November 2024 - Wanderwiles

I couldn’t resist the title of this post since every time I type the name of this venerable Italian city, the Oscar Meyer jingle runs through my head and sticks there long after I put away my laptop. Any American of a certain age should sympathize.

After visiting the tiny republic of San Marino, we spent three nights in Belle Arti Gallery House, an apartment in the university quarter of Bologna. Although I’ve traveled extensively in Italy, I’d never made it to Bologna, the reputed culinary capital of the country. Given the worldwide popularity of Italian cuisine, that’s saying a lot and my food-loving husband was particularly keen to check out the city.

Bologna has apparently surged in popularity recently. Not long before our trip, I read an opinion piece in the New York Times by a Bologna native lamenting the influx of tourists and the resulting non-authentic changes to her city. While we found locals to be generally welcoming, we did spot graffiti telling tourists to go home. Living in Paris, I understand the sentiment, but a lot of people depend on tourism for a living and any aggravation is more than worth it to a lot of people. Still, it’s always good to be reminded that a tourist destination is someone’s home and should be treated as such.

Basilica di San Petronio with its half-clad facade

I found lodging prices in Bologna to be all over the place (and somewhat limited by later-than-usual booking on my part). The artsy apartment in the university district I chose turned out to suit us well. Despite the bustling neighborhood and cafés perched on either side of the building’s street-facing door, the apartment itself sat on the far side of a large courtyard and was absolutely quiet at night. It was comfortably appointed with a bedroom, living/dining room and very nice, modern bathroom. Our host was attentive and we appreciated the cake and wine he gifted us with. The apartment was steps away from a grocery store and an easy 10-minute, restaurant-and-bar-studded walk to Piazza Maggiore and other sights.

I didn’t really have a image of Bologna in my mind before arriving there. Its crumbling beauty and more than a hint of grubbiness reminded me more of Napoli or Genoa than I expected. At the same time, I found its arcaded sidewalks, period buildings, art and bustle charming. Bologna’s historic center contains an impressive 35 km (21+ miles) of covered walkways, some of them truly beautiful.

Our first evening in Bologna, we dined at nearby Le Moline Oesteria Bistrot, a typical oesteria that served excellent versions of traditional dishes at reasonable prices. Of course, we had to start out with pasta bolognese (usually listed as “tagliatelle with ragù” on Bolognese menus). Similar menus are found all over town, but I’d put Le Moline with the best of those we tried. The “chocolate salami” – a dense chocolate bar studded with bits of cookie – was far and away the best we had.

After dinner, we walked to Piazza Maggiore for our first glimpse of the famous plaza, Basilica di San Petronio with its half-finished facade, and the iconic Fontana del Nettuno in adjacent Piazza del Nettuno. (This Neptune Fountain is pictured in the lead photo above.) A crowd gathered around a singer on one corner of the Piazza Maggiore, her voice adding to the nighttime atmosphere of the lit square and fountain.

The following day, we returned to Piazza Maggiore passing the iconic twin towers of Bologna. The smaller tower has been leaning for centuries and a safety cable wrapped around it anchors the tower to a building across the street. Rain had been coming and going since we arrived in Bologna and the haze of mist hung around the tops of the towers.

We crossed Piazza Maggiore several times during our time in Bologna. We visited the basilica, checked out the Sala Borsa (Stock Exchange Hall, now home to a public library), ate at the nearby Quadrilatero dining area, and checked out the “secret” of the Nettuno statue. (If you stand on a certain dark tile behind the fountain and to the Neptune statue’s right towards the library steps, he seems to sport an erection. The effect was supposedly an intentional joke/insult by the sculptor directed at his patron.)

Inside the Basilica di Santo Petronio, we watched a beautiful ceremony in an ornate side chapel. Separate choirs of women and men sang while an elaborately robed and crowned officiant made blessings and led prayers, assisted by boys and men in gold robes.

The Sala Borsa merits a quick visit for the building alone, but the dining streets of the Quadrilatero area lured us back several times. Just strolling the narrow roads is an experience with food-filled shop windows and bustling little restaurants and wine bars. Our apartment host recommended his favorite spot, Oesteria del Sole, a 15th century tavern that remains in the same layout pictured in a 1465 drawing. Sadly, they were closing early the day we stopped by, but at least we got to see the inside before they locked the door.

