So, tomorrow we're going to go to the Best Deli in Bologna, and eat more pasta in another great restaurant. If that doesn't do it, then I'll have to take her to Verona where she can look at the lakes and the mountains for a day, and of course, snap a few pictures of me rubbing Juliet's breasts "for luck" as tradition has it.
We arrived in Bologna yesterday, found our apartment here, had a bit of prosecco and an almond-ricotta torte left for us by the gem of a landlady, and then...well, by now you know what comes next...we headed out for pasta.
We went around the corner to La Praia. It was full of locals, and we even saw children out after dark in a restaurant - something that was missing in Rome and Florence. We sat, and greeted the adorable young server with a hearty "buongiorno!" when she walked up to the table. Her reply was one word: "Oh!" To which I replied, "yeah, we're not from around here" in perfect Southern American. Unlike Rome and even more so Florence, where most restaurant staff speak enough English that we can get by when lost and confused by a menu full of dishes with names of four or more words, we haven't found that in Bologna. The service is friendlier, better overall, and we get a lot more smiles. This doesn't change the fact that the servers jabber at us in Italian, and we jabber back in Italianglish, and we always get served a good meal even if we're not quite sure what it is.
First time in Bologna, my two traveling companions had to get the tagliatelle bolognese.
I went out on a limb and ordered tagliolini agrumi e gamberetti. I forgot the Italian dictionary, so we were flying blind but I recognized "gamberetti" as probably being either shrimp or shrimp entrails, and there were a lot of people eating seafood around me. I was right, and won the "best meal" award for the first of two days in a row.
This was the tastiest sauce we'd had yet on this trip, a creamy-white wine-lemony flavor that perfectly complimented the heaps of shrimp.
For dessert, it was a crema catalan, and my usual tiramisu, and a delicious nearly frozen lemoncello compliments of the house!
Looking around at the other meals being served, we realized too late that seafood is the specialty of the house. If we break with tradition and go back a second time, I'm taking the Italian dictionary and ordering a big plate of shellfish! The pizza also looked fantastic, and was half the price of pizza in Rome.
Back at the apartment and ready for bed, our son really appreciated the pink slippers left for him by the aforementioned wonderful landlady.
The next day, we were out and about to see more fountains and museums. With my excessive libido, I particularly appreciated the Fontana di Nettuno.
Keeping in the nautical theme, our next stop was the Naval Museum. Bologna features the world's first university, and one of the things they taught was the art of naval warfare.
This same museum housed a large area on animal and human anatomy, so we lured our son in with warships, and then tortured him with grotesquely detailed human anatomy.
Have you ever seen a better collection of dissected eyeballs?
After that, there was nothing else to do but have a large lunch. Our choice, Trattoria da Romana, a great restaurant right across from the train station. Here, I won my second award in a row for best selection. I started with a ravioli in porcini mushroom sauce.
The wife had a healthy mushroom salad.
Our son was crushed when he was told that they were out of the caramelle gorgonzola e rucola (candy-shaped pasta stuffed with gorgonzola cheese and arugula).
But he recovered quickly when another plate of bolognese arrived.
My main course was an ossobuco...ottimo!
Our son, the carnivore, finally got to have a mixed grill...not a vegetable in sight!
The wife looked surprised when this plate was put in front of her - tortellini or tortelloni, I'm not sure which. I didn't ask if that was what she ordered, since I had no shot at explaining it to the server, and we had enough meat for three so more pasta was just an afterthought.
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