Although I was aware of the Venice carnival, I was not aware of its connection to Lent or the fact that not only was this an Italian wide festival, but also quite a lot of the rest of Europe too. For around two weeks, certainly in Italy, there are Carnevale events culminating in a parade of some kind on Shrove Tuesday or Fat Tuesday as it is known in other places e.g. Mardi Gras in Spanish, Martedì Grosso in Italian. I had noticed carnival masks and coloured streamers going up in shops, seen signs for Carnevale as well as event specific delicacies in the Pasticceria windows. However, I was not sure what the celebration was for as it seemed too early for Easter. I asked someone who told me it was the festival before Lent. This information turned our Shrove Tuesday into the limpest of pancakes. WARNING! This is my understanding of Carnevale almost certainly containing wild inaccuracies, baseless assumptions and misunderstandings. Anyway, Carnevale is understood to be from the Italian word for meat Carne and vale which means without. This makes sense as a description for Lent or any other type of fasting. The English word Carnival is derived from this. There is something reassuringly human about that fact that around the world, in all cultures, any period of organised fast start and end with a bit of gluttony.
We had looked online and Bologna was holding its Carnevale dei Bambini (Carnival for children) parade on Sunday at 2.30, which was fortunate as Al had the day off. We decided to go and headed out with a plan to grab a slice of pizza or a piadina to eat while watching the parade. When we arrived, we noticed that there was a lot of confetti and streamers on the ground and we worried that we had somehow missed it. We walked up to where the parade was supposed to be and although there were loads of families with dressed up kids walking around no one seemed to be massing for an event or waiting for one or getting a good spot or any of the usual signs of imminent events happening. We walked the length of the road and at 2.15, having seen no sign of parade or parade watchers, we decided we must have made a mistake about the time and decided to get some lunch.
It can be difficult to get lunch after 2.00pm because many
restaurants close at 3 or don’t open on Sundays. I had a mild cold so I was
keen to sit down if we weren’t going to get a parade. We were close to Mercato Delle Erbe (The herb market). This usually
has vegetable stalls in the centre with cafes, shops and bars around the edge.
Because the market itself and many of the restaurants do not open on Sundays, those
that do can extend into the unused space of neighbouring restaurants for the
day.
Polpette e Crescentine is one such restaurant that doubles in size on a Sunday. It is often very busy so you might want to think about booking, which you can do through their website on this link. The staff are very friendly and the menu is available in English if you need that kind of thing. The menu also lists their suppliers and the traditional nature of the food. For the uninitiated Polpette (meatballs) and Crescentine (small roughly square bread pieces fried so they puff up and can be stuffed) are local specialities.
Affettati Miste e Crescentine
Close up of Crescentine
We ate here when we were newly arrived in Bologna and they
introduced us to the delights of Friggione a local dish of tomato and onions
that is usually served at room temperature. I’m not one for side dishes but I
will make an exception for this, it is fabulous. More recently we had our first
Crescentine here which for some reason we had not eaten before, although they
are Bolognese. We had decided to start with a selection of local cooked and
cured meats called Affettati misti (mixed
slices) and to have the Crescentine
with it. A colander of freshly fried Crescentine arrived with our meats and the idea is you break into
the puffs and fill them with bits of meat, refolding them into bite sized
pieces. They smell and taste similar to a savoury doughnut and were a delicious
accompaniment. It was a fantastic discovery and something you probably can’t
enjoy outside Bologna.
After lunch, and disappointed that we had missed the parade,
we went to an exhibition we wanted to see. This temporary exhibition is at the Bologna Museum of Modern Art (Mambo)
and was part of Bologna Art Week, which I have written about previously. It was
curated from the work of multiple international artists, but by far the stand
out piece for me was “Bonjour 2015” by Ragnar
Kjartansson. I was about to describe it and then I remembered I have the
power of photos so here it is.
“Bonjour 2015”
Yes, those are two real life people in the “set” who perform
the same set of actions on a five-minute circuit. It is both beautiful and
terrifyingly nihilistic at the same time. You are able to walk around the whole
set, so the “performers” can be seen at all times. I have to be honest I
admired their commitment to the performance although I was distracted by
wondering how many hours they performed this for.
When we left the museum, we were disappointed to see even more confetti and streamers littering the place and it became clear that we had missed the Carnevale festivities for a second time in one day! I thought I might try and catch the Fat Tuesday events before work instead but this was not to be as unfortunately, even the lavish festivities of the Venice Carnevale were cancelled due to the sudden spread into Italy of the Corona Virus. Although Venice itself had no cases, it was deemed wise to avoid mass gatherings of people. The central and regional Italian governments took a robust approach to containment with Emilia Romagna, where Bologna is situated, deciding to close all schools, museums, churches and cinemas for a week as a precaution. This meant that there was no Carnevale parade on Fat Tuesday and MamBO, along with other museums, galleries and cinemas, was closed to the public too although they have made the exhibition available on a streamed service.
As part of our ongoing mission to see more of the area surrounding Bologna whenever we can, we found ourselves on a Monday heading out in our ancient Polo to what the Bolognese call “the hills”. Probably because in my mind the hills mean softly undulating landscape, I was not prepared for the majestic sweeps, deep valleys and dramatic shapes of the Bolognese hills. It would be like calling the Peak district, the hills of Sheffield, which is an error with my understanding of the Italian word rather than undue modesty on their part. This area is part of the Apennines which separates Bologna and the north from Pisa and Florence.
Al advises me that it was interesting driving, along the twisty roads, with hairpin bends, steep inclines and unexpected drops with no power steering and it certainly looked it from the passenger seat. My ears popped on one high stretch and we knew that down was the only remaining direction available. There were many beautiful small towns in valleys and on hillsides as we snaked our way through. I don’t have photos of the drive as I was too busy taking it in. You will just have to take my word for it or visit for yourself.
Porretta Terme
One of the main streets
We had set our sights on a town called Porretta Terme . As the name suggests Terme is Italian for Thermal spa and these springs have been in use since Roman times. The town is also famous for Winter sports as it is close to a couple of resorts as well as being home to an International Soul Music festival which has been running since 1987. It was a beautiful sunny day with temperatures promising to reach 15 despite it still being February.
Walking around Porretta Terme
We enjoyed ourselves wandering around the streets looking at the architecture. However, it is us, so we had timed our visit with lunch and needed to find something to eat. Monday lunchtime is not an ideal time to visit a town as many shops and businesses close for lunch and many restaurants and cafes don’t open on Mondays. However, there is always somewhere to be found and we were more than happy to stumble on Cipensoio which is the restaurant of the Helvetia Thermal Spa hotel. It looked formal and we thought twice about going in, but we read the menu outside and decided we would go for it. It rated highly on the review sites, but we had really been looking for a sandwich. We often find ourselves in restaurants having sworn we would have a light lunch on the run.
