Bologna is an exciting place, a bustling commercial center since the Middle Ages, where there's always something going on: shops large and small sell everything from luxury jewelry and designer clothes to €1 housewares, market stalls offering heaps of Christmas trinkets and cheap clothes line busy thoroughfares, long queues wait to enter trattorias and gelaterias and hole-in-the-wall al taglio pizzerias, street performers and political protestors sing and shout to get the attention of passersby, and always there are people out and about early and late.
Bologna is not always pretty. Graffiti is everywhere, some buildings are hundreds of years past their use-by date, and the city has its share of unsavory characters. There are times when you think the whole town needs a thorough power-washing and repainting.
I first visited Bologna in 2001 and was immediately attracted to its gritty, edgy energy. We came again in 2003 and 2005, and now in 2011 the appeal is as strong as ever, which is a little surprising since Bologna doesn't seem to care if I visit or not. The central tourist office is unhelpful and uninterested. There are no museum passes, but then there aren't many museums. The infrastructure for visitors is tied to the many trade fairs held here, so at least it's relatively easy to get to and from the airport.
We've started each day by getting out the map, picking a direction or area unfamiliar to us, and head out that way. An old guidebook and Google have helped narrow down our options, but mostly we're exploring to see what we can find. An old palazzo, a church courtyard, another piazza full of street vendors, a slice or two of pizza and maybe a gelato and by late afternoon it's time for a break. We head back to the hotel and have a lie down before deciding where to go for dinner.
Friday night, however, was something special. Years ago, I started using Flickr to share my snaps, and one of my first contacts there was cinzia_t, who lives near Bologna. As Terri and I planned this trip, I was excited by the prospect of finally meeting Cinzia in person. We exchanged emails and made arrangements to get together for dinner.
Cinzia and her husband, Sergio, took us to Trattoria del Pellegrino just outside the city walls near Porta Santo Stefano. The place was packed with Italian families enjoying the beginning of the weekend.
Terri and I wisely let them do the ordering for us, and we were treated to several different kinds of pasta and meat dishes, all Bolognese specialities, washed down by vino rosso della casa and followed by zuppa inglese. More important than the food, of course, was enjoying the company of our friends. Cinzia is the most bilingual of the bunch, fortunately knowing some English, while Sergio spoke a little English and Terri and I stumbled through our Italian. The language difficulties just added to the fun, however.
After dinner, we went for a long walk into the city. We strolled up Via Santo Stefano as Cinzia and Sergio told us about the churches and markets and piazzas we passed. The walk ended in Piazza Maggiore, the wonderful central plaza of Bologna, and sometime after midnight we finally said arrivederci, with many hopes and plans of seeing each other again soon. The perfect end to a perfect evening.
Today is our last day in Bologna. We had to do some rescheduling because of an Iberia pilots' strike, but we must have had a large balance in our travel karma account because the new schedule is better than the old one. The only bad part is that we have to leave on the first bus to the airport at 5:20 a.m. We are due to be home a mere 20 hours later. Goodbye Italy, Hello Texas.
Here's my Flickr photos from the trip. For those who would rather sit back and let the computer do the work, here's the slideshow version.
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