Hello!
After our 24-hour whirlwind through Venice, we drove down
into Tuscany (which is a province-type-thing) through Bologna to Florence. I
was really really excited about Bologna, because I had read on every website
and in every guidebook I had consulted (lots. I like researching) about this fabulous market they have every day
there at which you can buy food, textiles, leather goods, and all kinds of
things. It’s also apparently the kind of place where, when you buy your
ingredients from the local butcher or whomever, they’ll give you a recipe they
got from the other butcher’s wife for what to do with it. I was excited! We had
a plan, we were right on time, and I even reviewed the guidebooks we’d brought
on the car ride to make sure I was ready.
On the way to the market! Checking out some really big buildings.
We got to Bologna, found parking (after almost driving into
the city center again. Watch out for those, they’re sneaky) and set off for the
main square for my market! We walked fast through the old parts of the city,
seeing but not lingering on the city as we passed. Bologna is very different
from Verona and Venice in that it is just as old as those cities (if not older,
it was first settled in 1000BCE), but its streets are not narrow nor are the
buildings small. Since it was a trade capital, the streets are wide enough for
horse/wagon traffic and pedestrians are protected in arcaded walkways that
remind me of the American West. If it was done in stone and for real. Bologna
has lots of impressive statistics (the oldest University town in Europe), but I
was much more interested in that market.
Looking at a map near the landmark towers (one had to be cut short because it was leaning too much).
We got to the main plaza, which is impressive in its size
and in the giant buildings around it in addition to their general old- and
cool-ness, but there was no market. Well it was a big plaza and maybe the
market was hiding? We looked all over but there was no market. We asked a
restaurant owner, and he directed us to the supermarket. We asked a student and
she directed us to an empty plaza. Finally, we asked a hotel concierge and she
circled a spot on the map and gave us directions to a busy street. Everyone we
asked knew immediately what we were talking about, then directed us nowhere! I
was frustrated. And maybe a little cranky about the whole thing.
Looking at a map near a cool building, See how it has the arcaded walkways around it? Very Bolognese.
Note also the lack of market.
After marching from one “market” to another for more than an
hour, we decided to give it up and enjoy another thing Bologna is known for:
its pasta. Here is the Italian food most Americans consider to be the real
thing. Pasta Bolognese (red meat sauce) comes from here, as do all tortelli
(filled pasta like tortellini, tortelloni, etc.), lasagna, and the yellow type
of pasta that can be flattened out to make filled pastas (as opposed to noodles
or little pasta shapes. Shapes like Spiderman mac and cheese. Which is the
best, by the way, because the little spider webs and spider masks hold the most
sauce. This is important to know). So if you like your pasta with the
excitement built in, you have the Bolognese to thank. We found an outdoor
restaurant, ordered four different types of Bolognese specialties, and enjoyed
Bologna living up to its reputation in that manner, at least.
Tuscany! Enough of Bologna, let's go to Florence!
Next: Florence! Until then, help me decide if I should
boycott Bologna forever for being mean or if I should go on a personal crusade
to find that dang market. It has to be one of those; there can be no middle
ground. Bear in mind that they also have fabulous gelato.
Love Katie
