Trip to Bologna, Italy - Part 1

It's been a hell of a summer, and I don't think I've ever needed a vacation more than I have this one! Where are me and my boys headed to? Italy, of course!  

Back in February, I was trying to plan a summer trip out west to Yellowstone but apparently February is too late to start planning a national parks trip, so I went on Skyscanner and got the cheapest tickets to Venice - cheaper than the last ticket I bought to Tampa! We have been to Venice several times, but it's magical every time. We decided to add a few extra new locations to our trip too, and our first stop was Bologna!

Actually, our first stop was Dublin because we were flying Aer Lingus. We went to the lounge and I had the most delicious cappuccino. I really miss these machines - I need one!

After some breakfast and coffee in the lounge, I had to go get an Irish beer. It was like, 5 am here so I didn't go with the Guinness. Instead I had a Rockshore Irish lager!

Ok, let's fly to Venice! This plane was smaller and my boys barely fit!

I spotted London, Brussels, Frankfurt, and Stuttgart on my way to Venice, but I really always love seeing the Alps. There is a glacier in Switzerland!

Of course, much like any airport in Europe, we parked on the runway and then took a bus back to the airport. We haven't done that in a while!

Our train to Bologna was out of Mestre station, so we took a bus over to the station, got some sandwiches and sat in the heat while we waited for our train.

Shut up. I was very tired.

A couple of hours later (with no transfers!) we made it to Bologna! Dang, this place is fancy! It's got a bell hop and giant crystal chandeliers and everything!

I thought the hallway of our hotel looked like the Titanic ha ha.

The view from our room was lovely too!

But we aren't here to look at the walls of a hotel room - onward into Bologna! Bologna is a city of porticoes. In fact, it's the city with the MOST porticoes in the whole world (SUPERLATIVE, CHECK!) and there are 24 miles of these porticoes within the city walls! If you count the porticoes that exist outside of the city walls as well, that number jumps to 33 miles!

Our walk to dinner took us past the Chiesa della Madonna di Galliera e di San Filippo Neri, which was founded in 1304 but was renovated in the late1600s. I love me a good, ornate church!

We were hot, hungry and tired so we swung into Ca' Pelletti for some Cappelletti!

Cappelletti is a type of pasta that they serve with Ragu, or meat sauce (aka: Bolognese). It's very similar to tortellini but a little larger and thicker. Paired with some mortadella, salami and cheeses, this was an excellent first meal!

But we were VERY tired, so we walked back to the hotel through one of the many porticoes. The city was relatively empty on this particular evening because it was the holiday week (feast of the Assumption of Mary was a couple of days later).

I think this is part of the building that is the Palazzo Felicini (and later Fibbia), which was built in 1497. It's so pretty!

On our way back to the hotel, we also passed the Piazzetta della Pioggia which stands in front of the Chiesa Santuario Santa Maria della Pioggia. The Oratory of St Bartolomeo di Reno has been here since 1204 but this was largely renovated and added on to in 1729.

Another cool thing that happened in Bologna was the big solar eclipse of 2026! We did not get a very good eclipse in Massachusetts (like 30%), but it was closer to 97% covered here in Bologna. I didn't even plan for this to happen, so it was a happy coincidence. Unfortunately there were a few clouds, and the best part of the eclipse happened just as the sun set so we only got to see a bit of it. I remembered our eclipse glasses though so we were able to see it through those!

Back in the hotel, we were watching BBC and people were going bonkers over this eclipse, like it was the second coming. It was super funny!

I literally slept 11 hours after crashing at 9pm and not waking up until 8 the next morning! We had a nice breakfast (Continental breakfast, you say?) and then were ready to tackle a full day in Bologna!

Our first stop was by the Neptune Fountain in the Piazza Maggiore because we were meeting Roberta for a food tour of Bologna. 

Bologna's nickname is "La Grassa" which means "The Fat One" for it's delicious and rich food. The other two nicknames are "La Dotta" because Europe's oldest university is here, and "La Rossa" for it's red terracotta colored roofs and buildings.

Our first stop was Bottega Ranocchi 1972 where we had crescentine/tigelle filled with pork, cheese and rosemary. Historically, tigelle were the clay discs that were used to make and flatten the bread - and the bread was called crescentine. But now they all just call these tigelle, and they use cast iron now instead of the clay discs.

Next, we had Parmigiano Reggiano! We had one that was aged 12 months and one that was aged 24 months. It gets nuttier and more crumbly as it is aged longer.

