Mantova, Ravenna, Brisighella, Bologna
Oct 24th, 2017, 08:19 AM
#23
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Thanks for your comments. This is a wonderful area of Italy to explore, and not mobbed.
Onward....
SUNDAY October 22 - Ravenna
Sunday we visited one of the best sights, only half a block from our hotel, Sant Apollinare Nuovo (“nuovo” or “new”) because there already was a major church dedicated to this saint in the nearby town of Classe. Classe is now a quick bus ride from Ravenna, but it basically consists of the church of Sant Apollinare in Classe surrounded by fields—the town itself disappeared long ago.
Sant Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna has had very little damage over the centuries so this gives us a great picture of the times of Theodoric’s Arian kingdom in the early 500s and then the Byzantine takeover by the eastern emperor Justinian beginning about 540. The church has a classical Roman basilica design, flat ceiling, long central nave, narrower side aisles. It is simply stunning when you enter.
On either side of the nave, at the entrance, are historically important mosaics. On the left is a large portrayal of the town of Classe, a major seaport at that time. Ships are pictured outside the walls of the town, with various buildings visible over the top of the walls.
On the right, an intriguing example of damnatio memoriae, the ancient practice of defacing the images of a defeated or assassinated political opponent. Here, the victim is Theodoric himself. The mosaic shows the palace of Theodoric, with the word “Palatium” at the top. However, Justinian’s mosaic artists scratched away images of the king and his officials standing in the palace arcades and replaced them with images of curtains. But they left traces of these defeated ones—as a warning to others?—by leaving hands visible, resting on the columns of the palace arcades.
The remaining mosaics are glorious: two dozen maiden martyrs processing to the Virgin Mary and Jesus on the left, two dozen male martyrs processing to an adult Jesus on the right. The columns (recycled temple columns) and their capitals also stunning.
One could write tomes about this and other Ravenna sites—actually, art historians have in fact done this. But I will leave it at this.
Time for a change from mosaics: we go to Theodoric’s tomb, a twenty minute walk from our hotel, on the other side of the tracks, literally, northeast of the train station and tracks. This really gives you a feeling for the un-Roman nature of Theodoric’s time. The mausoleum (apparently he never was actually buried here, or else his body was quickly removed shortly after being interred, no one knows his final burial place) …the mausoleum is a daunting, tall hefty structure topped by a 270-ton stone, a single piece, for the dome. How the workers transported it here and hefted it up to the top of the structure is a mystery.
After leaving the mausoleum, we walked back toward the centro, past the 16th century Venetian fortress La Rocca Brancaleone (Venice ruled Ravenna briefly, then other conquerors followed…). We were on a mission to check out the remains of the walls of the original Roman town, the oppidum of the first and second centuries CE.
This original walled colonial settlement was a square, but tilted slightly instead of following the standard east-west-north-south alignment. Historians speculate that the marshes and rivulets influenced this alignment. When Ravenna’s importance grew as an imperial seaport, settlement expanded north and east. Then when the Ostrogoths arrived and Theodoric established his kingdom, an Arian Ostrogothic quarter developed farther east, around the area when Sant Apollinare Nuovo stands.
The remains of the original walls stretch along today’s Circonvallazione al Molino and the best parts are found east of the site of the ancient Roman Porta Aurea, or golden gate (the site is at the intersection of the Via Porta Aurea and the Circonvallazione). The gate was intact until the 16th century when the Venetians demolished it.
Dinner at the Osteria del Tempo Person. Our review: very pleasant space, some good dishes (strozzapreti with ragu especially) but quite overpriced for value received. Lesson learned, be cautious about restaurants who vaunt their chefs. At least for our taste and budget.
Tomorrow: bus and train trip to Brisighella.
Onward....
SUNDAY October 22 - Ravenna
Sunday we visited one of the best sights, only half a block from our hotel, Sant Apollinare Nuovo (“nuovo” or “new”) because there already was a major church dedicated to this saint in the nearby town of Classe. Classe is now a quick bus ride from Ravenna, but it basically consists of the church of Sant Apollinare in Classe surrounded by fields—the town itself disappeared long ago.
Sant Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna has had very little damage over the centuries so this gives us a great picture of the times of Theodoric’s Arian kingdom in the early 500s and then the Byzantine takeover by the eastern emperor Justinian beginning about 540. The church has a classical Roman basilica design, flat ceiling, long central nave, narrower side aisles. It is simply stunning when you enter.
On either side of the nave, at the entrance, are historically important mosaics. On the left is a large portrayal of the town of Classe, a major seaport at that time. Ships are pictured outside the walls of the town, with various buildings visible over the top of the walls.
On the right, an intriguing example of damnatio memoriae, the ancient practice of defacing the images of a defeated or assassinated political opponent. Here, the victim is Theodoric himself. The mosaic shows the palace of Theodoric, with the word “Palatium” at the top. However, Justinian’s mosaic artists scratched away images of the king and his officials standing in the palace arcades and replaced them with images of curtains. But they left traces of these defeated ones—as a warning to others?—by leaving hands visible, resting on the columns of the palace arcades.
