From Bologna to Le Marche and back in a day

By being in the centre of Italy, Bologna is the base for hundreds of daily tours. Ferrara, Parma, Milan, Florence, even Venice, but also Le Marche.

Actually, the latter area is the less discovered, but if one has a tour there, one will immediately realize such a beautiful surprise it is. Although a daily tour is not the proper way to discover the spirit of Le Marche, there are some interesting places to visit in a day.

An example is this tour I had with Dan and Emac from South Africa.

Chocolate show last weekend!

Last weekend I visited the chocolate show in Piazza Maggiore, Bologna.

There were so many kiosks full of every kind of chocolate, from everywhere in Italy: chocolate from Modica, in Sicily (they say it's the closest variety to the Aztec one!), from Piedmont (the famous gianduia), from Florence (where Pistocchi, the best chocolate torta in Italy, is based).

What about chocolate from Bologna? Well, with Majani and La Sorbetteria Castiglione, chocolate lovers can satisfy their needs even without the cioccoshow!

Bologna, heart of transportation in Italy

Bologna is quite a big city. In the 70's it exceeded half-a-million people, now the population has reduced but it's still around that amount. By being the capital town of a rich region like Emilia-Romagna, its train and transportation system is very well developed.

In addition, by being in the center of Italy, Bologna is the heart of the Italian transportation system. If something goes wrong in Bologna, the whole of Italy is split in two, whether it's trains or highways: Bologna is the connection between the northern and the southern part of Italy. If you go from Milan or Turin or Venice to Florence, Rome, Naples, Le Marche, Abruzzi or Puglia, you have to pass through Bologna.

I leave you to imagine how crowded the station of Bologna might be on Friday afternoon when all the daily and weekly commuters are going back home; now, add a holiday and you have this amount raised by 40%; say that the holiday is the 8th of December - when the biggest exhibition, the Motor Show - is taking place with thousands and thousands of visitors, and I wouldn't be exhaggerating if I said you would feel like you are at the gates of Hell...

Bars in Bologna

Bologna is full of bars. Being a wealthy town, people are used to having colazione (cornetto e cappuccino), or simply an espresso at the bar.

The aperitivo, on the contrary, is more typical of Milan, where you can even have dinner without going back home. In Bologna it is instead a way to make you hungry. Over the last few years, some bars have tried to offer the same aperitivo as Milan, but there's no comparison. In Bologna, people want to sit down and eat, and they want to eat seriously, not just a simple slice of mortadella served in a tiny piece of bread. We may clearly state that in Bologna the real aperitivo alla milanese will never take place.

After dinner, the bolognesi and even more so the students, like to go out and sit down at a bar, or a pub, sipping some wine, beer or even grappa. In spring or summer it's great to stay outside; but in the winter it's rather cold. No problem: here is the way to make the winter warm outside. Somebody says it's not the best way to fight the energy wasting, but bars need to work.

I personally like to stay in when the weather is cold, but a lot of people don't: with such a view outside, they can't be blamed!

Why don't you have a walking through Bologna?

A project is in progress: walking days in Bologna.

Why should you have a walk with me? For the same reason that you should have a tour in Le Marche with me: you can see the places you explore with me also by yourselves, but with me you can take the deep meaning, their essence, their secret stories.

I don't want to seem boasty or overestimating my skills: I decided to promote this second project only after some informal tests. I now see that this project can work, as Le Marche project is working very well. I myself would like to explore another town with people who can help me to see what I cannot see with my only eyes.

The first walking days in Bologna will take place from December on. Differently from Le Marche, which give the best in the mid-season (April, May, June, September and October), Bologna is nice to see all year long, except July and part of August, when it's too hot. You can follow this blog to see how things are going.

Please spread the voice: December is near.

Bologna, the city in between

Bologna could be the most famous city in every country but Italy. In Italy, Bologna has to follow Rome (of course), Florence (of course), Venice (of course), Naples (of course), Milan, Sicily, Tuscany and some other places.

However, when visiting Italy, you are forced to pass through Bologna, given that this city is the strategical node to get from North to South and vice-versa. Wherever you go in Italy, Bologna is in between.

Therefore, if you have enough time for a walk, like a half day (or even a couple days), drop off and take a tour of Bologna. And if you have a good and sportive body, climb up the highest tower of the city, Torre degli Asinelli.

You can enjoy a view like in the picture above, on the header.

Oh, bike!

This post is dedicated to the bike. To this marvellous and bio-natural means of transportation. When in Bologna, I usually go biking, or walking: ten years ago, when I started the university, lots of people used to go by bike, now everybody moves around by car, in spite of limited traffic areas, high pollution levels, and so on.

My brother, who lives in Milan, always says that milanesi (inhabitants of Milan), can even survive without air. But not without car.

The three faces of Bologna: Red (la Rossa), Fat (La Grassa), Educated (la Dotta)

Bologna is undoubtedly the strategical node of Italy. Everywhere you go, from North to South and vice-versa, you have to pass through Bologna.

Here are some examples:

• South of Bologna: Florence, Tuscany, Rome, Naples, Sicily, beautiful sea & islands.

• North of Bologna: Milan, Venice, Turin, Parma, Genova, Cinque Terre, Verona, Padua, Mantua, Ravenna, Alps.

With rare exceptions, from South of Bologna to North of it, you stop in Bologna.

Over the centuries, this meant that Bologna was a crossroads of different populations, different cultures, customs and traditions, dialects and languages. This is reflected in the richness of the cuisine, in the creation of the University, in the field of art, architecture and sculpture.

