Went to Bologna for the day. It’s only a 35 minutes via the high speed train. The first thing we noticed was the relatively new train station. Come to find out, this train station was bombed in 1980. 85 people lost their lives that day. The train station clock survived the bombing, but stopped at the time of the bombing. The clock was never fixed and left to memorize those that died.
We arrived around lunch time and since Bologna is know for? Yep, mortadella (a special kind of baloney), we aren’t taking Oscar Mayer here. Also, known for it’s taglietti, tortellini, and lasagna pasta. Said to have the best food in the world. We found Clavature restaurant. It’s down a side street off Piazza Miaggoli. They had senza glutine (gluten-free) tortellini. So, had my first pasta in Italy. It was great even came with gluten-free breadsticks. We also, got the meat tray appetizer that came with prosciutto, salami, and mortadella.
We felt like being lazy and hopped on the Hop On Hop Off bus tour. A nice relaxing way to cover more ground than walking and get some nice info about the city as well.
The city is filled with porticos, which are covered walkways. Apparently, it was required in the 17th century for buildings in the city center to have porticos. The only way to get out of this requirement, you guessed it, if you had money. The city estimates there are between 37-40 km (23-25 miles) of porticos.
At one time Bologna was also known as the tower city. There were over 100 towers and were a way for families to display their wealth. Most of the towers succumbed to lighting and/or fire and are no longer around. Two that do remain are the result of a competition between two families for the tallest tower. On reaches 497m (1,630 ft) and the other a mere 45m (148 ft). Why? The shorter tower started leaning and construction was halted.
Bologna was getting ready for a visit from Papa Francesco (Pope Francis). So, luckily for us, we were in Bologna before being caught up with the masses of people. The basilica where the Pope was to be speaking is nothing to look at from the outside. It seems they ran out of marble when building and finished it with brick. The inside though, as has been the case for most all the churches we have seen in Italy, was beautiful.
Since, Bologna is known as the food capital, we booked a food tour. The tour got off to a great start with the first stop being a chocolate shop that is said to be one of the first chocolate makers. However, after that it was 2 hours of “window shopping” various food. I was starting to wonder, if we were really going to let us taste anything else. Our guide rambled on about the proper making of parmesan cheese, balsamic vinegar and Parma ham. Then finally, the last stop, we got our tasting of wine, cheese, and meats. The food was delicious.
Time to head back to Florence, where we boarded the cream of the crop, the Fredarossa 1000. This train had a max speed of 400/km (249 mph), but typically runs at the 300km (186 Mph). Range. The top speed, we saw was 292km (181 Mph). We were back in Florence in no time.