The remaining mosaics are glorious: two dozen maiden martyrs processing to the Virgin Mary and Jesus on the left, two dozen male martyrs processing to an adult Jesus on the right. The columns (recycled temple columns) and their capitals also stunning.
One could write tomes about this and other Ravenna sites—actually, art historians have in fact done this. But I will leave it at this.
Time for a change from mosaics: we go to Theodoric’s tomb, a twenty minute walk from our hotel, on the other side of the tracks, literally, northeast of the train station and tracks. This really gives you a feeling for the un-Roman nature of Theodoric’s time. The mausoleum (apparently he never was actually buried here, or else his body was quickly removed shortly after being interred, no one knows his final burial place) …the mausoleum is a daunting, tall hefty structure topped by a 270-ton stone, a single piece, for the dome. How the workers transported it here and hefted it up to the top of the structure is a mystery.
After leaving the mausoleum, we walked back toward the centro, past the 16th century Venetian fortress La Rocca Brancaleone (Venice ruled Ravenna briefly, then other conquerors followed…). We were on a mission to check out the remains of the walls of the original Roman town, the oppidum of the first and second centuries CE.
This original walled colonial settlement was a square, but tilted slightly instead of following the standard east-west-north-south alignment. Historians speculate that the marshes and rivulets influenced this alignment. When Ravenna’s importance grew as an imperial seaport, settlement expanded north and east. Then when the Ostrogoths arrived and Theodoric established his kingdom, an Arian Ostrogothic quarter developed farther east, around the area when Sant Apollinare Nuovo stands.
The remains of the original walls stretch along today’s Circonvallazione al Molino and the best parts are found east of the site of the ancient Roman Porta Aurea, or golden gate (the site is at the intersection of the Via Porta Aurea and the Circonvallazione). The gate was intact until the 16th century when the Venetians demolished it.
Dinner at the Osteria del Tempo Person. Our review: very pleasant space, some good dishes (strozzapreti with ragu especially) but quite overpriced for value received. Lesson learned, be cautious about restaurants who vaunt their chefs. At least for our taste and budget.
Tomorrow: bus and train trip to Brisighella.
Oct 24th, 2017, 08:38 AM
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MONDAY October 23 - Brisighella
From Ravenna, we took a bus operated by Trenitalia, leaving from the train station to Faenza, then a regionale train to Brisighella. Leaving Faenza, you enter the foothills of the Appenines and the landscape becomes hilly and lush, with vineyards and lemon trees and orange trees all over. It’s only a ten-minute train ride from Faenza to Brisighella. When we step off, we enter a beautiful village, trees and manicured park near the station, then a walk uphill toward our hotel. The three hilltop sites loom over the village: the Torre dell’Orologio with a functioning clock, the fortress or Rocca, and the the Sanctuary of Monticino.
==>The hotel: Albergo La Rocca, run by the same family for many years. The owner, a gracious and welcoming signora who insists we call her Anna, welcomes us. We chatter away in Italian and English because Anna is an enthusiastic student of English. She shows us the book she is currently studying, “The Queen,” about you-know-who, with her English dictionary beside.
The hotel was reconstructed from an earlier apartment building and it is a relaxing combination of informal, sleek, and elegant design elements. Our room on the second floor has a little balcony overlooking the Fontana Vecchia. The clock tower bells chime every now and then. It is a brilliant fall afternoon with an intensely blue sky. We meet a young Dutch couple on the way to a cafe for a quick lunch, then start walking up the path to the bell tower.
There are walking paths up to the three structures mentioned above, connecting them, and you can also hike farther afield. There is a national park to the north of Brisighella. The entire area sits on a vein of gypsum, “gesso”, which was the livelihood of the village from the middle ages up to 1980, when the last gypsum quarry closed.
At the beginning of the path to the clock tower, we turned into the Via degli Asini, a medieval covered street created for the donkeys hauling gypsum to the horse-drawn wagons for transport over the mountains to Florence. This entire stretch of medieval buildings was a complex designed to store the gypsum, house the animals, provide loading space for the wagons, and supply housing for the workers at the top level. Fascinating.
After exploring the Via degli Asini, we began walking up the 350 steps to the clock tower. On the way we bumped into our Dutch friends who had retained a guide for the visit up to the peaks. They graciously invited us to join them.
The views from these three peaks over the village below and the valleys beyond was magnificent (sorry to overuse this adjective). Many of the trees and vineyards were turning golden in the late sunlight. The tiled roofs of the houses and the Duomo below looked like a mosaic of rust and orange.
We ended our trek about two hours later, had a final conversation with Silvia, our gracious guide, obliged her to accept our payment for the excellent descriptions she had given us and our Dutch friends, and headed back to the hotel.
