Four Days in Emilia-Romagna: A Guide

Beautiful Bologna has miles, literally, of porticos

We spent four days in December in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, a place that unfairly gets short shrift in some guidebooks. All three cities have charming medieval historical centers with bicycles as a main mode of transport; Bologna is probably the hippest and edgiest of the three, thanks to its student population. We based ourselves in Bologna with day trips to Modena and Ferrara, eminently doable using the excellent and modern local trains.

Things to Do

Tasting Menu at Osteria Francescana (Modena)

I had the phenomenal luck of getting us a booking at Osteria Francescana, the famed restaurant of Massimo Bottura, for the 12-course tasting menu. The tasting menu is a gastronomical and visual journey through reinvented Italian recipes, and for us the chef pushed even further with a vegetarian interpretation. My favorites were an upside-down ice cream dish inspired by pasta carbonara (our version had caramelized banana chips to mimic the classic guanciale) and a dazzlingly buttery puff pastry with parmesan, caramelized onion, hazelnut cream, and delicately shaved truffle mushrooms. Almost better than the food was speaking with Massimo Bottura himself. The superstar chef visits every table to thank his guests for coming. I was practically vibrating with excitement when he approached our table with an inviting “come va?” I said we were enjoying the vegetarian menu and his eyes lit up. Preparing a vegetarian version demanded almost more creativity than devising the tasting menu, he explained, because approximating the taste and texture of meat, seafood, and poultry requires the use of the “mental palette,” understanding food potential without feeling like something is missing. “You want to be a happy rabbit, you don’t want to be a sad rabbit,” he quipped. Playful, inventive, visionary, surprising - a superlative experience.

Via Drapperie and Surrounding Streets (Bologna)

Via Drapperie and its surrounding streets are the Diagon Alley of Bologna, a magical rabbit warren of cobblestone streets with old-fashioned storefronts selling handmade pasta. Some of Bologna’s most famous tortellini makers are located in this area, including Paolo Atti & Figli. The excellent Librerie.coop Ambasciatori + Eataly is nearby (see below for more), and so is the bougie Mercato d’Mezzo, a medieval food market now turned upscale food hall.

Quaint shops line Via Drapperie

Librerie.coop Ambasciatori + Eataly (Bologna)

Bologna is an intellectual’s dream: There’s a bookstore on almost every block, ranging from teeny-tiny speciality bookstores to mid-sized independent companies as well as Italy’s bigger brands. The queen of them all was the Librerie.coop Ambasciatori + Eataly. Lofty warehouse ceilings, four sprawling floors of books and pasta and coffee, traces of original medieval architecture in the walls: basically all the necessities of life.

Palazzo d'Accursio (Bologna)

The Palazzo d’Accursio on the Piazza Maggiore is Bologna’s city hall and a fine free way to see some lesser examples of Renaissance-era frescoes. You can wander through its courtyard and up the slippery ramp to see its decorative Baroque interiors. I liked to think that the accessible nature of a government building is symbolic of Bologna’s status as a more open and progressive city in Italy.

Medieval details of the Palazzo d’Accursio

Jewish Museum (Bologna, but there’s one in Ferrara too)

Bologna’s teeny tiny Jewish Museum isn’t a must, but useful for its helpful overview of Jewish history in Emilia-Romagna. It’s located in the former ghetto area, which is distinguished by blue-and-white concrete hamsas attached to buildings — kind of a scavenger hunt. The museum has a sobering alcove memorial dedicated to the local Jews who perished in the Holocaust. Ferrara’s Jewish Museum is much larger, with a greater Holocaust focus. When we visited, the museum in Bologna had a temporary exhibit of the works of Emanuele Luzzati, an Italian artist who in addition to working in theatrical production was known for his illustrations of Jewish life.

Bologna’s Hidden Canals (Bologna)

More of something to see than something to do, Bologna has a few surviving open canals dating back from the city’s formerly extensive canal system. The first night we arrived, the canal was totally dry (felt like deja vu all over again with the C&O Canal in Georgetown - “where did the water go?”) but by the next day had been filled, with water I know not whence. The canals date back to Bologna’s time as a medieval trade center.

Canale di Reno on Via Guglielmo Oberdan

MAMbo (Bologna)

MAMbo is Bologna’s modern art museum and a reminder of the city’s history as a hotbed of Communism — basically all the artists featured were Communists or Socialists or some other kind of resistant ist. The collection is small but interesting, and if the museum has a flaw, it’s the didactic wall panels, which read like a humorless art critic used every 50-cent academic word in the thesaurus. After a while we gave up trying to read the incomprehensible descriptions and just enjoyed the visuals.

“I funerali di Togliatti” by Renato Guttuso - in case it isn’t obvious, the artist was a Communist

Castello Estense and Ferrara Historical Center (Ferrara)

Ferrara’s historical center was our favorite of all three cities. It feels like a medieval storybook, with the crenellated Castello Estense surrounded by a moat, charming streets lined with a mishmash of low-slung brick and stucco homes, and elaborate Renaissance churches. When we visited, the city was bathed in fog, adding to its old-world feel. Castello Estense is worth it for the ceiling frescos, drawbridge, and creepy dungeons.

View of Ferrara from inside the Castello Estense

Food

Pappare’ (Bologna)

Pappare’ is a perfect destination for breakfast and brunch options. The eggs on toast were fine, but nothing to write home about — instead, stick to their specialities: croissants and other viennoiserie. They offer a large variety of inventive flavors, including activated charcoal, as well as vegan options. The smoked salmon on a pretzel croissant was excellent.

Camera a Sud (Bologna)

Camera a Sud has everything: jazz music, bookshelves made of reclaimed wooden wine crates, eclectic cafe furniture, heaps of books piled all over. Practically hidden on a tiny street in the former Jewish ghetto area, it’s the perfect place to duck into for tea or coffee and a slice of torta della nonna.

Kindly import this cafe to Naples, please and thanks

Sfoglia Rina (Bologna)

The regional specialties of Emilia-Romagna are meat- and pork-heavy: tortellini, mortadella, tagliatelle con ragu, prosciutto di parma, but there are a few typical dishes that are suitable for vegetarians, namely tortelloni, the dairy big brother of the tinier tortellini. There are plenty of good pasta places around Bologna, and we enjoyed Sfoglia Rina, which offers several vegetarian items on its menu. Just be aware that the restaurant is quite popular, so by the end of the day, they tend to sell out. Get there when it opens to avoid waiting on long lines.