Dining and Drinking

There is no denying that Bologna is noted for its academic culture; the presence of one of the world's oldest universities here is testament to this fact, but there are also many other cultural aspects of which Bologna can be proud. Its cuisine, for example, never fails to delight visitors to the city: it has a culinary tradition which successfully manages to combine the traditional and the modern while never sacrificing creativity. For this reason, Bologna is known as "La Grassa", or the Fat One.

Puff pastry dishes are extremely characteristic of Bolognese cuisine. Other typical dishes include the famous, aromatic mortadella, tiny tortellini in stock and pale yellow tagliatelle in ragù (meat sauce) - which is a very popular home-cooked dish.

These tempting, fragrant dishes are always accompanied by excellent regional wines including Barbera, Bianco, Cabarnet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pignoletto, Pinot bianco, Riesling italico, Lambrusco, Sangiovese, Albana and Trebbiano Doc.

On April 16, 1972, an unusual tale about tagliatelle was recorded. Apparently, a strand of the pasta was made, measured by experts and found to be 8mm when cooked. This was worked out to be a decimal fraction (12,270) of the height of the Torre dei Asinelli (dei Asinelli Tower). A model of the strand of pasta was kept in the archives of the Chamber of Commerce. Many other bizarre stories such as this one have been recorded about the legendary Bolognese sauce.

According to popular legend, tortellini was invented by a cook who was so enchanted after having seen Venus's navel, that he decided to attempt to reproduce it with his own hands. This legend is echoed in a poem by Giuseppe Ceri entitled Venus Navel in which the last verse tells of a cross-eyed man from Bologna who was inspired to make tortellini after having seen Venus's navel!

Porta Piera
The historic city center is full of pubs, pastry shops, ice cream parlors and small restaurants which serve up traditional dishes in a friendly, rustic environment. These include Belle Arti and Al Caminetto d'Oro are located a stone's throw from Piazza XVIII Agosto. The city center is also home to numerous expensive restaurants which are known throughout the country, particularly I Carracci where you can dine on haute cuisine surrounded by beautiful frescoes by the Caracci brothers themselves. If you take a walk down Via Indipendenza, one of the most well-known streets in the city, you will eventually reach the Ristorante Diana. Not far from here, down a side street off Via Indipendenza, you will find Franco Rossi. For great ethnic cuisine, and close to the train station if you're near just for a stopover, try Ru Yi for Chinese or the Piedra del Sol for Mexican.

Porta Stiera
One of the most popular ethnic restaurants in the city is India, which also has another restaurant in Fiesole, near Florence.

Porta Ravegnana
Not far from the tourist sights, Pappagallo - which is famous throughout Italy - is situated near the historic towers. There are plenty of pizzerias in Bologna, but it is safe to say that pizzas are not a big specialty here. As pizza is part of the southern culinary tradition, it tends to be more popular down south. Pizzerias in the city include Il Doge and Piedigrotta, both near Piazza Maggiore.

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