Dinner: the Cantina del Bonsignore. I’m going to condense food details more and more otherwise this TR will never get finished. Good pasta, good “brasato” of beef in a wine sauce, and delicious Morellino di Scansano, the same delicious wine we had our first evening in Rome.
To bed, in preparation for our day trip to Faenza tomorrow.
From Ravenna, we took a bus operated by Trenitalia, leaving from the train station to Faenza, then a regionale train to Brisighella. Leaving Faenza, you enter the foothills of the Appenines and the landscape becomes hilly and lush, with vineyards and lemon trees and orange trees all over. It’s only a ten-minute train ride from Faenza to Brisighella. When we step off, we enter a beautiful village, trees and manicured park near the station, then a walk uphill toward our hotel. The three hilltop sites loom over the village: the Torre dell’Orologio with a functioning clock, the fortress or Rocca, and the the Sanctuary of Monticino.
==>The hotel: Albergo La Rocca, run by the same family for many years. The owner, a gracious and welcoming signora who insists we call her Anna, welcomes us. We chatter away in Italian and English because Anna is an enthusiastic student of English. She shows us the book she is currently studying, “The Queen,” about you-know-who, with her English dictionary beside.
The hotel was reconstructed from an earlier apartment building and it is a relaxing combination of informal, sleek, and elegant design elements. Our room on the second floor has a little balcony overlooking the Fontana Vecchia. The clock tower bells chime every now and then. It is a brilliant fall afternoon with an intensely blue sky. We meet a young Dutch couple on the way to a cafe for a quick lunch, then start walking up the path to the bell tower.
There are walking paths up to the three structures mentioned above, connecting them, and you can also hike farther afield. There is a national park to the north of Brisighella. The entire area sits on a vein of gypsum, “gesso”, which was the livelihood of the village from the middle ages up to 1980, when the last gypsum quarry closed.
At the beginning of the path to the clock tower, we turned into the Via degli Asini, a medieval covered street created for the donkeys hauling gypsum to the horse-drawn wagons for transport over the mountains to Florence. This entire stretch of medieval buildings was a complex designed to store the gypsum, house the animals, provide loading space for the wagons, and supply housing for the workers at the top level. Fascinating.
After exploring the Via degli Asini, we began walking up the 350 steps to the clock tower. On the way we bumped into our Dutch friends who had retained a guide for the visit up to the peaks. They graciously invited us to join them.
The views from these three peaks over the village below and the valleys beyond was magnificent (sorry to overuse this adjective). Many of the trees and vineyards were turning golden in the late sunlight. The tiled roofs of the houses and the Duomo below looked like a mosaic of rust and orange.
We ended our trek about two hours later, had a final conversation with Silvia, our gracious guide, obliged her to accept our payment for the excellent descriptions she had given us and our Dutch friends, and headed back to the hotel.
Dinner: the Cantina del Bonsignore. I’m going to condense food details more and more otherwise this TR will never get finished. Good pasta, good “brasato” of beef in a wine sauce, and delicious Morellino di Scansano, the same delicious wine we had our first evening in Rome.
To bed, in preparation for our day trip to Faenza tomorrow.
Oct 25th, 2017, 11:01 PM
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TUESDAY October 24 - day trip to Faenza
Faenza is an easy ten-minute train ride from Brisighella, taking the regionale that comes over the mountains from Florence. Faenza is a beautiful little city but not quite ready for prime time tourism, which in a way is quite charming.
Arriving at the Faenza train station, we asked the tabacchi for the location of the municipal tourist office. Answer: there is none. Asked again when we stopped for a quick espresso. Answer: there is none. Can we get a map somewhere? Well, yes, you can buy one at the tabacchi three blocks up the street. Went to the fabulous ceramics museum. Same answer. Later in the day, wandering around a vicolo off the main piazza, we stumbled across the municipal tourist information office. But…it was the afternoon pause. Closed until 3:30 pm. Oh well.
The International Museum of Ceramics of Faenza is a marvel. Surely it must be the largest, most comprehensive museum of its kind anywhere? From the Sumerians to today, it covers Greek, Roman, Islamic, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Maya, Aztec, Inca works, with of course heavy emphasis on Italian Renaissance, 19th century, and contemporary works. The building is very beautiful, modern, with lots of angled glass roofs, hallways, glass floors on the second floor, courtyard with big modern ceramic works. Definitely a must-see for anyone visiting Bologna, Ravenna, or Brisighella.
In the evening we had an excellent dinner at the Ristorante La Rocca, run by the hotel. The highlights: a starter vegetable flan with hollandaise and truffles (it’s truffle season, yessss!!), sfogliatelle with porcini mushrooms (it’s mushroom season, yesssss!!), roasted lamb with rosemary, and once again our new-best-friend wine, Morellino di Scansano. Plus a Cynar to top it all off.