Baccala’ mantecato “Brandacujun”
Crostini al Lardo stagionato di Pata Negra
Maltagliati con scorfano, pomodorini confit e asparagi
Maccheroni al torchio con salsiccia di cinta e porcini
Our dishes from Cipensoio
Ci Penso Io is literally translated into English as “I’ll think about it”, but it widely accepted to mean “I’ll handle that” or “I’ll deal with it”, so bear this in mind if you hear it said or say it. Certainly, in this case they could handle our lunch. The food was delicious.
We had only been able to pay for two hours parking (parking requires change which, except for small brassy denominations, seems to elude us), so we had to get back on the road. It’s still early in the year so you start to lose the light at 5pm and we had another stop planned before heading for home. There is a station, Porrettana, which runs to and from Bologna, so a train trip would probably take you through some beautiful countryside on the way. Next time I’m planning on booking in for a spa treatment.
La Scola
We drove back in the direction of Bologna but turned off onto a road that climbed the side of a large hill. This road was in part single lane and we were a little disturbed to see bus stops dotted along, as there was no room for a bus to pass. The tarmac surface did not extend by more than a cars width and to the sides were rain gullys. I didn’t notice any passing places, but I would not have wanted to reverse back to one anyway, the road was steep and twisty. La Scola is listed as a historical monument, but it is a tiny village where all the buildings are from 14th and 15th Centuries and were built by master stonemasons. Its location, perched on the side of a hill, means that the beautiful buildings are set in an incredible context against the sky and surrounding hills. As it is tiny there is no parking to speak of, no facilities and I imagine that it could get pretty busy in peak tourist season. You can also get there by train and then bus from Bologna and I recommend it as somewhere to go on the way to or from somewhere else.
As Bologna is a city with a lot of galleries and art events I was pleasantly surprised to find there was a
dedicated Bologna Art Week too. It was from 17th to the 26th
January and was a collaboration between a number of organisations including the
Municipality of Bologna, MamBO (Modern Art Museum Bologna) and Arte Fiera. This
year was the 8th Art week and saw more than 57,000 pieces exhibited[1].
There were hundreds of events across a wide variety of galleries,
non-profit, artist run and unconventional spaces and included a “White night”
on January 26th. Usually, in Italian, a white night means a night
where you are not able to sleep. However, happily this “White night” is where
galleries and museums were open until midnight. This was to allow people who struggle
to get to galleries and museums during traditional opening hours a chance to go.
I think this is a great idea and I don’t know how many galleries or museums do
this, in other places, but I will definitely be keeping my eye out.
Bologna Welcome
To find out what was happening in Art Week, we turned to our
trusty friend the Bologna Welcome
site. As we had limited time when we were both free we wanted to maximise the
bang for our buck. So, rather then go to several different events in separate
locations we decided to go to one big event at Bologna Fiera, which is a massive
conference centre on the outskirts of Bologna.
At the end of last year we decided to get Bologna Welcome
cards. This is a card provided by the Bologna Welcome centre and with it you
can access many galleries, exhibitions and attractions either for free or at a
discount. We bought annual cards but they also do short term cards for tourists
and visitors. Check out their site for full details (link above). We were
expecting to get a discount at Bologna Fiera, but on the day we were ushered
through for free just by flashing the cards.
Arte Fiera
We drove to the exhibition because we knew it was on the other side of town, but when we arrived we discovered there was a free shuttle bus from the centre, which we should have researched better. However, we arrived at the venue in time for a spot of lunch at the Eataly pop up and then went into the exhibition. There were two enormous halls hosting this exhibition so to begin with we were a little overwhelmed and unsure where to start. Both halls had exhibition spaces organised by Gallery with a sign to indicate the gallery name and location. There was a mixture of Italian and International galleries. I will shush now and let the art do the talking. As usual terrible photos by me, good ones “borrowed” from Al.
Gallery spaces and labels
Can you spot the egg
Some highlights from our visit
To get more info and photos check out their site Arte Fiera
Art Week Bologna 2021
It looks like its all systems go for the 9th
Bologna Art week in 2021 and I would recommend checking it out if your visit coincides
with Art Week or if you are lucky enough to plan your trips around art events.
[1] ‘ART CITY Bologna 2020 –
Bologna Agenda Cultura’ (Agenda.comune.bologna.it, 2020) <http://agenda.comune.bologna.it/cultura/artcity>
accessed 21 February 2020
Italians love food. This might seem a bit of a “bear shits in the woods” statement but I really want to impress on you what this means on a daily basis. You can’t seem to avoid talking about food with Italians at some point. Even Italian idioms and proverbs are mostly based on eating and drinking. The greatest thing about Italy is that you can buy good food everywhere. Step into any café, bar or restaurant and you will eat something freshly prepared, simple and good. Eating out is something that happens at least once a week because it’s relatively cheap, given the quality of the food available. There are multiple butchers, grocers, fishmongers, Pasticceria (cake and pastries shops), Sfogline (handmade pasta shops), Pane (bread shops) Salumeria (cured and cooked meats and cheeses) as well as markets and various speciality food shops over and above those.
Salumeria in a small mall
Sfogline (pasta) shop at Easter
A corner café bar. Breakfast and lunch
Specialty food on every street
Italians simply wouldn’t stand for it if great produce
became so unaffordable as to be elitist, but also recognise the value (and
cost) of food produced slowly with skill, care and tradition and are willing to
pay more money for it. As Italy has retained its specialist food outlets and
market shopping culture people tend to eat seasonally and locally so food miles
are largely irrelevant. It’s hard to buy out of season here. If you want to eat
sausages from Sicily you go to Sicily. In western countries we can have a lot
of food waste because people want the premium cuts, but not the other meat that
is left once they are removed which has led to the rise of “Nose
to tail” eating. In Italy they eat most of the animals they butcher. They
have built food industries around the inventive and delicious ways they
transform the less preferred parts such as the Florentine speciality Lampredotto
(cow’s stomach sandwich) etc.
Tagliere (local meats and cheeses sliced) from Tamburini
Often people we meet are really surprised we have moved here.
People usually move away to places like the UK for work and to progress their
careers. This reversal makes them curious. When we say “for the food” they
spread their arms warmly, smiling and nodding because it’s obvious and it makes
sense to them. Even people who have initially seemed hostile melt when they
know we are interested in their food. They know they have great food. They will
start advising you on what’s best to eat, where and when. They want to know
what you have eaten already, where and what you thought.
If we have to generalise* and for reasons of space and humour we are going to, Italians are hyper regional. Everyone you meet is likely to tell you where they are from, as in which specific part they were born in as soon as tell you their name, because in Italy it’s a really important part of your identity. Tied to the regional identity is a sense of pride about whatever food that region produces for example a Neapolitan talking about pizza is an obvious one, but they will detail the dough, the mozzarella and the tomatoes. You will get the same from Florentine talking about beef steak, bread and olive oil and Bolognese talking about tortelloni, or tagliatelle or Ragu etc.
