Bologna la Grassa

On our second day in Bologna (our only full day really), we didn't have much of a plan but ended up doing most of the things I did already on my first trip to Bologna. I suppose there isn't all that much to see. But it was enjoyable again the second time, so no complaints from me. The first time was in winter, complete with snow. This time, it rained, so it wasn't so different really. This once again proved the value of Bologna's many covered porticos, as well as the importance for sitting down for a long and ample meal.

First stop was the Anatomical Theatre, once part of the University of Bologna, the world's oldest university. It's compact and somehow cosy, due to the all-wood panelling, despite the grotesque depictions of flayed bodies and the marble slab in the middle to remind you of its original purpose of displaying dissections.

In the Anatomical Theatre

The "Skinless" statues by Ercole Lelli

Apollo hovering above the dissection table

The corridors are decorated with thousands of coats-of-arms and memorials to teachers and students

The "Stabat Mater" reading room

Jules in one of the famous porticoes

In the middle of town, we stumbled across a "ragu fest", dedicated to Bologna's famous culinary traditions. It actually wasn't the most exciting of festivals (not enough free samples!) but it was fun to walk around for a little, and it felt like another little serendipitous moment of honeymoon fun.

Ragu fest

Did Sophia Loren really star in a paean to Bologna's favourite sausage?

New friend

A slightly sulky lunch of tortellini in brodo, while it poured outside. The rowdy Italian family behind us were being very rowdy and Italian

The sun came out while we were lunching, and we popped into Santo Stefano, or the seven churches, another repeat from my previous visit. Dating back perhaps as far as the 5th century, these preserve a special atmosphere even though they were more crowded than on my winter trip.

In front of the ancient Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Animal attacks

Altar inside the Holy Sepulchre

So we actually accomplished quite a bit in Bologna, while seeming not really to do anything at all. One thing we definitely did do was eat. A lot. Platters of sliced meat and cheese, tortellini, tortelloni, ravioli, ragu bolognese.... even between the two of us, there was a lot going on. Hence why they call Bologna "La Grassa", or "the fat"!

Making friends with our rival tower Asinelli

Piazza Maggiore by night

A perfect day part two

After our fabulous lunch with vinegar and wine tasting, we headed back to Bologna where Jules and I had a special treat lined up. A honeymoon is a perfect excuse to be a bit indulgent, and we had arranged a once in a lifetime experience - staying in the Torre Prendiparte, a 60 metre-high tower built in the 12th century. Renting the tower means you get the whole place to yourself for the night - although there are 12 storeys, there's only one bedroom, so it's perfect for playing princess in the tower.

Bologna still has its fair share of towers, but in the Middle Ages there were even more, as noble families vied with each other to build the tallest and most impressive structures. At some point, the city decided enough was enough and restricted tower building to the height of 60 metres, and the Prendiparte tower was reduced to that height, and other towers demolished over the years. We enjoyed walking through the streets mocking other inferior towers (although the 97 metre high Asinelli tower can still look down on "our" tower).

The first few floors are habitable, with a living room, bedroom, kitchen and dining room each on their own floor, decorated in the nineteenth century. As you go higher, you reach the former jail, used in the 18th century and covered with historic graffiti, and then you come to the mostly empty upper floors, still with their medieval floors, before popping out on the roof terrace.

Bedroom

Jail dining room

Living room

Kitchen

Jail graffiti

Someone with an unfortunate case of blue balls

Jules in the jail

I really wasn't prepared for what an amazing view there is up there, a welcome reward for the gruelling 60 metre ascent. It's something else to have it all to yourself, with no other tourists around, and because it's private, there's no annoying ropes or grills stopping you approaching the edge and getting the best views.

The tower from outside

Some sort of tower warrior thing happening

Tower aperitif with our rosé Lambrusco

After dinner (yummy, copious) I headed back up alone to enjoy the night views. It was a magical moment - peaceful, but with the street sounds drifting up to my perch, particularly a concert going on somewhere nearby.

The rival towers, symbols of the city

 So, was it worth the hefty price tag? One night is enough for sure, but I would say yes. It was a special experience having the place to ourselves, and I'm unlikely to sleep in my own private medieval tower again in the near future.

A perfect day

It's perhaps a little unconventional to nominate a perfect honeymoon day as one in which my sister and a friend tagged along, but last Saturday, we really did have a wonderful day. The weather was great, the scenery spectacular, the food good and the company fun.