Tomorrow morning: we sadly leave this little mountain village paradise for Bologna. Are the country mice ready for the big city? We shall see.
Faenza is an easy ten-minute train ride from Brisighella, taking the regionale that comes over the mountains from Florence. Faenza is a beautiful little city but not quite ready for prime time tourism, which in a way is quite charming.
Arriving at the Faenza train station, we asked the tabacchi for the location of the municipal tourist office. Answer: there is none. Asked again when we stopped for a quick espresso. Answer: there is none. Can we get a map somewhere? Well, yes, you can buy one at the tabacchi three blocks up the street. Went to the fabulous ceramics museum. Same answer. Later in the day, wandering around a vicolo off the main piazza, we stumbled across the municipal tourist information office. But…it was the afternoon pause. Closed until 3:30 pm. Oh well.
The International Museum of Ceramics of Faenza is a marvel. Surely it must be the largest, most comprehensive museum of its kind anywhere? From the Sumerians to today, it covers Greek, Roman, Islamic, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Maya, Aztec, Inca works, with of course heavy emphasis on Italian Renaissance, 19th century, and contemporary works. The building is very beautiful, modern, with lots of angled glass roofs, hallways, glass floors on the second floor, courtyard with big modern ceramic works. Definitely a must-see for anyone visiting Bologna, Ravenna, or Brisighella.
In the evening we had an excellent dinner at the Ristorante La Rocca, run by the hotel. The highlights: a starter vegetable flan with hollandaise and truffles (it’s truffle season, yessss!!), sfogliatelle with porcini mushrooms (it’s mushroom season, yesssss!!), roasted lamb with rosemary, and once again our new-best-friend wine, Morellino di Scansano. Plus a Cynar to top it all off.
Tomorrow morning: we sadly leave this little mountain village paradise for Bologna. Are the country mice ready for the big city? We shall see.
Oct 26th, 2017, 08:16 AM
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Brisighella- I have never heard of this little place before, interesting, and the museum in Faenza sounds fascinating. Probably good to do lots of research before going it seems.
Mmmm truffles and porcini mushrooms! I have only seen sfogliatelle as a sweet, a very good one, but never with mushrooms, interesting...
Mmmm truffles and porcini mushrooms! I have only seen sfogliatelle as a sweet, a very good one, but never with mushrooms, interesting...
Oct 26th, 2017, 10:58 PM
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WEDNESDAY October 25 - Bologna
***addenda*** We interrupt this narrative to insert two good things which we saw in Ravenna and forgot to mention: Dante’s Tomb, a pilgrimage site for many Italians other Dante-philes. His bones have moved around a lot in the past few centuries as different towns and groups struggled over his remains and his legacy. In World War II they were buried just behind the shrine to protect them. Today they are back inside the little domed structure.
Church of San Francesco: very old, many times repaired and restored. Here Dante’s funeral was held. Here Charles V was crowned head of the Holy Roman Empire (Charles—he who constructed the big Renaissance palace smack on the edge of the Alhambra in Granada…)
OK, back to the story…morning in Brisighella. A warm goodbye and hug from Anna then train to Faenza, easy change, regional to Bologna. We walked from the train station at the north end of the centro all the way down to the southern end, about 40 minutes, walking through busy, but not obnoxious, city crowds and under multitudinous porticos.
==>The hotel: Hotel Porta San Mamolo: very fine medium sized hotel with a garden and a glassed garden room for breakfast. Highly recommended, quite reasonable for Bologna.
We walked back to the centro and wandered through the Quadrilatero, a rectangle of little streets to the east of the Piazza Maggiore. Ducked into Santa Maria di Vita and saw the amazing group of terracotta sculptures, the Compianto, or Lamentation over the Dead Christ. Our guide book calls this work “harrowing” and truly it is, especially the statue of Mary Magdalene, crazed with grief and horror. From the technical standpoint it is a marvel and we wondered how the sculptor crafted and then fired such life-sized terra-cotta figures.
Dinner: we needed a break from Emilia-Romagna cuisine. When we were leaving the hotel our friendly manager asked where we were eating and we replied “an Indian restaurant”. I thought we were going to have to call 911 to prevent a cardiac arrest. “In Bologna, an INDIAN RESTAURANT????” said she. But lo, it was a good choice—mildly spicy vegetarian with a big bottle of fizzy water, no Morellino, no Cynar. Then to bed, quite restored.
***addenda*** We interrupt this narrative to insert two good things which we saw in Ravenna and forgot to mention: Dante’s Tomb, a pilgrimage site for many Italians other Dante-philes. His bones have moved around a lot in the past few centuries as different towns and groups struggled over his remains and his legacy. In World War II they were buried just behind the shrine to protect them. Today they are back inside the little domed structure.
