Bologna
There was a record convention in Bologna that Mic was going to, so I
decided to join him. How could I pass it up when air fare was only €49 round
trip? The first morning I signed up for a cooking class. I learned how to
make pasta from scratch and it was unbelievably easy. The school was actually a
restaurant, with classes in the basement. When I went in, there were 3 people
cooking away. They signed up for an all morning course which included making
the pasta and several different sauces. I would have done that one had I seen
it. As it was, I had a chef to myself. Basically you take flour, make a well
in the middle and crack two eggs into it.
You slowly pull in more and more
flour until it's all one ball of dough. Now the hard work starts. You have to
fold it over and over and over and over. Next step is to spread it out using
your finger tips and the heal of your palm only. You fold it, spread it, fold it
etc a few more times. You don't want to use your whole hand, it dries out the
dough
Next you form a ball and wrap that in saran wrap for about 10 min He
couldn't tell me exactly why, but it has something to do with a chemical
reaction. Now you start with the rolling pen. Roll it out, turn it a 1/4 turn,
roll, turn etc. Then fold and repeat over and over and over. Eventually, you
roll it out and keep rolling. Roll, turn, roll, turn.
What you are looking for
is the dough to be almost translucent. It must be super, super thin. At this
point you very gently fold it over about a 1/2 inch and keep folding until you
have a roll. Now take a very sharp knife and slice it into thin strips. When
you pull the pieces apart, you have fettuccine or tagliatelle. You unfold all
the strips and let them dry for another 10 minutes. Gather up bunches of the
pasta and coil them a few times. Each of these coils serves one. The chef said
he doesn't know why anyone would use store bought when it takes longer to get in
the car and drive to the store to buy it than it does to make it. Uh, because I
always have it in my cupboard? It really did only take about 40 min to do two
batches and each batch served 6. Now it was time for lunch. We took my pasta
upstairs where they cooked it for me and added some bolognese sauce from the
other students. My lunch was fantastic, but it occurred to me what a great scam
this place was running. Charge people money to come in and do all the
work, then charge a hefty price for other people to come eat it. And the place
was packed. Hmmm what a great business model!
After lunch I found the shopping district. I wanted to buy some new
clothes, but the area I was in was too high end for what I wanted. I couldn't
imagine where I would wear most of the things I saw. About the only part I miss
about working is the reason to dress up each day. I really was a bit of a
clothes addict with a closet jam packed with nice things. Now I hardly wear
anything more then shorts and a t-shirt.
After walking around some more, I met Mic for dinner. He had been to
Bologna just a few months ago and had found a nice antique market. He wasn't
sure where it was, but thought it was near the Piazza Maggiore. When we got
back there, we saw more people standing around, and now many, many police
officers. They were basically standing in a line with riot gear, including
shields. They weren't really doing anything, just standing around as if
waiting. Waiting for what we didn't know, but we doubted it was a concert or
movie. We decided to keep walking. We passed so many food shops with beautiful
displays of sandwiches and desserts. There were many lovely churches as well.
We never did find the big market he was looking for.
After walking around a bit more, we were pretty hungry. Wouldn't you know
it, now we couldn't find any of the restaurants that had been on every corner
when we weren't looking for them. We finally found a place that served proper
meals and went inside. It didn't look too busy as we looked over the menu. We
kept signaling the waiters that we were ready to order, and they both made eye
contact with us, but they wouldn't come over. After about 10 minutes, we just
got up and left. I can understand if a place is really busy, that it might take
some time, but we could see 2 waiters taking their time serving the people
already there. Then they would go stand behind the bar and chat. The next pace
we came to was a Chinese restaurant and it was packed. We thought it would be a
long wait too but we were served right away. We ordered 2 appetizers and 2 main
courses. It turned into a several course meal as they brought out one
appetizer, then one main course, then some rice, then some soup, then the other
appetizer then the final main course. We watched a table of young men next to
us. They got one order of rice, then a different rice, then a 3rd type. There
was a large selections of rice dishes to choose from and I think they tried
every one. The food was really good, so we ended up just sharing each dish that
came out.
Bologna is know as a city of porticoes or covered walkways. Back when
people lived above their shops, one way to expand the living space was to add an
expansion that jutted out over the street below. When these expansions got so
large that they required structural support, they became the first examples of
the porticoes covering walkways that are all over Bologna today. City officials
began regulating the appearance of the porticoes, and families that built them
often decorated to reflect their own wealth. So as we walked around the city,
we looked for the elaborately painted ceilings, beautifully inlaid marble, and
carved columns. Bologna has more than 23 miles of porticoes in the historic
center alone – there’s even a Bologna walking tour dedicated solely to the
porticoes. I would like to have done that, but we didn't have time. The city is
also home to what is said to be the longest portico in the world, stretching
nearly 2.5 miles all by itself and connecting the Porta Saragozza city gate to
the church of the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca.
The next day, on the outskirts of the city, and saw another large police
presence. Again, they look like they were waiting for something. There were
police vans and a mobile command post. There were people sitting on the side
walk, also waiting. We found someone who spoke English and asked what was going
on. They said it was a protest to protest yesterdays protest by the other
political party, but what they were protesting, she didn't know. For such a non
event, both days, there sure was a huge police presence. Everywhere we went, we
saw police; they were basically on every street corner. There were even
helicopters flying overhead most of the day. With all that activity, we were
surprised that we never did see many protesters or signs. We saw a group of
about 10 people with home made signs, but if that was it, it sure was
anticlimactic! I've seen workers headed to lunch with more enthusiasm.
We came across an interesting sight; there was a canal running through the
middle of the city that was only visible from one street. I thought I heard
running water a few times, but I never saw anything until we happened down a
small side street. On one side you could see the water in between a row of
apartments, but on the other side of the street there as a wall. About that
time a family came up and opened a little window. It seems the window was there
for the sole purpose of looking at the canal. A quick check of Trip Adviser and
we found it. Finestra sui Canali. Apparently there are hidden canals all over
the city. I couldn't find out why this little window was there, but it was a
cool picture.
Back at the Piazza Maggiore, and
we headed out in a different direction, this time on the hunt for crepes. Like
the restaurants the night before, we had passed several of them earlier in the
day, but now that we wanted one, we couldn't find them anywhere. We did come
across the Towers of the Asinelli and Garisenda. Between the 12th and the 13th
century, the number of towers in the city was very high, possibly up to 180. The
reasons for the construction of so many towers are not clear. One hypothesis is
that the richest families used them for offensive/defensive purposes during the
period of the Investiture Controversy. Besides the towers, one can
still see some fortified gateways (torresotti) that correspond to the gates of
the 12th-century city wall, which itself has been almost completely destroyed.
During the 13th century, many towers were taken down or demolished,
and others simply collapsed. The ones that remained have subsequently been
utilized in one way or the other: as prison, city tower, shop or residential
building. Of the numerous towers originally present, fewer than
twenty can still be seen today. Among the remaining ones are the Towers of the
Asinelli and Garisenda. As we got closer to them, we noticed that one was
leaning heavily to one side. It was hard to get a good picture since there were
other buildings pretty close to it. As we walked around trying to find a better
angle, we realized it wasn't really leaning, it just looked like it, depending
on where you were standing. Very interesting! I have since found out you
can climb over 490 stairs to reach the top of the tower, where we could have
seen some amazing views. Maybe next time....
Link to more pictures
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