Post-wedding, my sister took the opportunity to travel a little in Italy also, before heading back to New Zealand. By coincidence, we happened to be in Bologna on the same day, so in the morning, we set out for Ferrara, set a rendezvous point on the edge of Bologna, and picked up Jess and Jo for a trip to the Opera02 agritourism centre, located in the hills about 50 minutes from Bologna.

Emilia-Romagna, the region which is home to Bologna (and Ferrara, Parma, Modena, etc.) is known above all for its fine produce and cuisine. Amongst its world-famous products are Parma ham, Parmesan cheese, mortadella sausage (the original "baloney"), and Balsamic vinegar, as well as recipes like bolognese sauce, lasagne and tortellini. We knew we wanted to do some food tourism while we were there, and picked Opera02 because it offered two kinds of food tours - balsamic vinegar and lambrusco wine tasting, because it had good restaurant reviews, and for its stunning location in the countryside.

It delivered on all points. We learnt a lot I didn't know about Balsamico tradizionale di Modena. The first thing being that there is such a thing as Balsamico tradizionale di Modena. It turns out that, while the vinegar you can buy in the supermarket labelled "Balsamico di Modena" probably is authentically produced in Modena, it's actually not the super high quality (and expensive), certified "Protected Designation of Origin" stuff. The Tradizionale vinegar is aged longer, produced differently (from cooked grape must only) and must be certified by the governing body and placed in a specific bottle.

We tasted balsamics (by the way, the name comes from "balsam", as it was used to dress wounds and as a medicine for things like sore throats before people thought of it as a condiment) of different ages, plus one which was used as a traditional sweetener before Europeans had refined sugar. You really could taste the difference between them and the standard supermarket stuff. All the vinegars produced at Opera02 were made in the same process, but there was a big price jump between those which had the tradizionale label (aged longer and certified) and those that did not, so all of us opted to buy the 12 year aged but non-certified variety. This is meant to be used as a condiment with strong cheese or meat, rather than as a salad dressing, due to its strong flavour (and price!)

The "battery" where tradizionale vinegar is aged. It starts in the biggest barrel on the right, and then after a year, some is scooped out and put into the next barrel. The sizes decrease as the vinegar loses volume to evaporation, and each barrel is made from a different type of wood to impart different flavours to the balsamic. The barrel on the right can then be topped up again from a large vat.

Part two was a tour of the wine-making part of the operation, where they produce a variety of red and white wines, but particularly sparkling lambrusco wines. I'm no expert on Italian wine, but I gather lambrusco has a bit of a bad rap. A sparkling red is not to everyone's taste, but it was enjoyable, and we all particularly enjoyed the sparkling rosé lambrusco.

Bottles in riddling racks

Next was lunch, on the most beautiful terrace in gorgeous weather. It rained most of the next day, which made the recollection of our lovely lunch all the sweeter. The food was great too.

Our view

Lamp friend

My sister's travelling companion Little Shark trying to steal some dessert

The perfect day continued back in Bologna, but I think I'm going to have to make that a Part Two. Ciao!

Two-faced devils and flayed corpses: Bologna Part 2

I've been slack with my blogging this month, but I need to forge ahead with the three Bs - Bologna, Brussels and Bruges (gosh, makes my life sound so much more glamorous than it really is!) Last time, I briefly blogged about exploring Bologna on foot and via its culinary delights. I was all ready to come to this post saying that those were the highlights of my trip, and that I didn't really manage to do much else when I was there. Then I uploaded the photos I'd already pre-selected for the blog, and I realised I actually did see quite a bit when I was there. I think the "negatives" had stuck in my mind, because there were a couple of things I'd have liked to do that I didn't get the chance to.

My timing was a bit awkward - arriving Saturday evening and flying out Monday evening meant that all the museums were closed on Monday, whereas many things were a bit *too* open on Sunday, by which I mean many of the churches were full of people celebrating Mass all day long (fair enough, of course). This, coupled with the grey and drizzly weather, made it a bit difficult to plan out my activities. I had spotted a couple of activities I thought I'd quite like to do in Canedolia's recent posts about Bologna, particularly climbing up one of the two tall towers in the city centre, and doing a 4 km walk out to a sanctuary outside the city. However, I decided there was no point in climbing the tower in rainy weather, and, even though the walk to the sanctuary is almost all covered by colonnades (which is pretty cool), I could just picture the wind whistling through them, and decided I'd be cold and miserable (and probably not have a great view at the end anyway), even if I didn't get wet.