Church of San Francesco: very old, many times repaired and restored. Here Dante’s funeral was held. Here Charles V was crowned head of the Holy Roman Empire (Charles—he who constructed the big Renaissance palace smack on the edge of the Alhambra in Granada…)
OK, back to the story…morning in Brisighella. A warm goodbye and hug from Anna then train to Faenza, easy change, regional to Bologna. We walked from the train station at the north end of the centro all the way down to the southern end, about 40 minutes, walking through busy, but not obnoxious, city crowds and under multitudinous porticos.
==>The hotel: Hotel Porta San Mamolo: very fine medium sized hotel with a garden and a glassed garden room for breakfast. Highly recommended, quite reasonable for Bologna.
We walked back to the centro and wandered through the Quadrilatero, a rectangle of little streets to the east of the Piazza Maggiore. Ducked into Santa Maria di Vita and saw the amazing group of terracotta sculptures, the Compianto, or Lamentation over the Dead Christ. Our guide book calls this work “harrowing” and truly it is, especially the statue of Mary Magdalene, crazed with grief and horror. From the technical standpoint it is a marvel and we wondered how the sculptor crafted and then fired such life-sized terra-cotta figures.
Dinner: we needed a break from Emilia-Romagna cuisine. When we were leaving the hotel our friendly manager asked where we were eating and we replied “an Indian restaurant”. I thought we were going to have to call 911 to prevent a cardiac arrest. “In Bologna, an INDIAN RESTAURANT????” said she. But lo, it was a good choice—mildly spicy vegetarian with a big bottle of fizzy water, no Morellino, no Cynar. Then to bed, quite restored.
Oct 30th, 2017, 12:32 PM
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THURSDAY October 26 – Bologna
This would be our only full day in Bologna before returning on Friday to Rome for our last night in Italy. We were already enjoying the feeling of Bologna, something already discussed several times on this forum. The porticoes, the medieval character of much of the centro, the absence of Bernini-like piazzas, and the brickwork! Everything made of brick, with beautiful shades of orange, ochre and rust. I marvelled at some of the large structures built entirely of brick, the columns included.
Bologna’s people also seemed to go about their lives oblivious to the relatively small numbers of tourists wandering around the city. There was a marked absence of tourist shops selling “stuff”. We actually wanted to buy a few items of “stuff” to bring back as small gifts, perhaps small ceramic pieces.
The only shop we could find was at the base of the Asinelli tower. It has a nice selection of pieces by regional ceramicists, many of them based in Faenza. I asked the shopkeeper why there were not more shops selling ceramics and she said that the expensive, small-scale production worked against that. I found that difficult to understand: we noticed no shortage of riches in the city as we walked along the Via Nazionale, past many stores selling diamonds and diamonds and diamonds and 400-euro shoes. A puzzle.
We walked from our neighborhood in the southern end of the city to the basilica of Santo Stefano, a complex of seven churches dating back to the fourth or fifth century CE. They reproduce different structures or events connected to Jesus’ time in Jerusalem. Especially interesting was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, with columns from an earlier temple to Isis, an early medieval pulpit, and the column allegedly used for the scourging of Jesus.
We then went to the Quadrilatero and gawked, aimlessly, at the stores displaying meats, cheeses, fish, and wine. We weren’t quite ready for lunch, we were still trying to walk off the effects of ten days of Emilia-Romagna cuisine. So we did we choose to do instead? Why, of course, go to a café in the Piazza Maggiore facing San Petronio and have a teeeny cup of outrageously thick, delicious hot chocolate…for only 6 euros each. What a deal!
Next, a visit to San Petronio. Such an unusual design, a striking interior, we liked it very much and there was an organist practicing during our visit, very beautiful. We had a relaxing lunch of large salads and some Greco di Tufo white wine and then went to the Asinelli tower for some gift shopping.
Afterwards, we walked over to the Archiginnasio of the ancient university complex. You could feel the weight of tradition in these corridors, covered with the insignia and coats of arms of the families of thousands of students who have studied in the university since its founding in the eleventh century.
We were able to duck into one of the large, magnificent lecture halls and catch a few minutes of a public lecture. (There was a Fiera del Libro convention in town during our visit and I think this was one of their events.)
We had been told by one of our fellow hotel guests during breakfast, a World Health Organization offical attending a conference in town, that the Medieval Museum, Museo Civico Medievale, was a must-see, so we did.
The building itself is a treat for history buffs. Many of the rooms have sections of the walls exposed to the original stones of Roman structures and parts of the Roman city walls. These were large blocks which were incorporated into medieval structures and then transformed into the Renaissance Palazzo Ghisilardi, home of the museum today. Many of the big blocks are blackened from fires; archeologists speculate that they are evidence of sieges and invasions.