A very brief history of Italy
To put this into some context you need to remember that
Italy has only existed as a country since 1861, the same year in which “Great
Expectations” by Charles Dickens was released in book form, HMS Warrior the
first completely iron ocean going ship was launched, Abraham Lincoln became US
President and the American Civil war started (84 years after the start of the
American war of independence) and Tsar Alexandra emancipated Russian serfs. Before
this time Italy was a set of city states which occupied the same peninsula, often
at war with each other and many of which were variously occupied by foreign powers
and empires. Even in 1861 not all the city states joined immediately with some
joining after 1918 when Italy defeated Austro-Hungary in WW1. While others like
Piedmont were broken up with Nice given to France in return for their military
support. San Marino still hasn’t joined and retains its independent status.
The result is that those regional identities and traditions are very strong and many people speak the dialect of their home region with some older people only able to speak dialect and not modern Italian at all. This accentuates the things that the regions have in common as part of a communal identity; such as their dedication to their food. Much of the history of Italy that we know is centred on the History of the Roman empire, the Holy Roman Empire (dissolved 1906) and the Roman Catholic church or the powerful families such as the Medici’s who ruled city states, with the rest of what is now Italy only being included in historical reports as geographical conquests by various others. ‘Italian Unification’ (En.wikipedia.org, 2019)
Map of italy
Regionality and food
Each region has a set of speciality products because of the
unique geographical and agricultural features of that area. I’ve been told that
the Island of Sardinia, contrary to what you might imagine, does not enjoy a
coast that is particularly good for fish, except in one specific area. However,
it is quite mountainous so it’s famous for its sheep products. Apparently, Bologna
does not have olive oil because all the olive trees on the surrounding hills
were killed in an unusually prolonged spell of very cold weather a couple of
hundred years ago. The oil produced had not been great whereas the olive oil in
nearby Tuscany is so instead of replacing the olive trees they planted Sangiovese
(red) and Pignoletto (white) grape vines to create the wines which the region
is now famous for and used butter for cooking.
As well as being proud of their home regions food, Italians have
extensive knowledge about the produce from every region and understand where
the best examples of each kind of food can be found and when it is at its best,
by breed, by species and by season. They believe in the “terroir” of food. Someone
gave me the example of a Neapolitan chef making pizza at a high end place in
New York who had taken to shipping the pizza ingredients from Naples to New
York, everything from the flour and water to the tomatoes, mozzarella and herbs
in an effort to get the pizza to taste as good as it does at home. It still did
not taste right so he bought a machine to recreate the exact humidity too
because it all matters.
Bologna is in the region called Emilia Romagna, but this is comprised of two regions that have traditionally fought each other, so you hear a lot of arguments about where Emilia ends and Romagna begins depending on with which one your allegiances lie. Emilians don’t rate piadine as these are Romangnola, but swear by crescente, which to the less discerning eye are incredibly similar flat breads you fold food into. Generally, I have found that when I am recommended something as the best tomato variety for a summer salad with mozzarella and basil everyone will agree where you go to get that tomato. There is a generosity in recognising the superiority of another area’s product e.g. the Bolognese for example will all happily agree that they are rubbish at any other types of bread and recommend the bread of other regions.
Thankfully Lasagne is Bolognese
Food fight
Of course, with this much everyday passion and knowledge about food for Italians they don’t really understand that this is not usual for everyone or why we make mistakes with their food. Part of the problem for the rest of us is that our cookbooks and TV chefs have continued to provide inauthentic recipes for Anglicised or Americanised versions of dishes, but kept the Italian names or given them Italian names that they don’t deserve or suggested that they are somehow Italian when they aren’t. No one has any issues with adapting dishes, but when you have spent centuries cultivating your produce and the resulting dishes to their optimum its galling to have someone present something entirely other and say it’s the same thing. We don’t have that same kind of repeatable food culture, ours is much more of a make do and mend approach to cooking. If I can’t find what I need for the dish or don’t have what’s on the list, I will substitute it for something else. That’s fine, it makes sense, who hasn’t done that, but it’s a different dish. Bearing in mind most Italian dishes are very simple and only involve a small number of ingredients, any substitution is a significant change. Perhaps we should take more credit for our inventiveness and give our dishes new names. If we really feel the need we can always say Inspired by and then name the dish we didn’t quite make. While it’s true a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, you would be annoyed if you paid for a dozen red roses and some badly sprayed daffs turned up.
An example of this food adaptation is “Spaghetti Bolognaise”. This dish is neither Italian nor from Bologna. Italian people even tell me that it doesn’t exist. Why, I hear you ask? Firstly, it uses spaghetti, right there in the name. Spaghetti is a dried pasta from further south and does not contain egg. The Bolognese specialise in fresh egg pasta such as tagliatelle or stuffed egg pastas like tortelloni and tortellini. Everybody knows spaghetti is not from Bologna. Secondly, the sauce is not one that Italians recognise. There is a Bolognese meat sauce called Ragù. Indeed, a traditional Bolognese dish is Tagliatelle alla Ragù. Ragù is not the same as the meat sauce in most of the “Spaghetti Bolognaise” recipes you see in UK and US cookbooks and definitely not related to anything you can buy in a jar. It is often made from veal and pork rather than beef mince and is closer to a kind of stew. So even if the Bolognese sauce being referred to was Ragù, there is no way it would be served with spaghetti. There are restaurants in Bologna (and elsewhere in Italy) that cater to the tourists’ insatiable enthusiasm for an “authentic spaghetti Bolognaise” by putting it on their menus and, like the locals, we avoid those places.
“Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.”
Miles Kington
Italians are proud of their pizza too and something which
comes up in my classes all the time is putting pineapple on pizza. They think
this is disgusting and want me to confirm if it is true that other countries do
this or not because they are not sure if it’s a kind of urban myth. There are
only a handful of truly original pizzas which includes the margherita and the
marinara. This has been extended to include other Italian products such as
salsiccia and friarelli (sausage and a kind of broccoli), the four cheese and four
seasons pizzas etc. However, they have not extended into adding any non-Italian
foods such as Pineapple. In fact, many will tell you they never have fruit on
pizza, but it is possible they don’t recognise the fig as a fruit (tomatoes not
withstanding).
