We decided to spend an extra day in Bologna because there’s so much to see. The morning we spend exploring some of the main attractions along Via Del’Independenza, including the shops! It was so hard to walk along the street where, with every footstep there was another interesting fashion store, café/restaurant, historic building or church.
Bologna must have more churches per square kilometre than anywhere I’ve been before. We stopped to look at the Medieval Museum down a side street, and found the entrance to a church that looked interesting. It was Chiesa dei Fillipini, founded early 1300s. Beautiful sculptures of sandstone adorn the façade. It was restored in the 1700s and being smaller, had a more intimate feel than some of the larger churches and cathedrals. It was probably over-decorated though, almost every square inch occupied by statues, paintings, frescos and colourful stained-glass windows. Here's a video I found on Youtube.
Every time we think we’ve seen enough something else catches our eyes. We walked through the former ‘jewish ghetto’ area which was quite interesting. Each corner we turned provided some new experience. For example we found a bottle-shop come restaurant that you could eat at only by booking and the price included wine selected by the proprietor/chef to match the food. A bit pricy for us, but very tempting. In the end, we probably only managed to walk 500 meters from the hotel before heading back lunch and a rest.
In the afternoon, Frances took off to look at shops (and of course the surroundings), while I headed down some of the side streets back to Piazza Magiorre. to visit Palazzo Re Enzo which is now the council chambers and library. It was a really interesting place to visit especially the discussion I had with the planning officers about the strategic plan for the future of Bologna.The city of Bologna is struggling with all of the problems of a big city, with the added complication that it’s almost a living museum (packed with historic buildings dating back more than 8 centuries, most requiring huge amounts of conservation work) and providing the accomodation and services required by the current and future population. The transport system, consisting mostly of buses is pretty good, however the narrow winding streets present problems in moving people through the city. It also has a huge number of tourists that create an added strain on the infrastructure while at the same time bringing in much needed money to support the historical assets. Interestingly, the tourists seem mainly to be concentrated around a few locations that are on everyone’s must-see list, but are almost invisible outside those streets.
I spent the rest of the afternoon visiting the 18 rooms of the Collection d’Arte of the council. It consisted of room after room of paintings, sculptures and frescos dating from the 12th century. The amount of visual information was staggering and really too much to absorb, leaving me only with impressions and small details that stood out for some reason. In the 2 hours that I was there though, I saw less than 10 other visitors looking at one of the greatest collections of religious and romantic art of Italian history – and this building is right on Piazza Maggiore, the main tourist destination in the city.Less about buildings, more about food.
Later we headed out for dinner. We’ve found that most cafes/bars serve drinks (slightly overpriced) from 6:30 to 9:30 with a free buffet – as in what we had last night – the quality of the snacks varying in direct proportion to the cost of the drinks. This process is also supported by restaurants, which don’t open until 8pm.
Contrary to popular belief, the main dish of Bologna is not spaghetti bolognaise, but tortellini, or large ones called tortelloni, although the origin has been as been contested for centuries between Bologna and Modena. Tortellini may be served with sauce or in a broth; tortelloni are rarely served in a broth. Spaghetti was not common in northern Italy, but has now become part of the usual restaurant menu.Italy produces and/or uses many types of tomatoes, The particular type that is used in the meal depends on the recipe. These are a small sample.
This photo is taken of delicatessen – although the main product on the shelves is parmesan cheese. Bologna is not far from Parma,the source of prosciutto ham (prosciutto de Parma) and from Reggiano the source of parmesan cheese (Parmigiano-Reggiano). The smell of the parmesan cheese in the shop was almost overpowering – think Body Shop of cheese.