Bologna - Lasagna of the GodsSep 17, 2007
|
|
Worried that it might rain on our Tuesday outing to Bologna, we moved it up to today (monday)! Of course, it was the night that we all finally slept, so we got a later start in the morning... By 10:30am we were on the train to Bologna - it's a short, one hour trip on a really nice Eurostar train, so it was nice (eventhough we couldn't sit together - the train was packed). Upon arrival, we had the usual 10 minutes of having no clue how to function in a brand new city, but after we found the tourist 'I', we got on track :) A quick bus ride deposited us in the center of town at the piazza maggiore and we began our quest for lunch. After admiring the statue of Neptune in the piazza del nettuno, we checked the tourist center for directions to Tamburini - our lunch stop. They The tourist office guided us down a wonderfully narrow street (more of an alley, really) filled with fruit and vegetable stands and salumarie (meat shops), the produce looked like it came from magazines! Finally at Tamburini we decided on the cafeteria-style lunch line and we were not disappointed. First, let me set the stage. The store is a combination deli and caferteria. As you walk in there is a huge display of Salumi in the window - inside there is a case of handmade pastas on one side and the other side has cases filled with meats and cheeses. You have to remember that the emilia-romagna region is home to tortellini, balsamic vinegar, proscuitto di parma, and parmiggiano reggiona - culinarily speaking, this is where it's at! For lunch, we got a simple tube-shaped pasta with proscuitto and asapargus sauce (I believe) as well as some fries for Josh (they had been sitting out WAY too long!). But it was the lasagna that floored us. I think it was made with regular noodles as well as spinach noodles and it had some other things that made it stand out as well - but the sauce was, to say the least, incredible! Obviously, it was our first time having real bolognese sauce and oh my, was it amazing. If every lasagna was like that - I would be converted - I was fighting Jeff for the last bits! Anyway, after such a phenomenal lunch, we decided we didn't want it to end and bought some homemade tortellini (bologna is the birthplace of tortellini) and some ragu bolognese to bring back to Florence for lunch another day. The man behind the counter was really helpful and made sure that we promised not to cook the pasta in water, but in chicken broth... We also bought some cookies that had a fig filling in the inside - a very satisfactory experience overall!
With full bellies, it was time to explore bologna. Of course, being that this is Italy, by the time we were ready to explore, everyting was close for siesta! We had to content ourselves with walking by the sites without actually going in the them. The towering due torri are a prime example - these two towers are medieval vestiges of life in bologna. You can only climb one however, as the second is no longer complete and leans about 10ft to the side!
Jeff and I both found the city fascinating for all the different types of architecture and how they juxtaposed on each other. It's hard to say was Josh thought of it, as he spent most of the time complaining about walking! Many of the street were curved and narrow and most have covered arcades - you could truly walk without getting wet in a rainstorm, as one of the guide books stated... Since Josh was moaning and groaning, we would walk for a bit, then sit in one of the little green piazzas and rest, then walk some more.
On our quest to find a wine shop (we missed the street), we did find ourselves at the city's main park. On the map it looks like a beautifully laid out formal looking arrangement - in reality, it was pretty shabby - but, it had a playground, which made it the best thing ever in Josh's eyes and cured his urge to complain about the fact that he was still walking... The playground really was kind of a sorry affair, everythin was full of grafitti and had obviously seen better times, but the kids were playing happily, so that's all that matter. A little girl came up to me after realizing that Jeff didn't speak Italian and asked where we were from and a few other things. I think she finally realized that my Italian wasn't that great and wandered away. Hot and tired, we decided to call it a day and headed for the train station, which was, thankfully, less than five minutes away.
After a non-eventful, but slightly late, train ride we made it back to 'the building' as Josh calls it and gave him a much needed bath! Finally, we decided it was time for dinner and headed back to the scene of that momentous meal from 6 years ago at the osteria bella donna. I won't sugar-coat it - it was not the meal of our previous trip. For one thing, the euro has certainly made it more pricey. Also, after visiting a few restaurants with incredible service, this did not measure up - however, the food was still good (as was the wine) and at the very end, the waiter redeemed himself - he gave Josh a banana (which he devoured) and he insisted on corking our leftover bottle of wine and giving us a little bag to carry it around in. Certainly, this was not the meal of yore, but we didn't expect it to be and it will never tarnish the memory of one simply fantistic meal in 2001. After Josh tested us with an improptu request for the bathroom (one of several in the ensuing few hours), we struck out in search of the gelateria recommended by Ramsey.
On our way to the gelateria, which was not far, we realized that for all the number of time we have been here, we have really seen very little of Florence. We really enjoyed wandering throught the piazza della repubblica and the streets that surrounded it by night. It's so different when you are not focused on sightseeing and really have time to devote to wandering around. Anyway, we found the 'Perche No' gelateria and while it was good, it did not quite measure up to other places we had been in Florence so far. Perhaps it was because we did not try the fruit flavors, which, I think, are what Ramsey and Larissa had... Anyway, Josh tested us AGAIN with another emergency bathroom call - while the gelateria did not have a restroom, a nearby cafe did, so we thwarted catastrophe yet again (and picked up some focaccia for breakfast at the same time) :)
