We continued east and checked out some exhibits that were part of La Biennale di Venezia (Venice Biennale), which is an international art biennial exhibition. While they had a more central area with temporary tents set up, they also had taken up residence in various buildings (including some churches, etc).
Our lunch reservation was at Ristorante Al Covo. I had first heard of this restaurant on the show No Reservations, hosted by Anthony Bourdain. For some reason I remembered this place even though I had seen the show years and years ago. After reading about the restaurant, I also learned that the owner was originally from Texas and married a Venetian and had been there a long time. We ended up meeting her when we arrived at the restaurant. Lunch was pretty dang delicious. I ended up getting two crab dishes and the waiter even checked to ensure I was fine with having two dishes with same main protein. I am not upset with my choice and thoroughly enjoyed everything.
After lunch we just continued walking around through the narrow streets and over the 450+ bridges in the city. Wandering through the various storefronts we stumbled upon Scriba, a calligraphy store that has leather books to marbled paper and quills and pens. We picked up some books as souvenirs.
For dinner we made our way to the north of Venice and to a quaint little restaurant, Osteria Anice Stellato. This restaurant had a modern take on some Venetian classics.
We finished the night with some gelato on the way back to the hotel. The following day we checked out and walked to the train station for our 90 minute trip to Bologna. We arrived just after lunch and found a small coffee shop (Forno Brisa Galliera) that had some food. Here we had caffe along with slices of Roman style pizza (Square thicker slices with topping).
Before making our way to check in at the hotel we also had some gelato from across the street from the cafe. This was one of D’s favorite gelatos of the whole trip at Gelateria Galliera 49. I had the coffee granite while D had gelato and both were quite good.
Our hotel was just a short walk from the center of town. This was the largest room with a separate sitting area as well a private outdoor patio. The best part of all the hotel rooms was the AC by far. While warm, I’d say Bologna was a smidge cooler than the other places but still too hot for my liking.
After dropping our gear, doing a little bit of bathroom sink laundry, we headed back out to try to catch some of the Tour De France. This was the first time in history that there was a stage (Stage 1 no less) in Italy – I can’t be sure but I suspect they had to change things up due to the Paris 24 Olympics because a previous tour guide mentioned that the race would end in Nice instead of Paris. As can be imagined, the area around the course (and we found our way to the Finish Line) was super crowded busy. We did see the winner (well after they had crossed the finish line – maybe 100 meters).
While trying to figure out where to go for dinner, we settled on Oltre. This restaurant was kind of hidden – the door was covered in lots of stickers and didn’t appear to be the entrance to a fine dining establishment. This place was very modern but the dishes were classics. I tried some tartare (not beef) which tasted very much like steak tartare. Of course I had to try the tagliatelle al ragù (“Pasta Bolognese”) and D had the tortellini (while traditionally it is in a clear broth, hers was in a cheese sauce). Both were quite delicious.
Bologna for me was mostly about eating so I didn’t really have specific sites that I wanted to see. We had debated taking some day trips to Modena or to Parma as well but in the end were lazy and stuck around Bologna. Some of the the things we did see over the next few days included:
Anatomical Theatre of the Archiginnasio – This is a teaching hall where they taught anatomy to some of the earliest doctors (the one we saw was constructed in 1637, an earlier one was built in 1595 replaced by the one we saw). The room had ornate sculptures all around. This was also part of the University of Bologna, which is the oldes university in the world (opening in 1088).
Lunch that day was at La Prosciutteria. This is a chain of shops that sell charcuterie as plates of meat, cheese, sandwiches. I also had the mortadella sandwich – Mortadella in Bologna is SOOO good, nothing like the bastardized version American Bologna. You can also get drinks. I had a spritz of course – I really did enjoy the Spritz’s in Italy. I had both the Aperol as well as Campari ones. There was a third with a different alcohol that I didn’t get to try. One difference in Italy is that they mix the aforementioned with Prosecco to give it an extra kick.
Bologna is also known for some tall towers – one of which had been leaning (even more so than in Pisa). Turns out it was becoming too dangerous and so they had cordoned off the area because they were actually dismantling one of the towers for safety.
We also did walk around the University of Bologna campus area to get the vibe. While there we also checked out the Zoological collection. This reminded me of my entomology days because this was a large building that housed tons of preserved specimens of animals (think zoo but they’re all dead). It was neat to see because they did have them divided up by where they came from in the world. I believe they also had some specimens of species that are now deceased. RIP
We also walked around the various streets and the market area. This was a bustling place with many shops – some selling the various cured meats, some freshly made pastas, others had different kitchen implements. There were also restaurants scattered throughout.
One thing that Bologna is known for are the Porticoes. These are the porch areas of buildings that often had interesting architecture of the ceilings.
I enjoyed the espresso that I had at Caffè Terzi.
On one of the nights we were headed to dinner and saw it was raining. Luckily the hotel had umbrellas for us to borrow. About halfway there (it was only like a 10 min walk), it started to hail and hail something wicked. We ended up in a Portico with a bunch of other people just watching this happen. People seated under a portico at a restaurant where we were standing actually got up because it got so loud and the ice started to make its way to where they were sitting. It only continued for about 5-10 minutes then we made a dash for our restaurant – Ristorante il Passatello di Bologna. Rather than getting a pasta and then a secondi (main), D agreed to just get pastas (we ordered 3 between the 2 of us – it was a lot of food but when in Rome…or Bologna, as they say). We had the Passatelli in brodo (you probably won’t find this pasta outside of this region as it is made from bread crumbs, Parmigiano Reggiano, eggs, and lemon zest), Lasgna verde (pasta incorporated with spinach), and Tortelloni (the bigger cousin to tortellini).
We also checked out the rooftop bar area and had snacks and some drinks. The view was nice and I was able to see the red roofs that the city is known for.
The hotel’s breakfast was also quite the selection – all the hotels we stayed in (except for Copenhagen) had very good breakfasts that were part of our stay.
We ubered (only my 3rd time) to the airport for our quick stop in Copenhagen. But first some airport food.
Yay cold weather ahead.
-StewsCat
StewsCat 