The museum has wonderful treasures. We resolved to focus on just a few things to avoid visual overload. We focused in particular on the sepulchres of university professors. About a dozen of these sepulchres are displayed, with detailed sculptures showing the professor lecturing at the podium and students on either side, bent over their desks, writing notes furiously or gazing up in confusion. Some of them give the exact date of the professor’s death. There is one sepulchre, for example, stating that Doctor Petrus something-or-other--couldn’t make it out--Deceased, December 13, 1338 – “SEPULTUS MCCCXXXVIII DIE XIII DEC”.
With our heads full of a thousand years of academic karma, we started walking back to our hotel.
This would be our only full day in Bologna before returning on Friday to Rome for our last night in Italy. We were already enjoying the feeling of Bologna, something already discussed several times on this forum. The porticoes, the medieval character of much of the centro, the absence of Bernini-like piazzas, and the brickwork! Everything made of brick, with beautiful shades of orange, ochre and rust. I marvelled at some of the large structures built entirely of brick, the columns included.
Bologna’s people also seemed to go about their lives oblivious to the relatively small numbers of tourists wandering around the city. There was a marked absence of tourist shops selling “stuff”. We actually wanted to buy a few items of “stuff” to bring back as small gifts, perhaps small ceramic pieces.
The only shop we could find was at the base of the Asinelli tower. It has a nice selection of pieces by regional ceramicists, many of them based in Faenza. I asked the shopkeeper why there were not more shops selling ceramics and she said that the expensive, small-scale production worked against that. I found that difficult to understand: we noticed no shortage of riches in the city as we walked along the Via Nazionale, past many stores selling diamonds and diamonds and diamonds and 400-euro shoes. A puzzle.
We walked from our neighborhood in the southern end of the city to the basilica of Santo Stefano, a complex of seven churches dating back to the fourth or fifth century CE. They reproduce different structures or events connected to Jesus’ time in Jerusalem. Especially interesting was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, with columns from an earlier temple to Isis, an early medieval pulpit, and the column allegedly used for the scourging of Jesus.
We then went to the Quadrilatero and gawked, aimlessly, at the stores displaying meats, cheeses, fish, and wine. We weren’t quite ready for lunch, we were still trying to walk off the effects of ten days of Emilia-Romagna cuisine. So we did we choose to do instead? Why, of course, go to a café in the Piazza Maggiore facing San Petronio and have a teeeny cup of outrageously thick, delicious hot chocolate…for only 6 euros each. What a deal!
Next, a visit to San Petronio. Such an unusual design, a striking interior, we liked it very much and there was an organist practicing during our visit, very beautiful. We had a relaxing lunch of large salads and some Greco di Tufo white wine and then went to the Asinelli tower for some gift shopping.
Afterwards, we walked over to the Archiginnasio of the ancient university complex. You could feel the weight of tradition in these corridors, covered with the insignia and coats of arms of the families of thousands of students who have studied in the university since its founding in the eleventh century.
We were able to duck into one of the large, magnificent lecture halls and catch a few minutes of a public lecture. (There was a Fiera del Libro convention in town during our visit and I think this was one of their events.)
We had been told by one of our fellow hotel guests during breakfast, a World Health Organization offical attending a conference in town, that the Medieval Museum, Museo Civico Medievale, was a must-see, so we did.
The building itself is a treat for history buffs. Many of the rooms have sections of the walls exposed to the original stones of Roman structures and parts of the Roman city walls. These were large blocks which were incorporated into medieval structures and then transformed into the Renaissance Palazzo Ghisilardi, home of the museum today. Many of the big blocks are blackened from fires; archeologists speculate that they are evidence of sieges and invasions.
The museum has wonderful treasures. We resolved to focus on just a few things to avoid visual overload. We focused in particular on the sepulchres of university professors. About a dozen of these sepulchres are displayed, with detailed sculptures showing the professor lecturing at the podium and students on either side, bent over their desks, writing notes furiously or gazing up in confusion. Some of them give the exact date of the professor’s death. There is one sepulchre, for example, stating that Doctor Petrus something-or-other--couldn’t make it out--Deceased, December 13, 1338 – “SEPULTUS MCCCXXXVIII DIE XIII DEC”.
With our heads full of a thousand years of academic karma, we started walking back to our hotel.
Nov 2nd, 2017, 08:41 AM
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Late afternoon – rest, catch up on email, write some notes, then to dinner at Al Sangiovese, just a few doors down from our hotel. A warm, friendly, family-run restaurant with superb offerings. We were hungry so we ate all the courses, starting with a vegetable flan with parmesan sauce, then tagliatelli al ragu and tortellini in brodo, followed by chicken with lemon sauce and polpette—little delicious meatballs—and a stuffed zucchini, ending with desserts of semifreddo with a chocolate zabaione sauce, and finally a digestivo, nocello, made of walnuts. A very fine home-cooking dinner. Bill = 109 euros.
