With that, we ordered a Bologna specialty, Tigelle. Tigelle are a specific kind of bread that you are supposed to eat with your meats and cheese. They look like this:

This was what we ate. If that’s not mouthwatering, I don’t know what is.

The quality of the food was especially amazing, and made me wish I could find this same level of quality of cured meats and cheese in Chicago, which sadly, I haven’t found yet. (I’m open to suggestions though!) We also started chatting with the people sitting at tables around us, because I guess all the stereotypical things you hear about Italians conversing during their meal are completely true! Also needless to say, we paid very little for the amount of food that we had. God bless Italy.

After our aperitivo, we made it back to the station to catch our train back to Milan. It was bittersweet to leave Martin there, but here I am now, sitting with him at a coffee shop in Chicago, writing this blog post about our adventures. Yay for global friends!

 

This is how much of Bologna you can experience in just one day! Hope it’ll come useful to you and that you’ll plan a trip there soon! That’s all from me for now. I’m back to my regular life with a lot less traveling going on. For the first time in a while, I don’t have a plane ticket booked and waiting for me!