Bologna [the city]
Buona festa della repubblica italiana! Thursday was the celebration of Italy becoming a republic and our Google.it homepages were graced with this little Google doodle. We had Thursday and Friday off, so we took a trip up to Bologna and Ravenna in the region Emilia-Romagna. We were especially excited to experience the gastronomic traditions of Bologna and to see San Vitale in Ravenna.
Please note already from these first two photographs that the predominant color in Bologna is orange.
This is my favorite graffiti to date: "Vorrei essere un raggio di sole x [per] venirti a svegliare. Soffy 6 [sei] bellissima!"
translation: I want to be a ray of sunshine to come and wake you up. Soffy (probably short for Sofia) you are beautiful! I love these lovesick Italian graffitists and I love the substitution of 6, which is spelled sei, for sei, meaning you are—we do this in English too, but it's even more endearing in Italian.
This was the first of many gelati that we consumed at Gelateria Gianni. Silky is the best word to describe it. Some of the specialty flavors had Lord of the Rings names (Le due torri and Il signore degli anelli), playing off of Bologna's iconic two towers which are shown below. And all of these specialty flavors had large pieces of various kinder candies in them.
Clearly multiple taste tests were necessary. I dedicate those two days of borderline-excessive gelato eating to my grandpa and his fine tradition of ice cream taste tests.
Bologna's two [slightly leaning] towers
tortellini alla Bolognese
Our favorite way to obtain restaurant recommendations is to ask a local where a good trattoria is, rather than pick one at random. Not only does that allow us to talk to Italians in their native city, but they always like to tell us their opinions about where we should eat or go.
How many Americans does it take to split a bill? Toooo many.
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