At other times the pitfalls can be harder to miss for a non-native. The other day I was running a conversation class, where a small group of English language students are given a topic to discuss in English, when as usual we moved onto food. They were trying to describe something called Arrosticini to me, which in my defence they described as meat on sticks cooked over a flame, so I said innocently “Ok, like a kebab” and wrote Shish kebab on the board. There was a collective sharp intake of breath followed by some vigorous head shaking and furious declarations that these were not the same at all. One woman said to me “You must not say that again. It is not like a kebab. People will be offended”. I obviously erased the words and moved the conversation on, hoping that they were writing it off as my English ignorance about the culinary world. I know people in England can get upset about the correct content of a Cornish pasty (as well as the crimp), or whether you should put cream or jam on a scone first, but these people are few and far between, so the depth of the reaction I caused came as quite a surprise. Anyway, for the uninitiated arrosticini is meat or fish and vegetables on a skewer and then cooked over flame, which as “any fule kno” is not like a kebab at all, ok?
Arrosticini
If you would like more information on how we get Italian food wrong or how passionate they are about it there is a Facebook account for that: Italians mad at food
Artisanal food production and modern life
You only need to go to nearby places like Parma (Parma Ham and Parmesan cheese) and Modena (Balsamic vinegar) to see that tradition as well as place is a big part of the Italian attitude towards food. Often eschewing modern production methods which might increase yields but would damage quality the artisanal nature of the product is respected. It is the price required for the quality of the resulting product. Processes and recipes largely unchanged for generations. Handmade pasta is the preserve of the Nonna, with pretty much everyone telling you about their memories of their Nonna making pasta by hand for special occasions, like Christmas and Easter (something which is dying out if you are to believe www.pastagrannies.com). Pasta is made on a more commercial scale now in shops full of experienced Sfogline hand rolling, cutting and stuffing pasta to fill seasonal orders. The artisan is a figure revered in Italy and while modern life is eroding this to some extent it is still very much in evidence in all aspects of Italian life. Apparently people used to cook at home every night and then buy food at the weekend because they were busy, now they buy ready meals or eat out in the week because they are busy with work and only cook at the weekends because then they have more time.
Parmesan
Balsamic Vinegar
It is not just in terms of when they cook and who is cooking that Italians attitude to food is changing. I noted that the students in my school were very excited because a KFC had just opened. Now in Bologna this may have had a little extra frisson because Chicken is not a local speciality so it isn’t on every menu and not all of the city super markets (express supermarkets) sell whole chicken or unprocessed chicken, but it might be because these are brands they have grown up with in the cinema or on TV but didn’t have. Certainly, the McDonalds I pass by twice a day in the centre of Bologna is depressingly full. I hope they know that is not how good burgers should taste.It is not just in terms of when they cook and who is cooking that Italians attitude to food is changing. I noted that the students in my school were very excited because a KFC had just opened. Now in Bologna this may have had a little extra frisson because Chicken is not a local speciality so it isn’t on every menu and not all of the city super markets (express supermarkets) sell whole chicken or unprocessed chicken, but it might be because these are brands they have grown up with in the cinema or on TV but didn’t have. Certainly, the McDonalds I pass by twice a day in the centre of Bologna is depressingly full. I hope they know that is not how good burgers should taste.
I heard that Starbucks was going to open a branch in Bologna
and it made me sad. Italy. All of Italy, everywhere. Makes excellent coffee. An
espresso in an artisanal coffee place where you can pick your beans costs
£1.20. A perfect cappuccino £1.70. I have never had a Starbucks that was a
patch on any coffee I ever had in Italy, although to be fair my Starbucks
experience is limited to two branches. However, I was heartened when I spoke to
someone in one of my business groups and he explained that, for them, Starbucks
was not about the coffee. It was somewhere to hang out, somewhere to have a
meeting. In Italian coffee bars you go to get an espresso, drink it and leave.
Customers are rarely in the shop for longer than it takes to eat a brioche.
Starbucks would not replace Italian coffee bars but did offer something else.
Two students were completing an activity where they had to
discuss the available options on their pre-printed hand outs and decide where
to go for dinner. At the end of the activity they revealed they had picked the
fast food restaurant. I explained that with all the great produce and food in
Bologna I was surprised and disappointed. They argued that they had wanted to
go to the seafood restaurant, but fish is expensive and they were only students.
Then they pointed out that there wasn’t any other choice as there wasn’t an Italian
restaurant on the list!
Italians and new food ideas
There is a side effect from all this history and local food
pride that we had not expected but that probably was inevitable. Italians can
appear unadventurous when it comes to food. Don’t let me be misunderstood, they
will eat every single bit of the pig, tripe is a speciality of the beef region
(Firenze), meats are often cured not cooked, some fish and meat are best served
raw, etc. Italians are not squeamish about food, but they know which of their
foods go together and so the idea of trying anything outside of their, as I
already detailed, encyclopaedic knowledge of food seems unnecessary. This isn’t
to say that every family doesn’t have their own secret nonna recipe for the food
of their region, but it will be variation on process and possibly varieties
rather than key ingredients.
There are some Chinese restaurants, there is in increase in appetite for Sushi (often served by Chinese restaurants) and now Mexican too. Mexican might seem odd in this context but given that a fajita or burrito is not that dissimilar to a piadine, being that it is round flat bread with something folded into it, is not all that surprising. Aside from the occasional Arabic Kebab shop with the trademark Doner slowly turning behind the counter, and the usual usurping fast food chains, these are the only foreign food establishments you are likely to find with any regularity. Most of the Italians I have spoken to in Bologna have eaten in one or all of these and enjoy them however, it must be stressed that Bologna is a famously cosmopolitan University city so there is possible more appetite for opening up to new cultures and food ideas here than in other parts of Italy.
Italy is not preserved in aspic, it has not been cut off from
the rest of the world for generations, they just don’t really think of food
outside of what they are familiar with. There is a certainty that this is the
way to do it. They are really good at what they do and it leads them to produce
some of the best products in the world, but this rigidity to what can be eaten
with what and when can also seem to be its limitation. For example, there is a
three Michelin starred restaurant in Modena, called Osteria Francescana with an
Italian chef Massimo Bottura, who has also worked in the US. He had upset the
locals of Modena by changing Italian classics for example by producing a pesto
recipe that does not use pine nuts. While he is happy to celebrate and present
the fabulous food and produce of Italy, he is also not afraid to change and
challenge, which has not always earned him fans here. However, I note that his
name often comes up in class as an example of the international recognition and
acclaim for Italian food and, especially amongst the young professionals, the
restaurant is suggested as a goal for a once in a lifetime food experience.
Italians and the future
To sum up there is a strong, embedded and enviable food
culture that honours and promotes the history, geography and skill of quality
food production and which generates an unprecedented number of unique,
fantastic products. Its value is passionately felt at all levels by Italians as
a source of regional and national pride. It’s possible that the rigidity which
has preserved these processes, skills and ideas about food could also stifle
creativity and innovation. This could be especially problematic given the
current socio-economic situation, Trump’s EU trade tariffs and the
environmental impacts of global warming on the conditions that allow some of
these products to be produced here. Each of these issues could be incredibly
damaging for the diversity and volume of production. However, it should be
remembered that Italians have been cultivating their produce in largely the
same way for centuries, despite numerous wars, the rise and fall of empires, occupations
and invasions, floods and droughts. It might be a different kind of challenge
but with passion for food being part of the Italian identity, I think they got
this.
