Baloney and Bolognese in Bologna

So I just got back from a week-long spring break trip to Italy (cue: jealousy). And let me tell you, it was AMAZING. Everything everyone tells you about Italy is true. The food is delicious (if you're able to stay away from the tourist traps), the cities are beautiful, as is the countryside, there's so much history and art everywhere you look (if you're into that kind of thing), and the people are kind of assholes. But that's OK! Because it's freaking ITALY! And you are not really worthy to be in their fabulous country anyway!

First stop on our trip was Bologna. The people here were actually pretty nice. It's not really a tourist-y city, so no one speaks English. They were really patient and encouraging while I practiced my high school Italian on them (thank you, Mr. Marcheschi!).

Bologna is everything you'd expect a non-touristy city to be. It's tiny (perfect day-trip size) filled with ancient buildings (the oldest university in the world), old towers, and great little restaurants. Bologna is even called "la citta' grassa", the fat city, because every food you think of as being Italian originated in this region: bolognese sauce, lasagna, ravioli, tortellini, cured ham, prosciutto, bologna (baloney)...  Yep! Bologna is a real meat in Bologna. And it actually tastes good! It doesn't always have to be questionable lunch meat. And it's first name doesn't always have to be Oscar.

After our lunch of bologna and prosciutto sandwiches and avoiding a sudden rain storm, we walked all over the small city and saw all of the cool stuff. And by cool stuff I mean old buildings. Bologna's Chamber of Commerce was even kind enough to print a brochure of how to spend "a half-day in Bologna"...I guess they didn't have much faith in their tourist attractions either. We saw the old town square and a few churches, walked down some side streets and walked into some medieval buildings. By far the coolest thing we did in Bologna was climb the old tower. 100m high and way too many steps to count. It led to some great views of the city and surrounding area. Simply beautiful.

yummmmm

Then we got to my favorite part of the trip. GELATO! We walked out of the main square to find a gelateria we had heard about, and it was well worth the walk. La Sorbetteria Castiglione was my first Italian gelato, and will always hold a special place in my heart.  They had fancy flavors, so I can't even tell you what I got, but I can tell you that it tasted like heaven. I would travel to Bologna just to go back to this place.

Finally we got to try bolognese sauce for dinner. Just as good as we thought it would be!

Then we hopped on a train and headed for Florence...which is a story for next time...

The view of the old town square from atop the tower