Touring in Bologna

It's a long time I've been thinking about a project.

As most of you know, I organize and run tours in Le Marche. All the people who came here have seen how I love this region, and how great were the experiences between Corinaldo, Ancona, Ascoli, Monte Conero, Urbino, Jesi and so on.

But still... there is another town, not in Le Marche, which deserves much more attention than the actual one.

We all know that the main tourist route - for those who come to Italy for the first time - is Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples. Personally, I'd skip Milan and choose Venice. Whatever the choice is, you have to pass through Bologna.

What is Bologna? Bologna is "Italy". Whereas Le Marche are all that you can find in Italy, resumed in one region (therefore "Italy in one region", as the claim of our Tourist Board says), Bologna is the thermometer of Italy: the social situation in Bologna is a synthesis of the society in Italy.

It's Italy's political lab: all the experiments about welfare, transportation, education and so on have their first try here. If they work, they will be replicated in national scale.

It's Europe's oldest university: the Alma Mater Studiorum dates back to the year 1089, and students are everywhere. If an Italian thinks about Bologna, he recalls culture, politics and... food!

Yes, because food is the third important thing of Bologna. Being in the middle of Italy, in a postion which can't be avoided by any traveller, crossroad between the Pianura Padana of Northern Italy and the Appennini to go south, close to Florence on the way to Rome, not far from Venice, Milan, Turin, Bologna has always been the melting pot of that crowd of small states that was Italy in the past.



No surprises, then, that every student and every traveller brought his home tradition to Bologna. Hence, the cuisine started to improve. The symbol of this cuisine is - not by chance - the Tortellino. This navel-shaped pasta stuffed with a lot of different things - so many that even every house has its own receipe for that - is by no means the essence of Bologna. Like its pasta, Bologna is the navel of Italy. And like the inside, Bologna is stuffed with lots of different people.

This is just to make you hungry of this town... the rest will come step by step...

Johan Padan and the discover of America, by Dario Fo

Sunday, rainy day, no plans but staying relaxed at home, I watched Johan Padan and the discovering of America.

It's no doubt a great cartoon, taken after the original comedy written by Dario Fo, Noble Literature Prize, at the beginning of the 90ies. It deals with a humile peasant from Bergamo, Lombardy, Northern Italy, who happens to arrive in America and find his way with the natives, helping them to kick the Spanish away and learning the real value of Liberty by the natives themselves.

The satyrical way through which Dario Fo describes all the events, the moments and even some small phrases put every now and then, make this cartoon equally enjoyable by adults and children, both finding a good reason to laugh and think, like always in the best Italian filming tradition.

Flying into Bologna: Myair.com from France, Spain and Eastern Europe

Today, the low-cost airline Myair will fly from Bologna to Madrid, four times a week.

These flights follow other routes to Barcelona (Spain), Paris and Bordeaux (France), Sofia (Bulgaria), and Catania in Sicily.

Therefore, it's easier and easier to come to Bologna. From Bologna, Le Marche are only 2 hours by train.

Why don't you hop a plane and visit Bologna and Le Marche with me? I'll pick you up at the airport, and take you back to Bologna.

Next tour will be: "From Bologna to Bologna: Tortellini, Salami, Fish and back again".

Is it interesting?

Bologna, the city in between

Bologna could be the most famous city in every country but Italy. In Italy, Bologna has to follow Rome (of course), Florence (of course), Venice (of course), Naples (of course), Milan, Sicily, Tuscany and some other places.

However, when visiting Italy, you are forced to pass through Bologna, given that this city is the strategical node to get from North to South and vice-versa. Wherever you go in Italy, Bologna is in between.

Therefore, if you have enough time for a walk, like a half day (or even a couple days), drop off and take a tour of Bologna. And if you have a good and sportive body, climb up the highest tower of the city, Torre degli Asinelli.

You can enjoy a view like in the picture above.

The pork feast

This year is the 5th edition of Festa del Nino, literally "the Feast of the Pork", as Nino is the local nickname for pork.
All around Italy, the pork is very important, since in the past it represented the only source of food for the family. The death of the family pork was a tragedy far more than the death of a child: you could have a child again, as long as you were alive thank to the pork.

In Le Marche, the pork is undoubtedly the protagonist of the table, together with the rabbit, the chicken and the pigeon, is the meat we traditionally have in the table. Cows and oxes were only to work, rarely to be eaten.

For the Festa del Nino, there is a calendar you can download from here. It's only in Italian, with just the title, but it's possible to call an information office. At least for the dinners which follow the meetings, it sounds worthwhile.

Otherwise, you have another reason to learn Italian :-)

Perfect balance

To live between Bologna and Le Marche is sometimes tiring, but some other times it's wonderful. For instance, in December, approaching the weekend. Lot of things can be done, like cinema (Lumiere, Roman Polanski next sunday), beer tasting (La Tana del Luppolo beer retailer) or simply walking around Bologna.