two Bologna dinners

Last Bologna post.  That feels a bit sad somehow.  A small sense of melancholy that mirrored how I felt knowing that we were done with one of our holiday destinations.  Ah well.

But cheer up, Peter:  we're going to talk about food!  YAY!

We had two nicer meals booked for Bologna.  Unlike on Ischia (and later in the trip), neither was a tasting menu.  Both were, happily, a la carte.  I say that only because we actually ate moderately, all things considered and did NOT spend a night clutching our bellies, overly full.  No, instead these were simpler meals.  Fancy enough food, but simpler.

And speaking of fancy and simple....

First up was at our hotel, I Conoscenti.  We had a nice little nook of sorts in the dining room and ordered cocktails.  The Tribute to Jerbis for me. 

We later moved to a bottle of luscious red wine. 

Oh, so good.  You know those wines that you can just sit and breathe in and enjoy the bouquet for so long,

not wanting to let it go and actually drink it?  And then it's so good when you do drink it?  Yeah, that was this.  Heaven.

We received our breads

and gazpacho amuse

and then the first course.  The panzanella with shrimp carpaccio for me. 

Delicate and lovely.  My main was the roasted octopus,

and it was tasty, but I admit, I had my heart set on the pigeon for dinner.  Alas, it was not available.  Darn it.  These two handsome guys, meanwhile, had steak, and it was super tender and good.  What lovely company they are!

No dessert for us, though I dimly recall that I ordered an amaro.  And that was the first of our two fine meals in Bologna.

Meal two:  dinner at Ahimè.  But first, aperitivos!  The restaurant was just the other side of the market from the hotel, so when we headed past the market entrance, we stopped into a bar across from it, Bar Mercato. 

I may have had two drinks, a Clover Club

and then a Negroni. 

Cool little place aside from the smoke wafting in from the smoker parked outside the open door.  Ah well.  Drinks done, we popped around the corner and into the restaurant.

It was in an article that Van sent me that I learned of the restaurant, and I was intrigued.  Oh, I should say that we got a lot of suggestions from friends as to where to dine in Bologna, and we were grateful, but I already had this one booked by that point.  We sat at the kitchen counter with a great view in,

and - typical us - we were among the first in the restaurant. 

A small crew of guys ran a tight ship - that kitchen was CLEAN - but they weren't the warmest, at least not until we asked one if he was watching the big soccer game going on in the city that night.  That cracked the ice a little.  We perused the menu and ordered a wine that similar to and almost as good as the night before. 

As for the food...

Bread service.  I always love a good bread service.

A nice, light starter made from cucumber but with tapioca.  Really interesting.  Yes, I lusted after some of the other starters, but I was glad to get something not as rich and heavy in me.

Duck breast, cooked right.  I get wary of duck at restaurants because all too often it is chewy.  No, every time I had duck in Italy, I was in good hands.

Peaches with wine sauce and vanilla pastry cream.  I liked the idea, but I was surprised that the peaches were not as ripe as I would expect, nor was there anything done to them to mitigate that.

Figs and fig leaf gelato.  Figs were everywhere in Italy, and I couldn't be happier about it.  The better of the two desserts.

Ahimè was a good meal, a modern meal, and I was glad we went, but it was not the warmest experience we had in Italy.  I'd recommend it, and I would want to try some more of their menu myself,

but of the two fine meals in Bologna, the first was the more enjoyable for how completely we enjoyed service, setting, food, and drink.

the ten tastings of Bologna

No, I didn't count.  Hmmm...  No, Not going to.  We tasted plenty that day.

We didn't do too many organized activities whilst in Italy.  No particular objection to doing them, but we wanted a lot of freedom to do or not do things while on the trip.  Still, it's good not to leave everything to chance - we made some restaurant bookings before leaving the US as well - and so it was that I booked us a walking tour of Bologna:  the Ten Tastings of Bologna, booked through the WithLocals site.

It was a beautiful sunny day in Bologna, though we knew the porticoes would provide us protection from the sun.  The three of us set out

the few blocks west to the Mercato delle Erbe to meet Sarah, who took us inside and had the tastings begin.  We actually spent a goodly amount of time in the small market, admiring the produce and such,

but also tasting things.  Tortellini en brodo

from a shop where the tortellini was made by hand according to strict rules - Bologna has a lot of official rules about size and shape and more for its signature dishes, it seems - accompanied by a Lambrusco. 

Piadine from another shop

- this was already shaping up to be a more than sufficient lunchtime-ish activity.  A tasting of cheeses from another shop. 