Therefore, Bologna is a mix of all these features, so that it is called the town with different and complementary faces: the Red (Rossa), from the colours of the buildings and from the prevalence of the Communist Party; the Fat (Grassa) because of the rich and abundant cuisine, linked with a high level of life quality; and the Educated (Dotta), because of the University, the oldest in Europe, which dates back to 1089 AD.

There should be written many many words to describe this aspect of the town. However, surfing on the web, I found somebody who did it much better than I: Jessica's posts are definitely worth a reading. There are 3 posts about Bologna: La Grassa, La Dotta and La Rossa.

Enjoy!

Muhammad Yunus in Bologna, aula Santa Lucia

Last Sunday 19th March, the Nobel Prize Muhammad Yunus, from Bangladesh, launched the International Observatory for Micro-finance (IOM) at the University of Bologna.

I read Banker to the Poor, wrote by Yunus, and I feel disappointed that he was awarded the Noble Peace Prize instead of Economics. To find a way to lend money to poor people, to have 200 million customers with over 90% of repayments rate, to found a bank which helps people to be independent, this is a matter of economics. Peace is a consequence.

The video-interview at beppegrillo.it.

Touring in Bologna

It's a long time I've been thinking about a project.

As most of you know, I organize and run tours in Le Marche. All the people who came here have seen how I love this region, and how great were the experiences between Corinaldo, Ancona, Ascoli, Monte Conero, Urbino, Jesi and so on.

But still... there is another town, not in Le Marche, which deserves much more attention than the actual one.

We all know that the main tourist route - for those who come to Italy for the first time - is Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples. Personally, I'd skip Milan and choose Venice. Whatever the choice is, you have to pass through Bologna.

What is Bologna? Bologna is "Italy". Whereas Le Marche are all that you can find in Italy, resumed in one region (therefore "Italy in one region", as the claim of our Tourist Board says), Bologna is the thermometer of Italy: the social situation in Bologna is a synthesis of the society in Italy.

It's Italy's political lab: all the experiments about welfare, transportation, education and so on have their first try here. If they work, they will be replicated in national scale.

It's Europe's oldest university: the Alma Mater Studiorum dates back to the year 1089, and students are everywhere. If an Italian thinks about Bologna, he recalls culture, politics and... food!

Yes, because food is the third important thing of Bologna. Being in the middle of Italy, in a postion which can't be avoided by any traveller, crossroad between the Pianura Padana of Northern Italy and the Appennini to go south, close to Florence on the way to Rome, not far from Venice, Milan, Turin, Bologna has always been the melting pot of that crowd of small states that was Italy in the past.



No surprises, then, that every student and every traveller brought his home tradition to Bologna. Hence, the cuisine started to improve. The symbol of this cuisine is - not by chance - the Tortellino. This navel-shaped pasta stuffed with a lot of different things - so many that even every house has its own receipe for that - is by no means the essence of Bologna. Like its pasta, Bologna is the navel of Italy. And like the inside, Bologna is stuffed with lots of different people.

This is just to make you hungry of this town... the rest will come step by step...

Bologna, 1997: the Pope and Bob Dylan

I admit, I don't really like this Pope much. To be frank, I didn't like the former one either, especially in his hypocrite use of "the young meetings", manouvred by Mr Ratzinger (Benedictus XVI).

But still, in September 1997 I was about to assist one of the best symbolic events ever happened in Bologna: the meeting between his Bobness and the Pope. Whatever the opinions, it would have been a huge emotional event for me, if I ever had the chance to take part. Unfortunately, eventually I didn't get the ticket, and only watched it on the TV, and it was a great media event.

Now, I read His Coldness and His Oldness Benedictus XVI criticizing that event. He might be right, I respect different opinions. But I think it's better that event eventually took place.

Flying into Bologna: Myair.com from France, Spain and Eastern Europe

Today, the low-cost airline Myair will fly from Bologna to Madrid, four times a week.

These flights follow other routes to Barcelona (Spain), Paris and Bordeaux (France), Sofia (Bulgaria), and Catania in Sicily.

Therefore, it's easier and easier to come to Bologna. From Bologna, Le Marche are only 2 hours by train.

Why don't you hop a plane and visit Bologna and Le Marche with me? I'll pick you up at the airport, and take you back to Bologna.

Next tour will be: "From Bologna to Bologna: Tortellini, Salami, Fish and back again".

Is it interesting?

Malta is one flight away from Bologna

This Malta Independent news make me thinking about a sort of unusual matter. When the flight to Malta has been established, last year, I thought "Great news, Malta is closer now!"; actually, it might be vice-versa.

It may sound silly, but lot of times our point of view is based on our location. When working about tourism in some unusual places (like Le Marche, for example, in my case), the way of thinking is somewhat shaken.

Therefore: lucky Maltese, just an hour from Bologna, and lucky Londoners, a couple hours from Ancona!

You may say I'm a dreamer...

January, Bologna station. It's Friday, a day when you'd like to go everywhere. Why not Le Marche? I was just thinking to go there for a weekend, and I see, from the posters, that I may not be the only one :-)

Sometimes I'm proud to see posters like this: beautiful pics for a beautiful land.

ah...

Perfect balance

To live between Bologna and Le Marche is sometimes tiring, but some other times it's wonderful. For instance, in December, approaching the weekend. Lot of things can be done, like cinema (Lumiere, Roman Polanski next sunday), beer tasting (La Tana del Luppolo beer retailer) or simply walking around Bologna.