Italy/Slovenia 2024; Day 10, May 31 - Bologna, Italy

Today we would leave Trieste and take the train to Bologna for the third leg of our trip.  To begin, we stocked up at the breakfast bar in the hotel.

We lugged our carryon bags to the train station. 

And made our way to the platform.

After approximately 3.5 hours by train, we hopped a bus and made our way from the train station to our apartment, the Residenza del Duse on Via Cartoleria.

We dumped our bags and began to explore. As we had read, and like most tourists I'm sure, we were struck by all the covered walkways; known as porticoes, they are a unique architectural feature of the city, qualifying it as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

One of the main reasons Kathi was so interested in Bologna was its reputation as a foodie's paradise.  Near our apartment, we pressed our noses up against the storefront of the restaurant and shop Sfoglia, oogling at the varieties of fresh pasta for sale.  We vowed to come back for a meal.

We pressed on to explore the Quadrilatero.  It's a bustling area in Bologna’s city centre with a craft, mercantile and trading tradition dating back to the Middle Ages. Shops that have often been handed down through the generations sell the same category of goods or have still kept their historic architecture and furnishings. There are also examples of modern architecture that have preserved the external and internal spaces in line with the original projects, as well as a few historic chemist shops that still maintain the atmosphere of old pharmacies.

For lunch, we stopped at Tamburini in the Quadrilatero; it's a deli & wine bar, open since 1932, with sausages, charcuterie & pasta. This is what serves as the Italian covenience grocery store. Some 7-11!

Everwhere we turned, mouth-watering fresh meats were on display.

Oh, and pasta too!

With dizzying amounts of attractive, healthy foods to choose from, in the back of the grocery store is a small seating area where you can get a nice snack and a glass of wine - we opted for a sample of salami, ham and mortadella and a glass of red of course!

We headed deeper into the Quadrilatero and came upon the Palazzo della Mercanzia. Home to the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Agriculture and Crafts, the Palazzo della Mercanzia has been regulating Bologna's commercial and trading activities since the late 14th century.

At the centre of the façade there is a small marble balcony surmounted by an elegant steeple. Local tradition dictates that the sentences of the merchant's court would be read upon the sounding of the "Lucardina" bell. Those found guilty of bankruptcy would be chained to a stake in front of a central pillar of the loggia and subjected to public ridicule.

With a reputation as a foodie's paradise, Bologna did not disappoint.  Everywhere you wandered, there was amazing fresh food waiting to be sampled.  These displays of cicchetti, "little nothings",  just whet our appetite for the food tour we would take tomorrow.

Bologna is an old city, a tourist destination for sure, but it is also full of authentic working life. So we had to look past the power lines marring the skyline to take in Le Due Torri, Bologna's famous, leaning Two Towers (with the dome of the Basilica Collegiata dei Santi Bartolomeo e Gaetano in the background).

The weather was turning a little sour, so Kathi and I took refuge under the expansive, arched passageway of the 13th century palace, Palazzo Re Enzo, for an apertivo at LaLinea.  Italian cities are grand!

As the skies cleared, we reluctantly relinquished our table and ventured back out onto the streets of Bologna and into the Piazza Maggiore.  In the square, the Basilica di San Petronio dominates the skyline, by design, inspiring awe with its commanding presence.  

Competing for attention is the Palazzo d'Accursio, the 14th century town hall complex, with its Torre dell'Orologio (tower).

A major tourist attraction, and rightly so, is the elaborate, and somewhat erotic, Fountain of Neptune.  No ordinary library, the Biblioteca Salaborsa looms in the background.

Rather than fish or playful dolphin spigots, within the shadow of the church, Neptune's waters are returned to the fountain pool in a more sexist fashion.  Also, one of the "seven secrets of Bologna" is that if you look at the statue of Neptune from a specific angle (near the staircase in front of Salaborsa library there is a darker tile called the "Stone of Shame"), Neptune’s finger gives the impression of being an erection.

While noodling around on the internet before our trip, I had learned that the Tour du France would be visiting Bologna in 2024.  So I searched for any local events and found an exposition celebrating the tour;  it was held in the NW outskirts of the old city, on the Via San Rocco.  While Kathi explored the library, I went to take a look.

The gathering was small and I couldn't help but feel as an outsider in this intimate gathering.  So I rushed, but did admire the wall displays.  

The French famously hate Lance Armstrong, but European cyclists seem to have a more favorable opinion of unmarred American and Tour winner, Greg LeMond (top right).

In this display celebrating the spectators, the celebrities and the "strangers" (tourists?), a picture of Lance makes its way into the display.  His dominating presence in the Tour's history, as controversial as it was, is undeniable.  History is still grappling with its meaning.

The city's Tour poster...

I rejoined Kathi in the Piazza Maggiore. She told me inside the Salaborsa public library there was a transparent crystal floor, where you could see excavations of the layers of previous ancient settlements - from the Villanovan civilization of the 7th century B.C., topped by Etruscan Felsina and the Roman Bononia founded in 189 B.C. We agreed to revisit it later so I could see for myself. Around 7 pm now, the square was starting to take on early evening summer shadows.

On the way back to our hotel room, we once again passed by Sfoglia and found a line of would-be diners.  We got in line, but were dismayed when an employee told most of us that they were closing the kitchen soon and that there wasn't enough time for us to secure a table and place an order to be served.  Being ever so crafty, Kathi sidled inside and cajoled the staff to put in an order for takeout.  Ten minutes later, we walked out with our pasta bolognese past the que of unbelieving fanatics.

We continued on, down the Via Castiglione, passing the Palazzo Pepoli and stepping over this marker...

...signifying that the museum of history of Bologna is part of a (self) guided tour (percorso guidato)

On the walls next to the deconsecrated church of Santa Lucia, was another war memorial wreath, similar to what we had seen in Trieste.

I always found them striking, and once I took notice, I seemed to find them everywhere.  This one dedicated to the Santo Stefano neighborhood.

We returned to our apartment in the Residenza del Duse and took advantage of its small rooftop terrace for our own private open air dinner.  

We paired the fresh cooked pasta from Sfoglia (linguine Bolognese and cheese tortellini) with a bottle of Proseco that was a welcoming gift from our apartment in in Venice.  Yes, I had been lugging it around that long, waiting for the right time - it had finally come!  Sated we washed clothes, hung them to dry overnight and turned in.  Tomorrow we would go on a "secret food tour" throughout Bologna. Kathi was brimming with excitement!