The Archiginnasio Palace , the site of the world’s first university, is located across the street toward the rear of the basilica. Just beyond a tall ornate entryway, arched and elaborately decorated open arcades surround a central courtyard. A painted ceiling arches above a stone staircase leading to the next floor and enclosed walkways whose walls and ceilings display 6000 heraldic crests of former university student leaders. The entrance fee to the Anatomical Theater housed there is a reasonable €3, but an online booking is suggested to skip the line and we didn’t want to either wait or be locked into a time slot. The outer arcades and part of the building are open for free and we were able to peek past a guard into some of the inner sanctum from a quirky temporary exhibit of vintage food-related horror comic art. Per the Archiginnasio website, “The ticket allows access to the Stabat Mater Room when not occupied by Library activities. The part dedicated to the Library is not accessible for tourist visits.“

The Seven Churches complex off of Piazza Santo Stefano took us some blocks away from Piazza Maggiore. Walking into the unassuming Basilica di Santo Stefano, visitors could easily miss a door to the left of the main altar that leads to a series of very old churches and chapels surrounding an inner space dubbed Pontius Pilate’s Courtyard. Sarcophagi of two martyred saints from Bologna, crucifixes and a wooden sculptured group of the Magi containing what purports to be the oldest crib in the world date from the 11th-13th centuries.

The Pinocoteca Nazzionale di Bologna (National Art Gallery of Bologna) made for a perfect stop during a bout of rain. Located just a short walk from our apartment, the museum is located in a 17th century former Jesuit home for novices. It boasts a collection of some of the leading Italian artists of the Renaissance, Mannerism and Baroque periods, including Raphael, Perugino, Tintoretto, Titian, the Carraccis, Guercino and Reni.

Practical Info:

We picked up and dropped off our Locauto rent car for our overnight in San Marino at the Bologna Airport then caught a taxi from the airport to the apartment for a €20 fare. The train station is a bit closer and I considered dropping off there, but surprisingly the taxi fare I found online wasn’t much less and the hassle of driving in the city didn’t appeal.

I booked Belle Arti Gallery House on Booking.com via my favorite topcashback.com shopping portal. (I’ve pocketed $2,678.65 cashback as of today just buy booking and buying things I would anyway. It’s taken some years to accumulate, but still, not bad for a couple of extra clicks!) Belle Arti was also available on AirBnB, but the price (not including cashback) was higher on AirBnB. This wasn’t really surprising as fees on AirBnB can add up, depending on the apartment. Belle Arti is listed on other booking sites as well. Anyway, it’s worth shopping around.

There are lots of wine bars in Bologna, but we only had time (and drinking capacity) for one. Enoteca Italiana, a picturesque wine and gourmet food shop/wine bar/small plate restaurant, at 1 via Marsala a block off via Independencia caught our eye every time we walked by. We ducked in during a rain shower feeling lucky to find a free table next to two wine merchants opening bottles of their wine for the owner. We waited out the shower with glasses of local wine and a tasty cheese and charcuterie plate.

Another spot that seemed to always have a line outside was Oesteria dell’Orsa. A sign on the door says they don’t take reservations. Happening by shortly before opening, we decided to join the line for an early dinner. Ah, the lure of a line of people waiting. You can’t help wondering “What’s so great?!” I’m usually more than happy to pass on a line and keep wondering, but with the chance to be near the front of the line, we figured “Why not?” The meal turned out to be… average. It was cheap, though, which probably accounts for at least some of its popularity, although its prices weren’t that much cheaper than Le Moline which I preferred. I finally tried the Bologna specialty of tortellini en brodo (tortellini in a broth, which I found to be just as uninspiring as I’d thought it sounded. Clearly I am a food cretin. At least by Bologna standards.). Dry and overloaded with bits of vanilla cookie, their chocolate salami disappointed. The place is bigger than it looks from the outside, and was quickly packed full of people. Anyway, I wouldn’t bother standing in line for Oesteria dell’Orsa again, even if I were at the front of the line.