*disclaimer: this article also includes suggestions, anecdotes and explanations repeated verbatim that may not have any bearing on reality and with which other Italians will strongly disagree.
References
‘Italian Unification’ (En.wikipedia.org, 2019) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_unification#Background> accessed 29 November 2019
“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another,”
William James
One of the reasons Al and I decided to make this change was because we were both suffering with stress. Al from the stress of being a Chef and partner in a business and me from working in a management role in Information Security for an American bank. Our jobs were very stressful and meant that we had different days off and usually only saw each other for about an hour at the end of the day, when we would eat and catch up. We both spent a lot of time trying to ensure the other one was ok and had what they needed to get through, supporting each other during various moments of crisis, such as when I was being bullied by my boss or when Al worked every single day for 3 months. It was hard and we were tired.
I was approaching 42 with a decision to make whether to push myself for a promotion at work that would have meant even more stress or walk away. While we still had a plan to start our own business, we were too tired and strung out to know exactly what the business would look like or where we would base it. We had a lot of ideas, but no concrete plan. It still seemed like a pipe dream, a carrot to get us past all the sticks.
Like many people Al and I always want to be the best at what we do. We work hard and put all our efforts into what we are doing and we both thrive on a certain level of stress. I know that at work being able to stay calm and rational during a stressful incident or situation and being able to pull everything together to get through it successfully is not only something that I was able to do well, but something I actually enjoyed and in professional cookery a busy service is similar, so in many ways we are our own worst enemies. However there comes a level of on-going stress and anxiety, where you do not feel in control of it and do not know if you will be able to get through it, never mind successfully and that is very damaging. At various points we have both had prolonged periods of this kind of stress.
As chronic stress heads and anxious people with a healthy dose
of imposter syndrome, we had tried many self-help solutions, with meditation,
breathing exercises and Cognitive Behavioural therapy becoming occasional but
regular parts of our lives, however we recognised that the only lasting solution
was to change our lives. What we decided to do, potentially symptomatic of the
people we are, was to quit our jobs, rent out our house and move to another
country, with another language and to see how we got on. The idea was to change
so much that we could focus on what really mattered to us and what we really
wanted.
What became apparent quite quickly is that we found other
things to stress about. On the drive through France, we stressed about keeping
to our timetable and driving on the other side of the road. When we arrived we
stressed about our broken down van. Then Al stressed about not finding a job in
the first 3 weeks we were here, we both stressed about our level of Italian. We
stressed about not being the best at language school. I stressed about how I would be able to get a
job, we stressed (and still stress) about not having an apartment. We stressed
about having to move all the time. As each stress was resolved, we found new
things stressing us out. At one point I had a panic attack about having
periodontitis because I was convinced my gums were receding. We had made real
change but we were still stressed!
The truth is, so far as I have observed, that while work and other things can put you under stress and put you in stressful situations, you can also get dependent on the stress. Dependent on the adrenaline flooding through your body when you are managing a difficult situation and then the escalation to panic when you don’t feel in control and don’t know if the outcome will be successful. When you cut off the source, if you do not deal with your own responses to stress, you can start to generate the stress yourself. It’s like your body craves the feeling of the response. You stress about things that would otherwise bounce off you. Your body is like “What happened to all my stress hormones man, I need that shit to function.” You find yourself in a cold sweat because you can’t remember the Italian word for the thing in your dream, which when you really concentrate on it, was not a real thing anyway. You have built yourself for stress. Your systems are optimised for cortisol and then you turned off the tap.
Often children stress about things and we think, ah bless them, they think they are stressed but this is not really a problem. I think this is wrong, the stress is the same, it is relative, but this is our first opportunity to teach them how to deal with it in a healthy way. I do not pretend that I have conquered my stress or that I can point you in the direction of a cure. What I can tell you is that when you take yourself out of a stressful situation you take yourself and your existing response with you. You need to think about how you can manage your stress better so that when you are in genuinely difficult situations you are more resilient and have healthier responses. As I have learned this is not as simple as removing a specific stress stimuli, although this is helpful in the short term, it is about facing your problematic responses and identifying a better way for you to respond.
When you are busy and your body has stepped up its stress response, the temptation is to put your head down and “get through it”. This often means you will not sleep properly because your thought patterns will be in cyclical phase so you constantly obsess about the same worry or comment you made or how you will deal with tomorrow etc. The lack of sleep will mean you are more likely to make mistakes or take something personally or feel like you are not doing a good job. Your brain will reward you by negative thinking about you and your situation. You are going to be found out, you don’t have the skills, you are rubbish because you are tired, you are rubbish because you’re rubbish. You will be sacked, everyone knows you are rubbish, everyone hates you. Why did you think that you would be able to do this etc.? Situations are blown out of all proportion and you are not able to think clearly and logically.
Something which is completely counterintuitive to the “head down, get through it” urge, which I think is natural and culturally persistent, is to breathe and step back. . There is a reason why all the advice is about deep breathing and walking away to get perspective. When I realised that I was essentially having a panic attack about a non-existent problem with my gums, I knew it was about my body’s cold turkey of other stress, but and I can’t emphasise this enough, it did not make any difference to how I felt. The panic was real, the feeling was real. When I looked into the mirror I saw receding gums. I had to find a way to address it that my mind would find acceptable. I tried to be rational about it and I found an English speaking dentist on line, made an appointment and he was indeed able to re-assure me. It seems simple, but it took me weeks of stress to do it, and truth be told Al phoned the dentist for me. This stress/panic cycle was ended, but I knew that it would be replaced by something else if I did not use the time now available to tackle the response to stress which I had spent years building and reinforcing with my behaviours.
Don’t get me wrong, I am in no way sorry about the decisions I have made in relation to this. I haven’t thought, well if I’m going to be stressed I might was well be stressed doing something I know well that pays better. Life is too short to be in a career you hate or working a job that you don’t like, because you are afraid to leave or scared by the uncertainty and insecurity that would bring, but changing it is only the first step. When you leave you have to take you with you, so you need to step back and really identify what the issues are for you, listen to what you need to change and be prepared to take those steps, including ones you could not have imagined when you set out.
