A Day in Bologna

Almost immediately after we arrived in Florence, we left Florence to take a day trip to Bologna.  We called it our "giorno di gusto" and the primary purpose of our trip was to enjoy food famous in the region of Emilia-Romagna, and, in fact, the world.

The day was scorchingly hot so we were lucky and happy that Bologna is a town of porticoes.  After purchasing a little map of the historic center, we made our way to Gelateria Stefino on via Galliera relatively close to the train station.  It is just a tiny storefront but we were glad we didn't miss it.  The boys had strawberry and chocolate granita, one on top of the other in their cups, Brian had salted caramel and I had grapefruit granita.  Amazing!  We continued to walk to the center of town and proceeded to look for Eataly Bologna. 

Eataly was founded on the principals of the slow food movement and there are now store-restaurants in Italy, the United States and Japan.  Eataly Bologna would be our third Eataly (after New York and Rome) and we were excited to see another.  While the Eatalys in New York and Rome are gigantic, sprawling, jaw-dropping affairs, the Eataly in Bologna seems to be paired with a wonderful book store.  The first level was primarily books, the second level still contained many books, but among them books about food, recipe books, food items for sale and a couple of small eating areas.  The third level was even more food and more places to eat.  We sat down in and eating area which had only cold foods: salads, cheeses, meats and beverages.  We ate well!  

After lunch, we saw Piazza Maggiore and the statue of Neptune (yes, a statue of Neptune in a land-locked town).  The story of this statue goes like this: a french sculptor created the statue and in its original form Neptune was rather, ahem, well-endowed.  The pope at the time did not approve of such proportions (jealous, I guess) and demanded it be adjusted.  The sculptor did as commanded, but made sure that, when viewed from a certain angle the outstretched hand of Neptune (and, in particular, his index finger) told us that Neptune is "a grower not a shower".  The fountain was not completely operational on this day.  Unfortunately, the water that is supposed to spray out of the nipples of the maidens around the base of the sculpure were dry...

Nate with his NOT fidanzata

The day was so hot and I was miserable, but Brian encouraged us to try to stay until our originally planned 9pm train back to Florence.  So, we found a taxi which took us to Giardini Margherita which I had read had a hot-air balloon you could ride straight up for a view of the city.  When we arrived, we did not find it and a brief internet search explained that the hot air balloon was removed (for unknown reasons) in 2008.  But, we paid for our taxi and went into the garden, instead finding a playground for the kids, some water and a little patch of shade.  There was an italian girl of 10 years who took a liking to Nate.  She asked me in Italian if he had a "fidanzata" which means a very serious girlfriend (like fiancée) and I told her no, he didn't.  She told Ale and I that her "fidanzato" was Japanese and too bad that Nate didn't have a girlfriend...  In spite of a slightly boy-crazy girl dominating conversations and inventing new games for everyone to play, they boys had a great if extremely sweaty time.  

We had successfully managed to fight through the heat and remain in Bologna long enough to enjoy one more meal on our "giorno di gusto" so we made our way to our dinner reservations.  We had another delicious meal and the boys were treated like royalty, as usual.  Afterwards, we waddled our way back to the train station and back to Florence.  We had been to Bologna before, but had not relished it like we did this time.  And if living in Philly has taught us something, it has taught us how to "lean into" the heat.  Thanks, Brian, for encouraging us!