No, we didn't try the horse meat,

though I've had it before and would be game for it again.  We also sampled (and bought) some of the really syrupy good, aged balsamic vinegar.  Leaving the market, we scooted around the corner and tasted olive oils and chocolate, again resulting in purchases.

Sarah took us east toward the university at that point, indicating to us interesting features of the city.  Some of the buildings and porticoes we had already seen came into more vivid detail for us, and that was a great complement to the tastings.  We ended up at Camera A Sud,

sitting outside,

devouring a platter of mortadella (or, as we know it here, baloney)

and drinking an effervescent pignorello wine, a regional specialty. 

That was a great stop, the three of us leaning in as Sarah notated a map for us for future reference.  And how funny to find, when I had to use the restroom, a sticker on the toilet tank from Conrad's neck of the woods!

But Sarah wasn't done, and I have to say, I really appreciate how she gave us extra time (and I hope we tipped suitably) because she didn't otherwise have a busy day after the tour.  She next took us to a bakery to try the local rice cake, really a rice pudding/cake hybrid. 

We bought some other pastry from there and then headed to the Fabbri shop. 

We love the cherries for our cocktails (and the syrup is delicious drizzled on ice cream), but I was tickled to find an array of other products. 

So, of course, I shopped!

And still there was a stop to go.  I think Van

was the most thrilled that we had a gelato stop because he had wanted gelato at each destination in Italy (and we sort of reached that goal, I think).  Cremeria La Vecchia Stalla had a line out the door

but handled things briskly.  I got a simple cream gelato with amerena cherry and the marsala-flavour, a small scoop of each. 

We devoured them outside the shop along with so many others, and then Sarah took her leave.  We wandered back to the hotel, delighted by the tour, grateful that we had booked it.  In fact, we enjoyed it so much, I sought out and booked another such tour in Como for later in the trip!

The day made for quite the lunch, truly.  And we weren't all that hungry, but eventually we needed dinner.  We decided to check out the cocktail bar at the hotel

and grab some food there.  We had a booking for a dinner in the dining room the next night, so it was a nice preview of the menu.  I had the Jack's Road,

a sloe gin and tonic cocktail, and then the table began filling with food. 

My dinner was simple, a vegetarian dish of zucchini, ricotta cheese, and a pea and mint sauce. 

Gorgeous, right?  That made us excited for the next night.  And even though we had had a filling day, we squeezed in a craquelin puff pastry to share

and an amaro for me.

The weather deteriorated in the next couple of days, but no matter.  We had had a beautiful day on foot seeing the city and sampling its dishes.  Bologna, though, still had treats to offer!

Italy recap: getting to Bologna

Our time on Ischia came to an end after four relaxing nights and three delightful days.  It was time to get the ferry back to mainland Italy, as you have previously seen posted.  A driver picked us up and took us to the train station

where we parked in the lounge

for a short spell and then boarded our fast train bound for Bologna.

Now, as you might guess from the flights and lounges and such, we do like to travel in comfort.  If we can afford it, we do so unapologetically.  So it was that we booked the Executive Class car on the train.  Look at those seats! 

Menus for onboard dining and beverages! 

These two looking all kinds of adorable! 

A stop in Rome (but no change of train), and otherwise it was a quick and smooth few hours rolling north.

Our hotel in Bologna was more like guest rooms that were associated with a restaurant (and yes, we eventually had dinner there - a later blog post!).  Casa Conoscenti

consisted of three rooms in a historic mansion.  The bedroom was a generous size, the living room was a little more modest.  It was fine for our four nights, but not as spacious and special in feeling as our previous hotel.  But that's being churlish.  It really was comfortable, and better still, it was an excellent location.  We didn't appreciate that when we arrived and looked out on the nearby buildings,

not able to place ourselves in the city very well.  But in the days ahead, as we walked around, we came to realize how very central we were to things and how very easy it was to walk to things.

Once settled into the hotel it was off to the next corner west of us to have dinner at Ristorante San Pietro

sitting outside along with everyone else. 

The weather turned for us in Bologna in the days ahead, but we had that first evening and the next day to enjoy a last gasp of summer.  Stuffed zucchini blossoms for us,

the classic lasagna for Van (lasagna is a Bolognese dish),

and for the first time in a handful of days, some meat for me with lamb chops scotta dita. 

After dinner we walked past the entrance to the hotel courtyard

to the other end of the portico and across the street to a grocery store, Conad (yep, we joked about that name to Conrad more than once),

to buy a few things for snacking on and drinking in the room.  And then it was to bed, a long day behind us, and exploring Bologna yet to come!