And of course, the older it is, the more expensive it is!

We didn't stop for fresh fruits and veggies, but they were all so colorful!

Roberta told us the legend of how the tortellini got it's shape. The goddess Venus once stayed at an inn in Castelfranco Emilia, which sits between Bologna and Modena. The innkeeper finds her very beautiful, so he spies on her through a keyhole, through which he can only see her belly button. Thus was his inspiration to create a pasta in the shape of a navel! Now, they hold an annual festival known as the Sagra del Tortellino Tradizionale in Castelfranco Emilia because of this legend!

Several types of meats also come from this region, including mortadella (which is what we know as Bologna, but I felt it had more of a ham texture), salame, and prosciutto!

A map of all of the foods that are from this region, including olive oil (organic) and balsamic vinegar.

I took this picture so I would remember to come back here and buy some balsamic vinegar but I forgot! 

REAL balsamic vinegar is only bottled in a bottle that has a specific shape (the round bottle on the top shelf here) and is aged in barrels for a minimum of 12 years, making it much more expensive. Locals do not cook with this type of balsamic vinegar, instead using it as a condiment and on salads.

I was super excited to stop at La Prosciutteria because I had this place bookmarked in my Google map!

It did not disappoint. We had several types of meats, including mortadella, prosciutto, and my favorite, which was the pancetta. They also provided bread and an orange jam that was outstanding.

We shared a bottle of Lambrusco among our new friends from England, Denmark and Ukraine - even Grant had some!

The ceiling and the light fixtures here are really cool! I would definitely come back to this place!

Wait, where am I - Venice? Nope! In Bologna, there is an underground canal called the Reno Canal that dates back to the 12th century. Bologna is a rare city that prospered, despite the fact that it was not on a waterway. So they made these piped water paths from both the Reno River to the west, and the Savena River to the east. It was originally built to power the mills, but now is just a sewage canal. Ew. We stopped at Ponte dei Single on Via Oberdan to see a rare sighting of the canals above ground.

This spot holds a bunch of love locks for single people! Actually, anyone can place a lock here but back in 2007, a woman from Calabria saw that unlike Rome, Florence and Venice, Bologna did not have a love lock bridge. So she proposed that they put locks on this particular gate over the canal with their name and phone number - kind of like an earlier version of Tinder! Then the person would turn around and throw the key over their shoulder and down into the canal. And voila! Perhaps they will find love. I wonder if it ever worked for anyone??

Time for MORE FOOD! We went to Le Moline for some pasta!

We enjoyed a tagliatelle al ragu and a tortellini crema. Many people in this region of Italy have tortellini brodo, which is just tortellini with broth. The tortellini is filled with meats and cheeses, so a more mild broth or cream sauce is preferred so that it doesn't overwhelm the flavor of the filling.  The spaghetti Bolognese that we are familiar with in America doesn't exist in Italy. Instead, they use tagliatelle and they call the meat sauce Ragu. 

Our last stop was THE best gelato that I had during our entire trip in Italy, which made sense since this particular gelato place won an award for the BEST gelato in all of Italy (can we consider this a superlative??) Gelateria Gianni has won many awards at the International Ice Cream and Confectionery Awards! Mario Batali also declared it was the best gelato, and it's recommended by the Michelin Guide! Gelato differs from ice cream in that it's made from milk and not heavy cream. It's also kept at a colder temperature, it's slow churned instead of fast churned, and a flat spatula is used rather than a scooper!

It's too bad I wasn't here to enjoy this gelato.

Oh! Yes I was! I had the lemon and the crema come una volta (egg custard gelato with Madagascar vanilla and lemon zest, so they paired very well together). Grant just got Stracciatella and Todd got the coffee and Siete al Cinema, which was Créme Caramel ice cream, Chocolate pop corn, caramel sauce and dark Chocolate flakes.

I could have done 10 more stops on the food tour, but alas, it was over after dessert, so we decided to walk over to the Monastero di Santa Caterina de Vigri, or the Monastery of St. Catherine of Bologna, which houses her incorrupt body! However, we learned that it was closed until 3pm so we decided to do a bit more exploring.

People were enjoying the day and having lunch outside. The shade provided MUCH relief from the heat!

We decided to stop by the Basilica of St. Petronius, which as you can see, is unfinished on the outside.

The Basilica sits on the Piazza Maggiore where they show old movies every night. The giant doors were open to provide a bit of a breeze.