FRIDAY October 27 – to Rome
Walking from hotel back through the centro to the train station, we said again how special and beautiful Bologna is, in its own way. Instead of going north on Via Nazionale, we headed up a parallel street just to the east, rather a series of streets which changed names and jogged a little right or left but still led up to the station. It was a fine sunny morning. We admired the magnolia trees on Via Garibaldi and the gingko trees on the Piazza Cavour.
The train station was not the maze I had feared. It helped knowing that we would be heading to the fourth level, underground, and our binario signs were clear, bright yellow. We hopped an Italo fast train, our first time on Italo, and arrived in Rome in mid-afternoon.
FRIDAY October 27 – to Rome
Walking from hotel back through the centro to the train station, we said again how special and beautiful Bologna is, in its own way. Instead of going north on Via Nazionale, we headed up a parallel street just to the east, rather a series of streets which changed names and jogged a little right or left but still led up to the station. It was a fine sunny morning. We admired the magnolia trees on Via Garibaldi and the gingko trees on the Piazza Cavour.
The train station was not the maze I had feared. It helped knowing that we would be heading to the fourth level, underground, and our binario signs were clear, bright yellow. We hopped an Italo fast train, our first time on Italo, and arrived in Rome in mid-afternoon.
Nov 2nd, 2017, 09:37 PM
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glad you enjoyed the medieval museum & Bologna itself. I'm guessing you meant via dell'Indipendenza (not "Nazionale"), and wondering if your path took you up via Galliera, just west of via delll'Indpendenza
Nov 3rd, 2017, 12:47 AM
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Yes yes, Indipendenza, not Nazionale! Our hotel was on a one-block street, Vicolo del Falcone. We liked to go up Via Miramonte, which kept changing its name to Ruini, then Garibaldi, then at Piazza Cavour jog west a bit and then up north again on Archiginnasio.
Nov 3rd, 2017, 07:19 AM
#33
just found this, EYWandBTV and am enjoying reading it very much, especially as I am hoping to spend some time at a language school in Bologna in the Spring so day trip and restaurant ideas are very welcome.
Nov 3rd, 2017, 08:26 AM
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Hi annhig,
So good to hear from you.
From Bologna, you could do easy day trips to a couple of the places we visited - Faenza and then just beyond, on the same train line, Ravenna. Mantua and Brisighella are a little too far (in train times) I think.
I suggest you think about a couple of days, perhaps one of your weekends during your school time, to go to Brisighella. It's really a glorious area, great village, not twee or cute. Several good restaurants and cafes because apparently the big-city folks from Bologna and Ravenna and Florence like to go there for a break (Florence is just over the mountains on the "Faentina" line, from Faenza to Brisighella and then a few other villages and then Florence).
We did not go to Ferrara or Modena but several Fodorites have said that they are good day trips from Bologna.
So good to hear from you.
From Bologna, you could do easy day trips to a couple of the places we visited - Faenza and then just beyond, on the same train line, Ravenna. Mantua and Brisighella are a little too far (in train times) I think.
I suggest you think about a couple of days, perhaps one of your weekends during your school time, to go to Brisighella. It's really a glorious area, great village, not twee or cute. Several good restaurants and cafes because apparently the big-city folks from Bologna and Ravenna and Florence like to go there for a break (Florence is just over the mountains on the "Faentina" line, from Faenza to Brisighella and then a few other villages and then Florence).
We did not go to Ferrara or Modena but several Fodorites have said that they are good day trips from Bologna.
Nov 3rd, 2017, 08:30 AM
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@annhig again...
You could also do a weekend in Mantova/Mantua. This is a wonderful city, very much off the tourist radar. Beautifully intact medieval-Renaissance centro. If you do go, please stay in the Palazzo Arrivabene! Signora Bini will be a gracious host!
You could also do a weekend in Mantova/Mantua. This is a wonderful city, very much off the tourist radar. Beautifully intact medieval-Renaissance centro. If you do go, please stay in the Palazzo Arrivabene! Signora Bini will be a gracious host!
Nov 16th, 2017, 03:46 AM
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…finally getting around to finishing this TR…..
FRIDAY, continued, October 27 – Rome
We settled into the Hotel Columbia again and then set out to visit the Palazzo Barberini. A late Renaissance palace, not too much on the tourist radar. Some choice works by Holbein (portrait of paunchy Henry VIII), Raphael (portrait of his mistress, La Fornarina), El Greco and some beautiful early medieval works.
The building has bees, the Barberini symbol, all over the shields and devices. In the largest hall is a huge ceiling fresco, “The Triumph of Divine Providence and the Fulfillment of Its Ends Under the Pontificate of Urban VIII,” …Urban VIII being a Barberini… the ultimate in fatuous, over-the-top baroque toadyism. But fun. The entrance to the palace is flanked by two magnificent staircases, one by Bernini, one by Borromini.
We walked slowly toward our dinner destination, past the Quirinale Palace, stopping at the Trevi Fountain. Big mob scene. Just a couple of days before someone had dumped red dye into the fountain but it was clean and sparkling when we saw it.