However, the realisation that I was stressing partly because I wasn’t being stressed by work, was a revelation. When I voiced this to Al, he agreed. Our bodies were so primed for stress that they were essentially having to generate it. We were able to step back and consider our successes and what we had achieved given the gamble we had taken. Now we make an effort to regularly recap on how well we are progressing and what we have managed to achieve, as well as if there are any learning points we can take away from things that have not gone as well as we would have liked. We actually make time to stop and to discuss this with each other to prevent any build up of negative thinking and self-doubt. We take the time to be grateful about what we have. We stop and ask ourselves why we are getting emotional about things that are beyond our control and ask ourselves if they really matter.
We have started with lower level jobs and still have to remind ourselves that we are not being held responsible for the overall success of our organisations, only the parts we directly impact, but we are learning how to recognise the old responses, to step back from them and find another way. I do Yoga most days which I find really helpful after sitting cooped up at a desk with a stooped back for too many years. I also find the focus on breathing and being present very useful in helping my sub-conscious process things while my conscious mind is busy. Like many people I find meditation useful, but I struggle to fit it in everyday, although I am working on it. Although I am in a less stressful job I am building my resilience so when we are in the situation where we are ready to take on our own business, which will be very stressful, I don’t fall into the old patterns and negative behaviours which have impacted on my health and confidence.
As I said this is only my observation but if it resonates with you, I hope you will find it useful and remember it’s not ok for people or organisations to put you under stress or into stressful situations but to take heart from the knowledge that you can control your response.
“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
I didn’t want this blog to become a kind of diary entry and I am pretty sure no one is interested in a blow by blow account of everything that we do. For that reason I have put together a few bits and pieces of the things we have been doing and some things which I think might be of general interest.
Modena
Modena is a small town close to Bologna, which is famous for its balsamic vinegar. Proper Balsamic vinegar is nothing like the product you can buy in a supermarket or what you have had on your salad. A small bottle of properly produced balsamic vinegar will set you back at least £60 and will be used by the drop mixed with oil. What you can buy elsewhere are usually let down “ready to use” versions. The ancient process involves specific grapes fermented over a number of years with the product being transferred to smaller and smaller vessels as the ageing and reduction takes place, until the final product is available in the small glass jar with the ball base, which is unique to Modena. In our story it is also the town from which we had to hire a car when we broke down. As we knew the van was not going to be fixed until at least Monday we decided it was more cost effective to return the car, which we did not need to use during the week and was costing us a fortune in the local carpark. When we hired the car, it was late on a Friday, we had spent two hours at the side of the Italian motorway by our stricken vehicle and we just wanted to get onto Bologna, so we had not spent any time in the town. Returning the car gave us the opportunity for a little visit, although it would have to be brief as there was more rugby to watch.
Saturday morning we headed out to the car park to collect the car for the last time. As we drove to the Avis rental office, we appreciated the relative luxury of the Kuga. The inbuilt sat nav and in car charging etc. We handed the car over without pre-amble and a very minimal review of the returned condition. We consulted google maps and planned a route to the station via the centre of the town. Modena is much like other Italian towns, we have visited, a great mix of old buildings through time and modern commercial architecture. There was a flower and herb market taking place which made wandering around the streets and piazza even more delightful. Eventually we wended our way to the station, where it appeared the whole Modena orchestra was waiting to get on a train. The automated ticket machine was broken so we waited in the queue, unfortunately missing the cheaper regional train, but we did not want to wait another hour for the next regional service, so we opted to pay the extra for the Freccia Rosso. These are clean, pleasant, fast, modern trains, but they are double the price. As we have mentioned to just about everyone who asked us why we have chosen Bologna, one of the reasons it that it is a central location from where it is really easy to get to multiple other places. It has the largest station in Italy with 27 platforms in use. Florence is 35 minutes away, Milan an hour and a bit, Rimini (nearest bit of coast) 1 hour, Venice 1 and a half hours etc. You can even get a direct train to Berlin! On this occasion the train was slightly late, but we were back in Bologna within 20 minutes so plenty of time to pick up some lunch before heading to the Cluricaune for more Rugby, where Wales delighted us with yet another win, setting up the possibility of their achieving the Grand Slam, which of course, they did.
Tandem (language) dates
We have retained our weekly Italian lesson with our usual Italian teacher over Skype to help us settle in. In our first lesson after we had been to school for the initial week, we were keen to show her how much we had improved as well as to discuss our concerns about what we were struggling with, namely listening and speaking. Elena had a great suggestion which was to see if there was a Facebook group for what she called “tandem” meet ups. This is where someone who wants to learn a language meets up with someone who wants to learn their language. The idea is that it is conversation in two languages so you can both improve as well as being social. We had never heard of this and were pleased to discover that there was indeed a Bologna tandem Facebook group, so Al put a message up. We were completely taken aback by how many people wanted to meet up and speak Italian/English with us. We had so many responses that Al spent a whole day composing Italian replies to each one. Within a day we had meetings set up on most available evenings and weekend days for two weeks starting from the first meeting scheduled for the following Saturday. As we were still fairly new to the city, we allowed the tandem partner to choose the meet up location. This way we get to see places that locals like and go to and improve our list of places to go to. We had already noticed that we were starting to go to the same places because we knew where they were and how they worked.
Our first Tandem, it is fair to say, did not go well. We felt very nervous as we had no idea what to expect. We worried about what to wear as if we were actually going on a date. We met the person who will remain nameless, because I have forgotten her name, at the feet of the two towers, a famous landmark in the centre of Bologna. She did not seem to have a plan for where to go but she just started walking and talking. It was hard to hear and speak while walking along busy city streets and when we asked her to suggest somewhere to go, she picked somewhere on the other side of the city near to our Air B&B. She could not hide her extreme disappointment that we were not American. She had an obsession for Americans and America and had put on her Facebook profile that she was from San Francisco, but she was born and bred Bolognese. She told us later she found our English accents very hard to understand and was critical of our Italian. We found her very impatient and unwilling to listen to what we were saying before talking again so she often misunderstood what we were saying in either language. When we made our excuses to leave it turned out she needed to walk back into the city too and so walked with us, it was quite awkward. She told us she was an Italian teacher for immigrant school children which made her slightly condescending manner make more sense and I felt quite sorry for them. She told us she would be able to help us a lot as we were like those children. As we left her, we said we would be in touch and as soon as we left her we agreed that we would not. We had two weeks of meetings to come and we began to think we had possibly made an error.
Our second meeting was much better. We met Myriam at Caffe Zamboni where we were going to have Aperitivo. The food was plentiful and included hot food trays as well as cold. Myriam was very interesting, she translates and adapts the vocal scripts for television and films in English. Obviously, her English is excellent, but she wants to keep her speaking practice going which is why she was looking for a tandem with English speakers. We spoke mainly in English and broken Italian. She was very patient and helpful. The meeting felt relaxed and social. At the end we were happy to meet with her again. Our following Tandem meetings have been similarly successful and all the other people that we have met we are planning to meet again, although we have not met with everyone who replied to the message yet!
