Bologna – The City of Food – A Food Tour

Bologna is the food capital of Italy. Fresh pasta, food shops, family restaurants, and food markets are everywhere. So, the best way to discover the city of Bologna is a food tour.

Italians have nicknames for some of the cities. Bologna is ‘La Dotta, La Grassa, La Rossa‘ (the erudite, the fat and the red). Erudite on account of the first university in Europe. Fat because of its amazing food culture. Red from the red roofs and the red brick towers in the city.

The Fat One is what this post is all about.

About Emilia-Romagna

Bologna is the capital of the Emilia-Romagna region in Italy. This is a very fertile land where many world-renowned products come from. Let’s take a look at a few: parmigiano reggiano and grana padano cheeses, prosciutto di Parma, aceto balsamico di Modena. We’ve all heard of them, but Emilia-Romagna is where they come from.

A Food Tour

As I said a few times before, I like to start exploring a new city with a guided tour of the place. It may be a walking tour, a bike tour, but the food tours are my favorites.

The idea is to get my bearings there and hear a local’s tips on things to see and places to eat. If you’re looking for guided options, visit Food Tour Expert for recommendations.

The first time I went to Bologna, a couple of years ago, I started exploring the city on the first morning with a food tour.

Breakfast or colazione in Italian

We met our guide close to the leaning towers. Soon, we headed towards the first stop, an Italian coffee shop serving breakfast.

This was our second breakfast for the day but we still had room for a typical Italian colazione consisting of some sweet pastry and a cappuccino.

Pizza

Some walking and a few stories later, we stopped for a slice of pizza, the less interesting part of the tour. The best pizza is in the Naples area, and I found my absolute favorite in Ercolano.

A tagliere, a platter of cold cuts and/or cheeses

Next, we entered a small shop called Franco e Bruno, where we sampled a few cold cuts and some cheese. They only sell local products, but there’s an abundance of them in the region of Emilia-Romagna.

Making fresh pasta

We also visited a handmade pasta shop and learned about the fresh pasta and the different fillings. The women who make this pasta are called ‘le sfogline’ meaning the ones that make the pasta sheet ‘sfoglia‘ by hand, using the rolling pin.

So, le sfogline were making tortellini at the time. It’s a filled pasta shaped manually to resemble a belly button. They showed us how to make them. It looked easy enough, but..it’s not. We couldn’t come out with a decent-looking one. They had a good laugh at our hopeless efforts.

Typical pasta dishes in Bologna

Of course, our next stop was a family restaurant where we could taste the delicious pasta that came from that very pasta shop. We learned here that what we call ‘bolognese’ sauce is actually called ragù in Bologna. That’s a minced meat sauce, slowly cooked for a few hours until it’s just perfect.

The other typical pasta dish we tried here was ‘tortellini in brodo‘ which is pasta served in broth. I haven’t seen this anywhere else in Italy, so it was a very exclusive treat.

Wine, Coffee, Gelato

By this time we were pretty much full, but the tour wasn’t over. We walked to a historic Enoteca (a wine bar) where we tasted some local wine along with mortadella. Next was an after-lunch coffee, standing the way Italians have coffee. We finished with gelato at Cremeria Mascarella.

In the end, we couldn’t walk or think about food anymore, but we recovered quickly, in time for dinner anyway.

The tour was amazing, and we learned a lot from our Delicious Bologna food tour guide. It wasn’t only about food but also about Bologna’s history and secrets.

The thing is, after such a great start, we knew what and where to eat for the rest of the weekend. Actually, for the next two trips to Bologna as well.

Bologna – The City of Food

Bologna is truly the city of food. Anywhere you turn, there are small family shops full of incredible-looking food: meat, fresh pasta, cheese, wine, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil.

Food Markets in Bologna

There’s a whole district in Bologna, called Il Quadrilatero that is almost an open-air food market. Shops come one after the other, and they serve fresh sandwiches and glasses of wine.

Established food markets are also present in the city center. Right in the middle of il Quadrilatero, you’ll come across Mercato di mezzo. That means the market is in the middle, and it’s a very appropriate name, no confusion there. Mercato di mezzo is a small indoor market where you can grab a bite to eat from one of the food stalls. It’s also a popular meeting point where you can have an aperitivo before dinner.

A few hundred meters away, down Via Ugo Bassi, you’ll find another one, Mercato delle Erbe. It has a fruit and vegetable area, but also a sitting area. If you find room here, you can sample something fresh food from food stalls.

Some of the best food in Bologna

The next day (and the next time in Bologna), we made good use of the things we learned, trying some more things and hunting for small places where the locals eat.

Here are some of the places we loved:

Tamburini is a food shop, wine bar, and restaurant very conveniently located in the center of Bologna. You might have to wait for a while to catch a free table, but it’s worth it.

La Prosciutteria has a few locations throughout Italy. They serve some incredible wines, taglieri, and panini. You have to ask, pay and take your order from the counter.

Enoteca Storica Faccioli is a bit hidden on a quiet side street. They have lots of wine that make it hard to choose only one.

A few more things

Bologna is not one of the expensive cities of Italy. It’s not so much a touristy place, as a students’ city which makes it more affordable.

Most restaurants serve delicious food. Try to stay out of the main street, look for the places where the locals eat, the places getting full at dinner time. Also, the best food in Bologna will be where instead of Tagliatelle bolognese the menu says al ragù. That’s an important hint. Also, you can’t ask for spaghetti here, have the fresh pasta in Bologna.

One more thing, you can’t be dieting in Bologna. It’s hopeless, don’t try to.

Next, find out about the other things to do in Bologna besides eating.

Where did you find the best food in Italy? Tell me all about it in the comments below.

Disclosure

Some of the above may be affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and make a purchase, I earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. However, I only recommend companies, activities, or products that I use myself. Thank you for your support in keeping my blog live!