This Basilica is ginormous and was originally intended to be larger than St. Peter's at the Vatican. The official website says, "The Basilica is dedicated to Bishop Petronius (5th century), patron saint of Bologna. Its construction was ordered by the city council in 1388. The Basilica’s initial design was very ambitious: the plan was to transform the original Gothic basilica, featuring transepts and a tiburium, into an immense church with a Latin cross plan, crowned by a dome and flanked by four bell towers. Its final size would have even exceeded that of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. 

The project’s completion was hampered by technical and economic difficulties, as well as changing political and spiritual circumstances, and the Basilica remained unfinished. Construction work on the Basilica spanned over three centuries and was entirely financed with public funds. San Petronio was not intended to be Bologna’s cathedral, but rather a civic, state and municipal temple." 

What they mean when they write "the changing political and spiritual circumstances" was that Pope Pius IV was VERY unhappy that there was going to be a church larger than St. Peter's so he put the squash on that real quick! In any event, the church is still the 10th largest by gross volume in the world - and it wasn't even close to being completed because the transepts were never built!

Another cool feature at the Basilica of San Petronio is the Cassini Meridien line, first developed here in the church in 1655 by Giovanni Dominico Cassini!

The light, which is projected onto the floor from the sun through a small hole in the ceiling, moves back and forth from the winter solstice location (above) to the summer solstice location which is across the church for a total of about 220 feet from one solstice to another.

Every day at noon, the light is projected down onto the floor. We were not there at noon, but it's about the size of a medium to large pizza. Danti previously had a meridian line here in this church before this one, which helped in the establishment of the Gregorian Calendar in 1582, but that was destroyed when the church began to grow. THIS particular meridian line from 1655 helped with the discovery that the earth's path around the sun was elliptical (not a true circle). It also helped prove (for the first time!) Kepler's Second Law - which states that as a planet orbits the Sun, it moves faster when it is closer to the Sun and slower when it is farther away. Science is COOL!

You know what's not cool? Being this short! This is what happens when you live with two giants. Behind us, there are two organs. The one on the left is the Baldassarre Malamini Organ and it was constructed in 1596, and the one on the right is the The Lorenzo da Prato Organ. Completed in 1475, it is the oldest (still existing) Italian pipe organ in the world! Superlative, check! 

It took us a while to find where the sun peeps in - but there it is, on the ceiling and surrounded by the shape of a fancy sunshine.

Grant lit a candle and we all gave thanks to God for Natalie's better health (it's been a long summer!)

As I mentioned, we wanted to visit the Monastero di Santa Caterina de Vigri, or Corpus Domini but it was closed in the early afternoon and would reopen at 3pm. It was hot, so naturally after our visit to the Basilica, we found a shady spot and got a cold beverage!

The Monastero di Santa Caterina de Vigri is where the incorrupt body of Saint Catherine of Bologna sits. And I mean literally-- she is sitting straight up and dressed in a habit!  

See her there in the little round window? St. Catherine was a Poor Clare nun who lived between 1413 and 1463. She grew up wealthy and was a lady-in-waiting to the Marquis of Ferrera's (Niccolò III d'Este) wife Parisina.  She joined the convent after Niccolò III had Parisina executed for infidelity. In 1432, Catherine and other young women of Ferrara founded a monastery of the Order of Poor Clares, an order founded by St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi.

She was said to have had visions of Jesus, Satan and Mary, and even foresaw the fall of Constantinople. When Saint Catherine died, she was buried in the graveyard of the Corpus Domini where she had been the abbess for a number of years, but the nuns noticed a sweet smell coming from the ground near her grave so they dug her up and put her in this chapel. One nun thought she should be in her habit, so she still wears that to this day. Her skin has darkened with all of the smoke, dust and oils but the body remains intact. She was eventually beatified in 1524 but wasn't canonized until 1712.

The dome, and several other parts of the Corpus Domini were damaged in 1943 during World War II. But not Saint Catherine, who did not sustain any injuries!

St. Catherine, being a writer and a painter, is the author of the Seven Spiritual Weapons Necessary for Spiritual Warfare (above). She remains the patron saint of artists, liberal arts, against temptations and of course... Bologna. Some good words to live by!

Whenever I ask Grant to take a picture with my phone, he always takes a selfie so of course I'm going to post that picture here. I am too short and couldn't see into Catherine of Bologna's crypt, so I asked him to take a picture down into it. I got the picture I wanted, but I also got this. Silly kid.

Stay tuned for part 2 of our adventures in Bologna!