Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
or
tacchino
(grilled turkey breast;
8). The food is so good and the prices so low—
especially at lunch—that you can expect to wait for a table just about any evening.
RESTAURANTS NEAR PIAZZA MAGGIORE
€€
€
55
(Via Altabella, 15b;
%
051-223171; Mon-Sat, dinner only)
for a glass of wine and you may end up
spending the entire evening. Just a few tables are wedged into two tiny rooms
behind a bar lined with the more than 400 vintages and manned by Carlo Faccioli
(grandson of founder Olindo). There's no menu, but the daily fare is posted on a
chalkboard—or, when Carlo forgets to do that, recited orally. A carpaccio of tuna
or a selection of bruschetta or
crostini misti
are perfect openers, followed by zuc-
chini flowers stuffed with mozzarella, spaghetti
al ragù
(
€
8), and the almost too-
rich
involtini di melanzane alla mortadella
(a cheesy mess of eggplant and bologna;
€
12). While 2am is the official closing time, Carlo often stays open later.
RESTAURANTS WORTH A SPLURGE
€€
-
€€€€
Wander into inconspicuous
Olindo Faccioli
Just watching the whirl in the clamorous, cavernous dining rooms
of
Ristorante al Montegrappa da Nello
(Via Montegrappa, 2;
%
051-236331;
Tues-Sun)
is part of the experience at this venerable Bologna institution. You can
get by with a simple and relatively inexpensive meal here, but you'll probably want
to splurge on a full meal. Truffles and porcini, the hallmarks of the house, appear
in salads, atop rich pastas, and accompanying grilled meats, which range into wild
boar and venison in season. There's a menu, but because the chef only prepares
what's fresh at the market that day, it's best just to let the waiters tell you what
they're serving.
WHY YOU'RE HERE: THE TOP SIGHTS
& ATTRACTIONS
AROUND PIAZZA MAGGIORE
The central
Piazza Maggiore
is the heart of Bologna, and it's flanked by the city's
finest buildings: the medieval
Palazzo di Rei Enzo,
named for Enzo, king of
Sardinia, who died here in 1272 after languishing in captivity for 23 years; the
Romanesque
Palazzo del Podestà;
and the
Palazzo Comunale,
seat of the local
government. The square is dominated, though, by a relative newcomer: an
immodestly virile 16th-century bronze state of Neptune, who presides over the
ornate
Fontana del Nettuno
55
55
, inhabited by sensual sirens.
Massive as the
Basilica di San Petronio
(Piazza Maggiore;
%
051-
225442; daily 7:30am-1pm and 2:30-6pm)
is, it's not nearly as big as its 14th-
century architects intended it to be.
Rome got wind of the Bolognese
scheme to build a church bigger than
St. Peter's and cut off funding. Even
so, the structure that was erected over
the next 3 centuries is impressively
grand. Its facade is partially striped in
white and red (the city's heraldic col-
ors) and punctuated by one of the
55
“
Bologna is to the Middle Ages
what Pompeii has been to antiq-
uity—a monument of the manner of
their domestic existence.
”
—Lady Morgan,
Italy,
1820
