15 October 2024–Today was Bologna Day! Bologna is in the province of Modena, which is in the region of Emilia-Romagna, in Italy. What a wonderful visit this turned out to be! Bologna is not unlike many other major cities we’ve visited thus far: One cannot drive through the City Historic Center, and parking, even in the outskirts, is challenging to say the least. There are these zones in Italy thus far that are marked ZTLs. When one sees that symbol on street signs, and they come up rather suddenly, sometimes, it means that the public is forbidden from driving in that area unless they are residents of that area or have received some kind of legal authorization. Violations result in fines. At the advice of the internet and even some hosts, we drove to a parking lot outside of city center and hopped onto a city bus to ride to a Piazza close to all of the historic sites. Parking was free if we rode the bus! That was a pleasant surprise. Bologna has so much history, art, music, culture, and so on! We managed to visit the Piazza del Nettuno, the Basilica of San Petronio, the Torri di Bologna, the Basilica di Santo Stefano and the Seven Churches, the Clock Tower (Torre dell’Orologio), the Archiginnasio and Teatro Anatomico, and the Quadrilatero (Medieval Market). We stopped for coffee mid-morning in the Piazza Maggiore where Chefs from Alto Adige (by the Dolomites) were gathering, ate Lasagne Bolognese, oven roasted potatoes, and tiigelle at the Osteria Quadrilatero, and finished the day closer to our B&B in Castelfranco at the Cremeria Ca’ Ranuzza. So, we could not miss noticing and admiring a huge dominant sculptured Fountain of Neptune! This art piece was finished in 1566! The Basilica of San Petroneo is an incredible edifice! The most striking treasure that it displayed today, from my opinion, is “The Man in the Shroud” sculpture. This is the result of rigorous scientific analysis of the image of the person on the Shroud of Turin and a faithful attempt at creating a visible three-dimensional life-sized sculpture of that same man! Think of it: Are we seeing an image of what Jesus looked like following His crucifixion and in the tomb? Phenomenal! The second exhibit of note in this Basilica is the “meridian.” People in the Middle Ages were studying the planets, the sun, the rotation of bodies in outer space, and so on, such that an astronomer was able to draw a line to study and show his scientific theories about the above on the floor of this Basilica in 1657! To date, this Meridian is the longest in existence! Not to be missed in the City Center are two concrete towers within close proximity to one another. One is much taller than the other, and the shorter one appears as if it might fall over any day—it is LEANING! The two towers are behind cordoned areas right now, undergoing restauration. The Basilica of Santo Stefano is comprised of seven smaller churches. The overall structure is gray, heavy stone with separate areas/altars, each dedicated to someone else…. There are courtyards on the interior of the overall structure. And there is a museum and Cappella Della Benda. Benda is the part of Mary’s clothing that held her hair back and that was stained by Jesus’ wounds during the Crucifixion. I don’t know that we actually saw that particular exhibit, not knowing exactly what we were seeing. But…I did see an image of Mary as a Baby, to whom the Modenese people have particular devotion. People here have been so giving and kind throughout this trip! Today, the attendant in the Gift Shop of the Museum and the Cappella Della Benda gave me several holy cards of Mary as a Baby free just because I had inquired about that exhibit (which I had seen elsewhere before). We saw the Torre dell’Orologio (Clock Tower), a tall tower with a giant clock on its face, located in the main piazza in Bologna center. The Archiginnasio and Teatro Anatomico, as well as the Stabat Mater Libreria, are historical remnants from the original University of Bologna. This university dates back to 1088, but really took flight with student attendance in the 1200s. Nevertheless, it continued to operate as a university until 1805 when Napoleon arrived. Napoleon closed this original phase of the University and sanctioned a new one. This original campus is a remnant of the oldest university in the world that has been functioning as such without interruption. Prominently displayed are coats of arms of all of the families who were represented by students at this University over time. The Quadrilatero is a market that sells and displays fresh local fruits/vegetables/meats (prosciutto, mortadella…), and other edible items along some side streets in the center of Bologna’s historic areas. Bars, bakeries/bread shops, and restaurants of all types typically serve the foods a merchant sells right in front of their store. We selected an interesting osteria for our day’s main meal, with Dad looking specifically for lasagne bolognese, and I looking for green lasagne. We were not finding green lasagne on the menu anywhere, so I settled hoping to at least sample authentic lasagne bolognese in Bologna. The waiter quickly advised that ALL lasagne bolognese is green, always! The lasagne bolognese is made of GREEN pasta—green from the spinach mixed into the pasta dough! Our B&B host explained to me that lasagne bolognese is always/only green, always has to have five layers of pasta, no ricotta, no mozzarella, bechamel, and beef and pork ragout. Each bite should contain all five layers of the pasta, bechamel, and ragout. If one desires, a bit of parmigiano reggiano is fine lightly sprinkled on top. It was DELICIOUS! The bread side dish was not composed of any bread we have had so far in Italy. Rather, it came in the form of warm-to-hot round, one-inch thick 3” x 3” discs with a flour stamped on the top. These, we learned, are called tigelle! Delicious! (Later, we saw little sandwiches served in tigelle. What a brilliant idea)! We did not have coffee and dessert in Bologna, however. Rather, we drove back to Castelfranco and to Cremeria Ca’ Ranuzza to sample gelato with some squirts off DOP Balsamic Vinegar produced by Acetaia Malagoli Daniela, our B&B location and hosts. Dad had vanilla gelato with squirts of vinegar; and I had lemon and strawberry gelatos, also squirted with Balsamic vinegar! Are you saying, YUCK?!?! We weren’t sure we’d like it, but trust me, it tasted really, really good!
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