Talking Italian (Robert De Niro is not waiting)
While I was glued to my laptop for the last two weeks of work in the old career with JP Morgan, Al was using MO bikes to tear around the city trying to get us “legal”.
This started with something called the Codici Fiscali which is the Italian equivalent of the National Insurance number. You need this for just about everything, but luckily it is listed as one of the easier Italian bureaucratic hurdles to overcome. MO bikes, as you might have guessed, are city based rental bikes like the Boris bikes or other local equivalents. While the van was still in the garage, they were invaluable to Al for getting to the various far flung civic offices he needed to visit. His trip to the out of town office to get his Codici was difficult and he struggled to pull his Italian together. He was interrogated by a rude civil servant about why he was in Italy and why he couldn’t get a job in his own country, once Al managed to explain that he was able to get a job in England, but he wanted to learn Italian cooking the atmosphere thawed considerably. Italians generally and Bolognese in particular, love their food. The next day Al was able to go and collect the van so when I went to get my Codici we were able to go in that and the office was less busy, the receptionist told me which bits of the form to fill in and the civil servant was lovely, he even made a little Brexit joke.
Al was desperately trying to get us on a more permanent footing with the original 29th March Brexit deadline looming over us. We had been given the idea that we needed a permesso di soggiorno, which could be submitted to the Post office for processing. The form required could also be picked up from the post office, however not all branches had them and the branch that did would not let Al have two. Eventually after much blood, sweat and Mo biking Al managed to score two forms and we set about completing them. We needed to copy the Codici, bank records to show we could support ourselves and every page of the passport. Al went to submit his first as I was still working and you needed to present some of the documents in person as well as provide copies. After a lengthy discussion with the woman at the post office he was able to submit this and he was provided with an appointment at the Immigration office. When we went together in my lunch break the post office would not accept mine because as we are EU citizens, we don’t need the permesso. They understood our Brexit concerns and apologised that Al’s application had been accepted but insisted I could not submit an application. They directed us to the civic office in the city centre for a different form. The next day we went there and were directed to the Immigration office, we went there and spoke to a lovely policeman who told us not to worry, we didn’t need anything right now, we were EU citizens we had the right to stay and if a no deal Brexit did happen, something would be arranged. We went home a little confused and despondent. On speaking with our Internations EU friends we discovered what we needed was residency. Residency is granted by the local council where you live, but in order to get this we needed an address, so the hunt for an apartment was stepped up. Luckily about this time the Brexit deadline was extended to 12th April, giving us a little more time, which has now morphed into sometime before October 20th.
The bank provided Al’s next language challenge. He had
researched on line and identified that there was a non-residents account which
foreigners could get, however the bank agent Al spoke to originally didn’t know
how to open it, so she made an appointment for him to come back. It took two
hours for them to go through all the paper work, but he walked away with
account details and a cash machine card.
Getting an Italian mobile proved to be the least difficult
of all Al’s herculean tasks. He was able to get a basic contract fairly cheaply
and they were not bothered about an address. Al bought a really old phone (8
years vintage) from the Bologna branch of CEX and we have had much hilarity
remembering a time before touch screens when all sites look like text messages
and you had to use the scroll bar to navigate the, limited, options and there
are no apps. However, it has meant we can put an Italian phone number on our
CVs and documents rather than our UK ones, although we are terrified of someone
calling us because our Italian listening and speaking skills are not great.
Santa Stefano
Internations
Internations is an online ex-pat community, they have branches in 432 cities worldwide where people who have relocated to an area can meet each other and locals. They provide online guides and help with the issues new arrivals might face. The Bologna branch is quite active and has at least one social event per month at different venues in the city. When we went to the first meeting we prepared as best we could, learning some sentences to describe ourselves and why were in Bologna in Italian as best we could. Luckily there were a number of English-speaking people there and at this initial meeting we mostly spoke English. Some of the people at the meeting had been in Italy for decades and others for only a few years. The ability to speak Italian varied a great deal with the English speakers, some were fluent, and others had less Italian than us, which gave us a degree of comfort about our language skills. We were speaking to an American who teaches English as a foreign language and he thought I would not have any problems getting a job as an English teacher. This became a theme at many of our meetings, indeed at the next meeting an Italian asked me why I wasn’t an English teacher, I explained that I had not completed the qualification, but she thought my degree would be enough, so the next day I enrolled on the online course and started applying for jobs.
Basic membership is free but does not give you full access
to the site so we decided that Al would take the subscription membership and I
would stay with basic. It means I pay more when we go to events and I don’t
have the same access to messages and to invite others into my network, but
otherwise I can usually see events and accept invitations. Event fees usually
include your first drink and a buffet, but you need to be quick with the food
as it soon goes. One of the Italians we met told us that she looks up the
nearest branch when she goes abroad on holiday and if they are having an event
while she is visiting, she goes along to get local top tips. There is a Southampton branch if you
want to check it out. It’s been so useful for us I am going to upgrade my
membership.
These events are definitely helping us to get settled in a set up a new network as we have met many interesting people from all over the world that live here. People are interested in our story, our desire to make such a big change and are really supportive. We are getting a core set of friends we meet up with at the events and then go onto other venues with. Everyone sympathises with the apartment situation and give us what advice and contacts they can, but the cold fact is it is hard.
Where we have been visiting
Giardini Margherita
We paid our first visit to the Giardini Margherita on the Sunday before I had to return to work (alright working from home). For Southampton residents the Giardini is like a slightly smaller version of the common with a cafés and bars scattered across it, a basketball court and there is also a beautiful set of buildings converted to artists working space with a restaurant and bar. The park is surrounded by some of the loveliest old apartment buildings in Bologna
MAMbo
Mambo is the name of the Modern Art Museum of Bologna. Each city has a regional code which you need on all official documentation and for Bologna it is BO in the same way that Southampton uses the SO post code as an identifier. This gallery has art from 1945 to the present. We only visited the permanent collection as the temporary exhibitions cost extra. We also ate brunch in the Gallery restaurant before we went it, this was our first experience of a brunch buffet and we nearly managed the whole thing in Italian but let ourselves down when we were not sure where to pay.
