It was quite interesting. When I mentioned to folks that we were headed off to Florence; everyone seemed thrilled, there was all that art, the architecture, and the history. When I mentioned visiting Emilia-Romagna, I'd often get quizzical looks….why not Milan, Verona, or "fill in the blank"….. And yet, getting to the source, the home of Parmegiano-Reggiano, Balsamic Vinegar, Mortadella, Prosciutto, the (at that time) mysterious Culatello, and of course what folks here call "Bolognaise" sauce, the "Ragu" drew me in. On my shelf resides a cookbook that spawned an entire series on NPR. Published back in 1992, The Splendid Table (which spawned the radio show), won a James Beard award, and is about the food of Emilia-Romagna. I'd always wondered about the food and foodways of the region and I finally had my chance. Plus, I just had to visit a city whose nickname is "la grassa" (the fat one) and since Bologna's other nickname is "la dotta" (the learned), I might learn a thing or two.
First things first of course. We had to get there. Our flight from San Diego to London Heathrow was ten hours long. We then had a five-and-a-half hour layover, before flying to Bologna. We'd be arriving at 1130 pm. Things were a bit hectic, so we didn't have time for dinner before leaving. We figured we'd get something on our flight.
Still, our flight wasn't until 845pm and we needed something, however small, to eat. Since we were flying in Business Class, we had use of the Airspace Lounge. Be it ever so humble, flying on British means that you have a choice of complimentary wraps, appetizers, and desserts in the lounge. Along with drinks.
Which aren't half bad. Though the Missus doesn't care for the glassware used for wine and champagne in the lounge; who are we to complain? It's a nice getaway from the chaos before boarding.
I'll go over BA's Business and First Class seating in a future post.
Strangely, both that Missus and I have found that food on international flights from the US is not quite as good as on return flights for both BA and JAL. I'm not sure why. On this outbound flight, I really didn't enjoy my dinner very much.
The crab rillettes presentation looked odd and it was really bland. The beef filet was really tough. I enjoyed the fruit plate the most. Nice and refreshing.
Because of the lie-flat seats; we were both able to get a couple of hours of sleep, which I believe is quite important.
We both actually enjoyed the Traditional English Breakfast. Which wasn't too bad.
To be perfectly honest; I've mentioned this before, Heathrow is not my favorite airport. The lack of signage, having to go through rather chaotic security check a second time, the "cattle call" flight notification in Terminal 5….you cool your heels, while trying to find some seating until your gate comes up, sometimes waiting until 45 minutes before your flight. In many cases you have to then catch the tram to your find you gate and so forth.
So even though the Galleries Business Class Lounge can be pretty busy. It's still an oasis during a five-and-a-half hour layover.
For some reason, we always find seats tucked away in the corner. The Missus can watch Her movies on the iPad. I can check work emails and catch up on things.
We can hydrate, the food is nothing to write home about, but on occasion, we'll try something like clotted cream, which a coworker of the Missus said we just "needed to try".
I'm still not certain what the symbolism of the Horse with the Lampshade Hat is to BA though…..
Eventually, we made our flight, and arrived in Bologna at 1130pm. I gotta say, getting through immigration at Guglielmo Marconi Airport was amazingly quick and efficient. It helps that we travel with only 8-10 kilos of luggage each, regardless of whether we're staying two weeks or two months, you usually don't need more. Plus, this is Europe, you can usually get whatever you might need.
Because of our late arrival and having to catch the train to Florence the next day, I booked a hotel two blocks from the train station. It was the most expensive room we'd have during our entire stay; but the check out time (noon) was convenient for our 155pm train and they served what was a pretty good breakfast.
We still have over three hours to kill before checking out. So we headed out.
From the Porta Galliera, which was one of the original gates of the medieval city of Bologna.
Past the Park of Montagnola.
And down Via Indipendenza which is considered the main street of the city. Bologna is famous of the "Portici" the porticoes which cover over 22 miles of the city.
To what is considered the heart of Bologna, Piazza Maggiore.
This large area is connected to the Piazza del Nettuno, which houses one of the most well known of landmarks, the Fountain of Neptune. Erected in 1564, there's quite a story behind this fountain, you can read more about it in this wonderful post. A really neat fact about the fountain; Maserati's logo is based on the trident of the fountain.
That large church is the Basilica of San Petronio. Construction on it was started in 1390. It is the 6th largest church in Europe. There's a distinctive look to the façade of the church. That's because it's unfinished. According to the design it was to be larger than Saint Peter's in Rome (link to our post), but Pope Pius IV put a stop to that, diverting the funds to create a new university. Hmmmm……more intrigue.
We'd end up hanging around Piazza Maggiore when we returned to Bologna. Though we ended up not spending quite as much time here as we wished.
We headed down one of the side streets….quite surprised at how quiet things were.
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We wandered down the porticoes when the Missus noticed this church; San Giovanni in Monte.
From here, things went off the rails a bit, as the Missus seemed fascinated with just wandering around.
We then got a bit lost. When trying to locate our position on the map; it seemed we were off of it! Time to turn on data and find out where we were.
Turns out we were on a street named Via Libia and pretty close to the Bologna San Vitale rail station….pretty far off course.
We righted ourselves and walked back; through the university district, pass the Le Due Torri, the two landmark leaning towers of Bologna.
Time was tight, but we did make the noon check-out and walked the short way to the train station. The high speed rail from Bologna to Florence is supposed to only take 34 minutes. However, like we'd find while riding the rails in Italy, unlike the Shinkansen in Japan, trains here are terminally late. And this was no exception; 25 minutes late.
We actually found this kind of humorous. And we were on vacation…….
Next stop; Florence!
Thanks for reading!
Man, look how bright it is here now!
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