Eating around Bologna
For the last segment of my travels with Tiff and Cora (as a trio), we arrived in Bologna! After the seclusion of Slovenia and the Dolomites (and tbh, even Croatia), it was nice to be back in a big city. At the time, I felt like Bologna reminded me of New York City: busy streets, a faint scent of urine, and multicultural offerings (there were surprisingly a bunch of Asian shop owners!). Now that I've actually lived in New York, such a comparison doesn't quite fit the bill anymore. But hey, I'm glad 2022 Charmaine felt that way.
For our first afternoon, we walked to the University of Bologna. Did you know it's the oldest university in the world? The campus was a bit spread apart, which definitely made sense given the city size. All the students looked so hip and European (even the Chinese international students, who are truly everywhere). It was sad to see that European kids these days all vape.
Aside from the university, we explored some cute walking and shopping streets. I grabbed a bottle of cucumber cleanser from Kiehl's and enjoyed browsing the cute knicknacks at Flying Tiger Copenhagen in particular. They're perfect for university students to furnish their dorms. Although Italian food in Bologna (or rather, in the broader Emilia Romagna region) is world-renowned, we opted for Asian food because it was FINALLY available. The bubble tea and poke bowls hit the spot.
Architecture in Bologna is quite interesting. There are lots of covered archways with different types of tiled flooring (including the speckled kind that gave me Glenforest Chinese school flashbacks). The covered arches were good at keeping us shaded and cool — likely a better solution than my typical refrain in hot places for outdoor air conditioning. Although without blasting AC, the cicadas were extremely loud and prominent here. I felt a bit conflicted about all the graffiti everywhere in Bologna, and saddened by all the garbage. There was a lot of super left wing spirit and activism that befitted a scholarly town. There was messaging in support of bookstores, pride, Ukraine, an Egyptian activist, and protests in general.
Parma
The next day, we went to Parma for Parma ham and parmigiano reggiano factory tours! The train was surprisingly punctual (go TrenItalia!). I learned a lot of cool facts about the parmigiano reggiano process: did you know it is made from both whole and skim milk that gets curdled at the bottom of a copper vat? From there, the soft cheese gets put to dry in round moulds, then dunked in salt baths, before being left to dry in storage areas. We got to sample both the 24- and 36-month cheeses. I liked the 36-month variety better; it tasted almost meaty! There's no parmesan quite like authentic parmigiana reggiano from Parma.
From there, we visited a prosciutto salumifico for Parma ham. I was shocked to hear this factory produced 10 million legs of ham per year! Per regulations, all the cows, feed, and pigs came from the same region. Seeing how the sausage gets made (almost literally) made prosciutto a little less appealing. I still chowed down on the lunch they provided us though.
After our tours, we grabbed gelato from a spot called Gioelia. It was super creamy, with melted chocolate at the bottom of the cup. I enjoyed cool flavours like Siciliana with pistachio syrup and almonds, melon hibiscus, and lemon. I also enjoyed a strawberry and lemon granita!
Parma is prettier and cleaner than Bologna, but there's not as much to see. We walked by tourist attractions like Palazzo Della Pilotta and Basilica di Santa Maria almost without realizing, since all the old and new buildings were intermingled. I only recognized the so-called sights because of online blogs. We ended up sitting at Parco Ducale because it was SO HOT (33ºC). Even the river dried up because of the heat. We saw some ducks walking instead of swimming. :( When a guy from Ohio asked our tour guide why the river was dry, the answer was: "It didn't rain enough." Sad but true. Anyway, Ducale Park gave Central Park vibes with giant trees in the middle of the city. Never had I felt so blessed by shade. I think this park would be nice in any season (especially fall, winter, and summer).
For dinner, we ate Greek food at 8pm riiiight before giant crowds started streaming in. Turns out regular dinner time out here is 9pm? The waiters asked us twice to ensure we knew we were getting Greek food, not Italian. Not to worry, we knew what we were doing. And the souvlaki special was amaaazing.
Modena
So... Osteria Francescana?! Given our recent burn at Hisa Franko, we weren't in the mood for another fancy meal. Andrew went with Raghav and Joon the following year though, and has a great anecdote with the wine list (mistaking 75 euros for page 75). Instead, we did an Airbnb experience to try traditional balsamic vinegar! The traditional sort differs because it's 100% from grapes, without any caramel or preservatives. It must be aged for at least 12 to 25 years. A "line" of 10 barrels in the attic is used to age the balsamic vinegar each year. Suffice to say we learned a lot on this tour and tasting — it was definitely the highlight among our food tours in the region. It was even cool to learn about the family history of our hosts: Mario started it all; Giorgio added 30 barrels (one for each of his five kids + for each of them to have five kids), Mario Junior (who we met — he made it a business with 1000 barrels), and Giorgio Junior (who added ecommerce and tours). What an enterprising family!
I was amazed to discover that balsamic vinegar goes so well with zucchini and red pepper omelettes, all types of cold cuts, parmigiana reggiano, focaccia, risotto, and cake. YUM. I would definitely recommend this tour. Not only was it interesting and with a painstaking feast, but the service was impeccable. We were picked up from the train station by a mafia-looking godfather who drove us to the farm in an immaculately clean Mercedes. And the estate itself was beautiful, with a statue in the front and a beautiful gate to their FAMILY HOME!!
After the tour, it was way too hot to do anything. We ended up sitting in another park and getting gelato. This time, I had orange + ginger and passionfruit yogurt. We also stumbled upon a game-changing bubble tea spot, where I got a tropical blue drink with yakult. It kinda tasted like blue curacao or a capri sun. The store was cute and decked out with tons of BTS merch!
For dinner, we got takeout tortellini, which tasted suspiciously similar to the grocery store tortellini we bought in the Dolomites. Definitely our most disappointing bite in Bologna. It was much tinier and less flavourful than my preferred Loblaws tortellini.
Final day in Bologna
Our last day in Bologna was more of an errand day. We went to scintillating places like the laundromat, sipped on granitas, and shopped around town. We all fell in love with Oysho, which seems to be a European loungewear offshoot of Zara. It was interesting to see historical buildings converted into practical storefronts instead of being preserved as ruins. For dinner, we went to a spot where we could see pasta made in front of us. Here, I learned that tortellini is supposed to be small, and the big form of tortellini is called tortellOni! I got tagliatelle al bolognese, but was sad to discover I've had better elsewhere. Despite Bologna being the heart of Emilia Romagna, a region in Italy famed for its food, I still wasn't satiated. Naturally, we went to McDonald's. I was truly happy with the happy meal here: four pieces of nuggets, fries, strawberry yogurt, and a full water bottle for just 4.5 euros??! Canada could never (on price), and neither could America (on health). Despite a traumatizing minion display, my happy meal toy ended up being a cardboard Sonic the Hedgehog game. The toys at McDonald's have really gone downhill since our heyday.
Next up: we were off to meet up with Alex and Hao Chen to explore Cinque Terre! Soon, anyway — Hao Chen missed his flight due to a super long queue stretching BEYOND Amsterdam Schipol (at the time, people needed to show up 5h+ ahead!), and Alex's flight was delayed too. Airports really weren't ready for summer 2022, post-COVID vaccines.
Trip dates: June 28-July 2, 2022