Then on to the Piazza Navona to begin the hunt for our restaurant, the Osteria del Pegno. This is our favorite restaurant in Rome, small, homey, unpretentious food, friendly head waiter named Massimo and friendly owner also named Massimo. It is located on the Vicolo di Montevecchio, a narrow hard-to-find alley a few blocks west of the Piazza. We had a good dinner of fresh anchovies and carbonara and once again a Morellino di Scansano. Caught the #64 bus back to our hotel.
SATURDAY, October 28 – back home via Montreal to Vermont
Easy trip to Fiumicino via the Leonardo Express and comfortable flight to Montreal, then a short drive back home to Burlington.
Reflections on Emilia-Romagna and the little piece of southern Lombardy: we really liked this region. The people we encountered were gracious and helpful. The food of course is worth the trip. We met many new pasta friends - pasatelli, capeletti, strozzapreti, tortelli – and two new digestivos of the region, Luigini and nocello. And piadinas! Crudo ham with slurpy warm squacquerone cheese and arugula = the ultimate comfort food.
We shall return.
FRIDAY, continued, October 27 – Rome
We settled into the Hotel Columbia again and then set out to visit the Palazzo Barberini. A late Renaissance palace, not too much on the tourist radar. Some choice works by Holbein (portrait of paunchy Henry VIII), Raphael (portrait of his mistress, La Fornarina), El Greco and some beautiful early medieval works.
The building has bees, the Barberini symbol, all over the shields and devices. In the largest hall is a huge ceiling fresco, “The Triumph of Divine Providence and the Fulfillment of Its Ends Under the Pontificate of Urban VIII,” …Urban VIII being a Barberini… the ultimate in fatuous, over-the-top baroque toadyism. But fun. The entrance to the palace is flanked by two magnificent staircases, one by Bernini, one by Borromini.
We walked slowly toward our dinner destination, past the Quirinale Palace, stopping at the Trevi Fountain. Big mob scene. Just a couple of days before someone had dumped red dye into the fountain but it was clean and sparkling when we saw it.
Then on to the Piazza Navona to begin the hunt for our restaurant, the Osteria del Pegno. This is our favorite restaurant in Rome, small, homey, unpretentious food, friendly head waiter named Massimo and friendly owner also named Massimo. It is located on the Vicolo di Montevecchio, a narrow hard-to-find alley a few blocks west of the Piazza. We had a good dinner of fresh anchovies and carbonara and once again a Morellino di Scansano. Caught the #64 bus back to our hotel.
SATURDAY, October 28 – back home via Montreal to Vermont
Easy trip to Fiumicino via the Leonardo Express and comfortable flight to Montreal, then a short drive back home to Burlington.
Reflections on Emilia-Romagna and the little piece of southern Lombardy: we really liked this region. The people we encountered were gracious and helpful. The food of course is worth the trip. We met many new pasta friends - pasatelli, capeletti, strozzapreti, tortelli – and two new digestivos of the region, Luigini and nocello. And piadinas! Crudo ham with slurpy warm squacquerone cheese and arugula = the ultimate comfort food.
We shall return.
Nov 17th, 2017, 04:56 AM
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With your new found love of Morellino di Scansano it would seen a trip to Scansano is in order. The easiest way to enjoy that area of Tuscany is with a car, but since you seem to be committed rail users, it's not impossible to have a fun trip to the "wild Maremma" without one with some careful planning, and being willing to take one bus trip to Scansano itself from the train station in Grosseto, or hire a driver. In the same trip you might very much appreciate Tarquinia and Livorno, and several stops in between along the coastal train line.
https://www.visittuscany.com/en/idea...ge-in-maremma/
As you already know from more than one trip, central Italy north of Florence and south of Milan is crammed with towns of charm and interest and good food. Most of it is linked by networks of trains that will take you almost anywhere, and it would be impossible to exhaust all the possibilities in 10 years of visits to the region. The next time you are in Bologna try visiting the Enoteca Italiana and asking for tastes of the best local reds from the region, beyond the usual reds which can be pretty disappointing. There are some fun wines from Emilia-Romagna (and Lombardia), and they are typically never expensive, but it takes some help to find which ones you might like.
https://www.visittuscany.com/en/idea...ge-in-maremma/
As you already know from more than one trip, central Italy north of Florence and south of Milan is crammed with towns of charm and interest and good food. Most of it is linked by networks of trains that will take you almost anywhere, and it would be impossible to exhaust all the possibilities in 10 years of visits to the region. The next time you are in Bologna try visiting the Enoteca Italiana and asking for tastes of the best local reds from the region, beyond the usual reds which can be pretty disappointing. There are some fun wines from Emilia-Romagna (and Lombardia), and they are typically never expensive, but it takes some help to find which ones you might like.
Nov 17th, 2017, 04:59 AM
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