I have now learnt
that in any trip to Italy, a visit to Bologna is imperative and it should come
last. If you put Bologna somewhere in the beginning of your itinerary, the rest
of the food you eat in all other places will simply never ever compare and it
can kind of dampen your trip because whatever you eat anywhere else, however
good it is claimed to be, you will keep thinking, "Ah but this tasted so
much better in Bologna!".
While the names of a
lot of Italian food is familiar to me, I would not have had a very good idea
what it really was or how it should be eaten, so I booked a rather expensive
food tour with a 5 star rating and rave reviews and caught an early train from Rome
to be in Bologna on time. When I landed at Bologna at 8am, I went to a café and
ordered a Mortadella sandwich and a coffee, and that was my first taste of
Bologna mortadella and it was so exquisite and so good that had I not enlisted
for a food tour I would have eaten another.
Bologna has all the
things that I love - deep, warm hues of red, pink and orange, arches and of
course I needlessly say it again, the best food ever. (I would rate the food we get in India as
very good, as good as any you will get anywhere in Italy, except for Bologna which is a class apart, a
small glimpse of what food in heaven must taste like if we do our good deeds to
get there).
The food tour was an
excellent one where I got a taste of everything I needed to taste including
perfect al dente Spaghetti, different cheeses with balsamic vinegar, a slice of
horse meat, wines and the best of all, Gelato at a place called Santo Stefano
where I died and went to heaven and would have happily stayed there. No other
Gelato will equal what I ate at that place.
After the food tour
I wandered through the arched alleys, basking in the warm hues and then
stopping for more coffee and desserts, each one a small masterpiece. How lucky
are people who are born and live in Bologna and who have their lives revolving
around the food there. It was with some reluctance that I caught my train back
to Rome all the while fervently promising myself that I would return to Bologna once more.
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#bologna #italy
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