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Bologna, Italy May 2024 5/5 My wife and I have a long list of places we’d like to visit around the world. But a memorable honeymoon stop in Bologna in 2018 made an impression on us and keeps calling us back. And so we returned in May 2024.
While Bologna isn’t exactly unknown, it doesn’t make the itinerary for most tourists visiting Italy. It’s the capital of the Emilia-Romagna region and home to one of the oldest universities in Europe, which keeps it youthful and vibrant alongside its signature medieval architecture. Italy is overrun with tourists and it can be difficult to find authenticity amongst tourist trap restaurants and cheap knick-knack shops.
In Bologna, you can catch glimpses of the real Italian life. Breakfast in Bologna is a quick and indulgent affair consisting of a fresh pastry, strong espresso or cappuccino and the right amount of chaos. Near our rented flat and the Mercato delle Erbe is Bologna’s oldest pastry shop, Caffè Pasticceria Gamberini, which has been providing sugar and caffeine fixes for more than a century.
It’s a lively, no-nonsense spot where I started each morning standing at the bar with a messy pistachio cornetto washed down with a cappuccino. I’d watch the skilled baristas in their sophisticated white jackets churning out a dozen espresso shots per minute and shouting at the regulars, who seem to have an unspoken privilege of skipping the line. The indulgent kick provided sufficient fuel for each day of exploring Bologna.
Twenty minutes on a regional train took us to Modena for a day of food and Ferrari. The Ferrari factory and museum are in nearby Maranello. The museum tells the story of Enzo Ferrari building the company, with plenty of scarlet sports cars that are as much fine pieces of art as powerful machines.
It all leads up to a cathedral-like monument to motorsport, the Sala delle Vittorie, where you’re encircled by all of Ferrari’s race-winning Formula 1 cars, trophies and crash helmets. In that moment it’s impossible not to get swept up in the myth of the prancing horse. A fortuitous find on Google Maps took us to the personal home of Marisa Barbieri, who opens her attic doors to a handful of visitors each week to share her family’s proud history of traditional balsamic vinegar production.
Modena’s unique microclimate has enabled this great gift to the world, and Marisa and her family are passionate about preserving it. Families would traditionally start a barrel when a baby is born, and carefully feed it (the baby and the barrel) for at least 12-25 years until the balsamic meets the high local standards. Production quality and yields are strictly controlled by a consortium granting the DOP designation (protected designation of origin) before bottles are shipped out around the world.
One drop of this “black gold” is impossibly flavourful with complex sweet and sour tastes. The tour, itself, is free, but we purchased a few bottles from Marisa before we left. Full of pistons and vinegar, we concluded our time in Modena with a stroll through the bustling central market, where vendors and artisans proudly show off the iconic foods that make Modena the foodie capital of the world: aged Parmigiano Reggiano, cured prosciutto, bubbly Lambrusco and fresh pasta in every shape imaginable.
Back in Bologna, we discovered how its cuisine lives up to the city’s nickname of “la grassa” or “the fat one.” Tagliatelle al ragù, a slow-cooked meat sauce with just the right amount of tomato and cream, is on the menu of every reputable trattoria. Equally popular is the tortellini in brodo, beautifully handcrafted pasta in a rich meat broth, perfect on one particularly chilly evening.
And for lunch, I joined locals lining up at side street takeout windows for mortadella sandwiches the size of your face. Fortunately, Bologna’s streets are designed to comfortably walk off all that food. The historic city centre is a 30-minute walk from one side to the other, and most of it is beneath ornate medieval and baroque porticos.
These covered walkways amount to more than 40 km and have earned UNESCO World Heritage designation and are equally decorative and functional, protecting you from the weather along the way. After a trip defined by avoiding tourist hot spots, our step count caught up with us, so we caved and squeezed into a dinky tourist train making the steep climb to the Basilica San Luca, overlooking Bologna’s pastel rooftops and towers. We travelled alongside the longest portico ever built and reflected on our trip.
Some day, we may get to those other places on our travel list. But one thing I do know for sure: we’ll be back to Bologna. We’ve launched a new series that invites Star readers to share places they’ve visited recently and would recommend, whether it’s a weekend getaway in Elora, a Banff canoe trip, or a jaunt to Paris or Rome.
If you’ve been, loved it and want to tell us about it, we’d like to hear from you. Email us with “TRAVEL TIPS” in the subject line at . Please include brief responses to these questions.
If your holiday experience is chosen, we’ll be in touch..