For a higher-end seafood dinner one night, I chose Benso after reading great reviews. A 7:30pm reservation made us one of the first tables seated, but the place was packed by the time we left. The meal started out well with clever and tasty trompe l’oeuil amuse bouches and three kinds of house-baked bread. A bottle of local white wine suggested by the sommelier was very good, chilled well, and reasonably priced. We enjoyed our courses for the most part, although my starter of mantis shrimp carpaccio marinated with citrus, sea lettuce and shellfish mayonnaise cried out for more citrus leaving it surprisingly bland. The description of my main was a mouthful (Risotto with Franciacorta yeasts, prawns, fermented lemon, mullet bottarga, burnt onion ash and shrimps mayonnaise), but it delivered on flavor. David’s red shrimp tartare, avocado and tiger milk with mango starter was better than my starter and his main course of cuttlefish dumplings with black lentils cream and potatoes browned with rosemary was tasty and intriguing. Unfortunately, things progressively fell apart in the service department as Benso filled with diners. After an extremely long wait, David finally got his dessert which was comped, but at that point we were just ready to leave. Hopefully, Benso suffered a temporary staffing crisis the night we were there because it’s a pretty spot with a creative chef and friendly servers.

A recent 9-night trip grew from a friend pointing out that the only European country I hadn’t visited was San Marino, a tiny republic surrounded by Italy. On a lark, I started researching San Marino and quickly decided (1) it looked beautiful, intriguing and merited an overnight stay, and (2) it was an easy drive from Bologna, a city I wanted to visit and a short flight from our home in Paris. My plans grew from there. I’ve been to Italy many times, visited lots of towns and cities in many regions, but I’d yet to stay in one of the iconic conical houses known as trulli (singular trullo) in Puglia, a region in the “heel” of Italy. Why not add that to this trip? A little more research revealed a direct high-speed Frecciarossa train from Bologna in the north to Bari in Puglia where we could rent a car. I confirmed there were direct flights from Bari back to Paris and learned that the nearby town of Alberobello was known for its beauty and had the largest concentration of trulli in Puglia. It sounded like the perfect base to explore Puglia. I quickly finalized our trip.

Our 7:45am Air France flight from CDG to Bologna took a mere 1h40. It was a disgustingly early start to the day, but that meant we were in a Locauto* rent car and heading to San Marino by 10am. The route between the Bologna airport and San Marino was unremarkable for the most part and devolved into a stretch dotted with derelict commercial buildings before we got to the pretty parts. Things started looking up with our first glimpse of fortified towers on a cliff far above a roundabout.

Soon, we were navigating hairpin turns up to the Città (city) of San Marino, the capital of the Republic of San Marino. Our B&B host texted me that we should drive as far as possible and try to park in public Lot 6 near a gate to the old town not far from our lodging. Arriving at lunchtime, we found the parking lot full, but a very short wait later, we lucked into snagging a spot when another car left the lot. This turned out to be luckier than we at first realized when we saw how many daytrippers walked the cobbled streets of the old town. We opted to leave our luggage in the car and head to lunch, arranging to check-in afterwards.

The October day was cool, so we chose to sit inside Domus, a pretty lunch spot, next to a window offering a sweeping view of the valley below. San Marino offers lots of spectacular views from its mountaintop perch. We ordered the simple local specialty, piadina, flatbread filled with dried ham, cheese, greens and/or any number of other tasty things. A local craft beer for David and a glass of San Marino wine for me rounded out our lunch.

Our B&B turned out to be a delight. Although B&B Old Town San Marino has three guest rooms, there is only one bathroom in a common living area, so they only rent to one group at a time. This meant that David and I had the residential area of this beautiful 2nd floor home to ourselves. We could shut the door to the living/dining/kitchen area and wander about the back space in the plush robes provided in total privacy. Our bedroom (“Pearl”) was charmingly decorated in antiques with windows on two sides, one with a balcony overlooking Via Salita alla Rocca, the main pedestrian street we’d come in on from parking Lot 6. From the balcony and even laying in bed, we could view the valley beyond through a space between two buildings on the opposite side of the street.

Despite the central location, our room was calm during the day and absolutely quiet at night. We enjoyed an included breakfast of cappuccino, an omelet, yogurt, fresh fruit and warm apple pastry the next day and an enthusiastic greeting from our host’s apricot poodle made my morning.