So, I had to find some alternative activities to keep me busy. First up was a visit to the Seven Churches of Santo Stefano, a complex of seven churches dating back to the 5th century (with various additions and alterations over time, of course). The churches were mostly deserted while I was there, except for a Mass in the biggest one and an old Italian lady who came and sat next to me in one, boxing me in to the corner, and talked at me for quite a while before I could interrupt and say I didn't speak Italian. It all had a very old - dim and sepulchral - feel to it, and there were some original frescoes etc. in the churches, which was nice. I didn't really have any information about the place while I was there, but there's some interesting tidbits about the different legends, history and saints associated with the churches here.

In the Court of Pilate - the basin you can see behind me was meant to be the one Pilate washed his hands in after sentencing Jesus (or something like that). It actually dates from the 8th century

13th(?) century fresco in one of the churches

There was also a small museum in one of the buildings. Detail of a painting of the Massacre of the Innocents

This is a genuinely old fresco, but it reminded me of the infamous Spanish Monkey Jesus, so maybe Cecilia Gimenez was here?

After the churches, I took a walk to the university district where I was informed I could get a cheap lunch (didn't work out so well on a Sunday, as most places were closed) and see some nice late 15th-early 16th century frescoes in the Oratory of Saint Cecilia. These were indeed, while quite badly damaged, very nice to look at, although I was infected with the photo-taking bug, especially when the beady-eyed guardian stepped out to have a cigarette. Result: a few poor-quality snaps -

This was a lot of arse for a chapel

One side of the frescoes

A better-quality version, courtesy of the web

After lunch, I decided to go to the Medieval Museum, seeing that I like That Sort of Thing. It was quite good - I especially liked a very well-preserved, old and ornate English chasuble (none of the photos came out due to reflective glass, unfortunately). I can't really remember anything else that was in there right now - some tombs I think, a small collection of illuminated manuscripts, probably paintings... It was a good collection without being particularly outstanding.

Very high heels

On Monday morning, I checked out the cathedral, including paying to go into a small chapel decorated with frescoes of the Last Judgement and the life of Saint Petronius, the patron saint of the cathedral (and Bologna). It's a huge church, supposedly prevented from being even bigger by order of Pope Pius IV, who didn't want it to grow larger than St. Peter's. It does, however, hold one record - that of housing the world's largest sundial - 66.8 metres long. I don't quite see what use an indoor sundial is, but what do I know? It also still had its massive, medieval-style Nativity scene on display, which was very cool. Photos weren't permitted, but it represented all the typical inhabitants of a medieval town like Bologna in charming scenes.

The Last Judgement in the chapel was very interesting, particularly coming after seeing Giotto's Last Judgement. The influence in the huge figure of the Devil consuming sinners is clear, although this devil has two mouths - the figure sticking out of his crotch is not being excreted out, but eaten up as well. The audioguide said this represents the Devil's inability to produce life. The influence of Dante is also clear - the Devil is surrounded by different groups of sinners being punished in customarily creative ways, from being roasted on spits, strung up by their genitals or force-fed. It's also notorious for a depiction of Mohammed (clearly labelled) being tortured in Hell. Because of this, the cathedral has been the focus of terrorist plots in recent years.

My sneaky snapshot

Close-up of the Devil (Mohammed is lying on the rock on the upper-right). Source

My final activity in Bologna (after getting my hair cut and doing a bit of shopping in the sales - I scored two cheap tops I'd had my eye on in H&M back in France, and a pair of leather boots) was a visit to the original HQ of Bologna University, possibly the world's oldest university, founded in 1088. I was going off a brief description on the map I had, but didn't really know what to expect. I just thought since it was free and I had an hour or so to kill, I might as well check it out. I was pleasantly surprised - the 17th-century wooden operating theatre, with its statues of flayed bodies, is unexpectedly attractive, and the walls and ceilings are covered with the crests of former students. I also sat for about 20 minutes chatting to an Italian guy who used to live in France and was killing some time having come up from Rome for the day for a 30-minute meeting with someone.

Me (with salon-fresh hair) in the operating theatre

Hallway in the university

It's hard to get a good picture of the operating theatre, since it's quite a small space, but the all-wood interior makes it strangely homey

Ceiling covered with students' crests

Close-up of the anatomical sculptures

So, surprise surprise - while at first I thought I hardly did anything in Bologna, it turns out I packed quite a lot into my short visit, and still left with plenty of other activities I could have done if my timing and the weather had been a bit better. As usual, I enjoyed being there in the off-season, although from what I gather, it's not the most crowded or touristy part of Italy even in the height of summer. All in all, a nice relaxing trip to a destination that I'd never really thought of going to!