FICO (Eataly World)
Fico means fig in Italian, but it is also the name of the Eataly world food park. Eataly is an Italian produce chain that specialises in finding and selling excellent examples of regional sustainably produced foods at prices for everyone. They seek to retain the link between the produce, the production process and the producers (Italian agri-food biodiversity). FICO is the physical manifestation of its desire to keep these concepts together in the mind of the consumer. It’s hard to explain what FICO is, but it has a sort of derogatory nickname of the Disneyland of food, which does mostly cover it. It is on the outskirts of Bologna and includes livestock and agricultural zones on the outside and produce zones on the inside. At the entrance you can hire tricycles that have large food baskets on the front and back or you can just get a trolley. Entrance to the park is free and when you go in, there are large signs to show what each produce zone is and they have production areas or “factories” with glass walls and schedules of activity so you can watch pasta being made, the production processes for mortadella, Parma ham and parmesan etc. You can also attend courses and workshops if you pre-book. Each zone has one or two restaurants or outlets where you can get samples or buy taster sets or full meals. There are also shelves of produce available to buy. While you pay for the ready to eat food at each outlet, produce is bought from the giant store at the end of the complex. So, like all other modern museums and spectacles you exit via the gift shop, although in this case it is a massive Italian produce store, but don’t worry you can buy branded merchandise too.
Apples
Say cheese
Where we’ve been eating
Mercato Delle Erbe
This is an indoor food market with stalls selling fruit and vegetables and even real balsamic vinegar in the middle and then more permanent stalls/shops around the interior walls with fresh pasta makers, cheese shops, butchers. There are two sort of wings coming from the main market area, these both contain food and drink outlets, restaurants and seating, it’s a great place to eat and relax with friends as well as to pick up some food to take home. The area around the market is buzzing with restaurants and bars in the evening.
Tamburini
Bolognaise speciality: lasagne
I have included information on Tamburini before, but now we have also discovered the delights of their self-service restaurant inside. You have to walk through the delicatessen to get to it, then get yourself a tray. You slide your tray along counters where there are salads and other first course goodies, fridges with water and bottles of beer, past the wine on tap (a spina) which is available in quarter, half or full litre carafes, to the hot food counter where you can choose from the options available, which will always include the bolognese specialities; lasagne and tagliatelle a ragu, but there will be other options to, on to the deserts and then to a till to pay, before finding a table to sit at. It reminds me of the old cafés in Bhs stores but about 1000x better. The staff are well used to tourists, but it can still be a little daunting.
Caffe Zamboni
Already referenced above in our Tandem dates section, but a
great place for a large quantity of aperitivo/aperacena at a relatively low
cost. It is also in a great central location in a lively area of Bologna.
Up early with the hotel breakfast, we planned not to stop for lunch as we wanted to be in Bologna for 2pm. We went straight onto the toll roads, heading inland to the Tuscan countryside where it was gratifyingly less mountainous so no bridges or tunnels. We decided to have a quick break in Parma as we were making good time. We stretched our legs and enjoyed a drink sitting outside a restaurant in a little piazza not far from the Cathedral. The car park in Parma was a little way from the centre and so by the time we returned we were worried we would arrive in Bologna later than we intended. I sent a text the Air B&B owner in Bologna to say we expected to arrive at about 2.30. They replied with the instructions we needed to get the key, so it did not matter what time we arrived, which turned out to be very fortunate.
Parma
At a few minutes after two, just after joining the road to Bologna, we noticed a strange noise coming from the engine, followed almost immediately by a flapping sound. Al took the next available turn and we struggled off that Motorway onto another one losing power and issuing an increasing amount of smoke. We managed to make it onto the hatchings just after the junction before coming to a stop.
Uh oh! Yes, that’s diesel sprayed up into the hood, and everywhere else
We got out of the smoking car and were able to pop the hood, but not before I noticed that the engine bay around the catch was coated in something oily. I had been able to smell the diesel from inside the van. Al took the emergency pack and placed the break down triangle behind the van. I looked at the fuel explosion under the bonnet. It was still smoking slightly. We called the AA Euro recovery number and stepped over the barrier onto a grassy slope away from the traffic noise and fumes. The only buildings near us were some apparently abandoned farm buildings. Our phones batteries were half full and we had a small bottle of water. It was hot and the traffic was racing past at speed.
The AA said that the recovery vehicle would take between 1 and 2 hours to get to us. We were trying to see the brighter picture and hoped there was still a chance the engine could be repaired at the roadside and we could be on our way. A police car stopped to see what was happening and after hearing our pidgin Italian explanation they were satisfied and moved on. After a while a highways worker also stopped to see what we were doing. He looked under the bonnet and if we still had any hope, his expression put the dampeners on it. As he was leaving we heard a whistle from the slow traffic in the lane travelling in the other direction, it was our recovery truck. Once the driver managed to get off at the next junction and return to us he took a quick look at the engine. “Bad problem” he said. Without any further pre-amble he started getting the van ready to go onto his truck. Within 5 minutes we were on our way to Campogalliano, sitting up in the truck cab.
“Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course”
William Shakespeare
At the GMC garage we met the owner Massimo who spoke little English. We communicated with hand gestures, google translate, a smattering of French and Massimo patiently speaking very slowly. He explained that he thought the van could be fixed, possibly, but would not be able to look at it until Monday. We explained that the van was really full, that it contained our whole house. He valiantly took to the phone to find us a van to hire immediately and we checked the internet to see where the nearest car hire place was. He couldn’t get us a hire van and offered to rent us his own car. We had managed to get onto Avis in Moderna and booked a car online. The staff at GMC ordered us a taxi to Modena as we explained our plan to come back from Modena in the hire car and take what we could from the van, then to return on Saturday morning to get the rest. They were open until 7 that night so although it would be tight it was possible and they opened 8 until 12 the following morning. It was all agreed and our taxi arrived.
While in the taxi the AA called to check that the recovery had happened and confirmed to Al that the taxi and hire car would be covered, which was a relief. At Avis we were talked into upgrading to a Ford Kuga, especially as it was an automatic (no having to change gear with the “wrong” hand), and managed to get the whole thing done in about 5 minutes. We returned to Campogalliano and grabbed whatever we could fit into the car before finally setting off for Bologna. We drove past the spot where we had been stood forlornly alongside our smoking van only 4 hours earlier.
In Bologna our Air B&B had no onsite parking but we just pulled up out front, got the key from the key safe, and started unloading. The apartment was beautiful, and on the 1st floor, with lots of windows and an outside space. We piled everything in and took the car to the nearby carpark the Air B&B owners had recommended. We went straight from the car park into the centre of Bologna for something to eat as we were starving. We walked around the Piazza Maggiore reminding ourselves where things were from our last visit and ended up in the old market lanes. It was very busy because it was Friday night and we walked around a bit before feeling brave enough to approach a restaurant. We finally picked a place and wanted to eat outside (all the bars on this road have patio heaters outside) so we spoke to the waiter and took a table, sitting on high stools around a barrel. I looked up and saw that we were at Tamburini, the same place we had our first meal on our first visit.
Out of focus meats and cheeses
After everything we were finally here in Bologna, sitting at a restaurant, eating meats and cheeses followed by pasta and drinking good wine, while the people of Bologna went about their usual weekend activities, with families filling the streets and enjoying the evening. It was 10pm and the city was buzzing. We had made it, we were in our new home.