The charm of San Marino lies first in wandering the pretty streets, admiring the views, browsing the shops and sampling the food and drink.

Hiking to two of the city’s iconic three towers is de rigeur, although Tower One (Guaita) was undergoing renovations when we were there. Guaita was originally built in the 11th century and reached its current form in the 15th century. The walk up to 13th century Tower Two (Cesta) proved other-worldly as clouds swept across the mountaintop. Billows of mist rolled down the cobbled path towards us. From a clifftop overlook, the ebb and flow of clouds alternately obscured and revealed a view of Guaita and the valley and distant sea beyond.

Cesta houses an interesting Museum of Ancient Weapons and great views of Guaita and the smaller 14th century third tower (Montale) from its windows and terraces.

For €11 apiece, we opted to buy the city museum pass at the second tower. In addition to the ancient weapons museum, this pass allowed us to visit the Palazzo Pubblico and the State Museum. Of the two, the Palazzo Pubblico was a favorite. It doesn’t take long to visit, but the building is lovely and it’s interesting to see the seat of government of this oldest of republics. San Marino has a very interesting government. Its one legislative body, the Great and General Council, consists of 60 members serving 5-year terms. Every six months, two co-equal heads of state called the Captains Regent are elected. The practice of frequently-elected dual heads of state is derived directly from the customs of the Roman Republic. The Council is a modern equivalent of the Roman Senate, while the Captains Regent are like consuls of ancient Rome. The first Captains Regent were chosen in 1243 and the practice has continued ever since!

Piazza della Libertà and the Palazzo Pubblico

Hall of the Great and General Council inside Palazzo Pubblico

The National Museum is also worth a visit, but the allure of just wandering those streets enticed us back outside. There were other museums included in the museum pass… but we passed. 🙂 While local entrepreneurs have provided other diversions in the form of some kitschy private “museums” (curiosities, torture, vampires), we had no interest in those.

Being in San Marino in the evening is magical. The daytrippers disappear and the cobbled streets seem to slip back in time. I hadn’t been sure what to expect regarding dinner on this end-of-season night so I booked ahead with TheFork.fr, a site I use all the time in Paris. I wouldn’t normally choose a hotel restaurant, but Ristorante L’Arengo was available and highly-rated so I went with it. First appearances–a pretty standard, but nice hotel restaurant–didn’t enthuse me, but the welcome was warm and the dinner turned out to be really excellent and surprisingly cheap when we ordered their prix fixe dinner (€82 for an interesting 3-course dinner plus bottled water and a bottle of local wine). The waitress spoke French better than English, so we stuck to French for the evening. The sommelier was helpful and an older waiter who came over to offer us comped digestifs was utterly charming. The evening continued happily with a ramble through the quiet, moonlit streets and mostly-empty plazas. We came upon a talented German tourist playing his own composition on a public piano in a deserted open gallery of the old Cassa di Risparmio bank. He liked that we wanted to video him and asked us to video him on his phone as well.

All in all, we found San Marino to be well worth an overnight visit. It’s a fairy-tale like place with surprisingly reasonable prices for dining and other purchases. I’d paid our B&B host a reduced price for the overnight parking (available to guests staying in San Marino’s old town) which allowed us to remain in Lot 6 until midnight of our second day although we left San Marino just after lunch. Our host provided the local authorities with our license plate number which was scanned as we left the parking lot causing the boom to raise automatically. There are quite a few public parking lots along the road leading to the town of San Marino, but some of them would require long uphill walks to the old town. There’s also a cable car running from Borgo Maggiore below up to the town of San Marino. Given our early arrival and our leisurely departure the next day, we felt a single night in San Marino provided adequate time. We’re glad we stayed overnight, but for those with limited time, a daytrip would still be worth it.

*We used Locauto twice on this trip, from the Bologna airport and from Bari Centrale train station. We were happy with them both times. The cars were new, pick-up and drop-off were quick and conveniently located, prices were the best I found, and there’s no deposit hold beyond a 1 euro cent transaction to save credit card details.

Month: November 2024

B-O-L-O-G-N-A: Bologna, Italy

Before Italy: San Marino, the oldest and smallest republic in the world