fluentfriends Newsletter November 2017 Bologna
Bolognese Style: Italian Trainer Gabriele's Insider View
...If, like me, you are more into eating than cooking, Bologna offers an amazing range of top-notch restaurants. As you might expect a nickname like 'The Fattie', my hometown is renowned for its good taste, its tortellini in brodo, its prosciutto crudo, its Parmigiano Reggiano, its balsamic vinegar, but not only. The perfect hostess, Bologna has been welcoming guests for centuries. Beyond her gutsy gastro belly, Bologna is an architectural beauty, flushed deep with red and timeless elegance. Come with me and I'll show you around her porticoes and fine facades...
At the foot of the Appennine Mountains, just 80 km from the sea, Bologna’s economic and cultural vitality is due to its position. Bologna was born around 1000 B.C, developed significantly in the Etruscan age and became a strategic hub in the Roman road system. Since then Bologna has had a central role in the connections between northern and southern Italy and between Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. Its university, the most ancient in Europe, turned Bologna into a global city and its people have been welcoming people from all around the world for hundreds of years. That is why people from Bologna are very warm and open towards other cultures.
Bologna is a beautiful town thanks to its great monuments and its urban structure which still preserves its prosperous medieval aspect. The colour red characterises the facades and roofs of the buildings. Its porticoes are 40 kilometres long and make Bologna unique in the world. They are a meeting point and a shelter from the cold in the winter; and they also host beautiful shops and workshops.
Bologna is very lively but it is not too chaotic unlike other big tourist cities. It’s the ideal place to immmerse yourself in Italian culture, art, language and cuisine. Sometime ago the uniqueness of Bologna hit the news when The Telegraph featured an article on its website in which journalist Nick Gordon describes his stay in the The City of Two Towers.
Well-known for its wine, its food and its enjoyable life-style, Bologna is considered the Italian capital of food. In the spring and summer I often take my students around the architectural beauties of Bologna.Together we take part in amazing cookery courses where we learn to make fresh hand-made pasta, such as tortellini, tortelloni, tagliatelle, and the renowned bolognese sauce.
Thanks to some very informative wine tastings we learn how to associate the many varieties of the famous local wine “Pignoletto” with different kinds of foods, like cheese and cured meats (prosciutto, mortadella, salame, coppa).
For people like myself who are more into eating that into cooking Bologna provides an amazing range of extremely good restaurants.
At the top of my list: Trattoria Osteria Buca Manzoni, Taverna del Postiglione, Trattoria Leonida and Ristorante Teresina. If you like the countryside, you cannot miss the fantastic cuisine of chef Matteo at “Torre di Iano” or “il lago dei Castori”, the best traditional restaurant in Pianoro,my birthplace, in the hills of beautiful Bologna where you can taste our amazing flat bread called “crescentina”.
Gabriele Galli - Italian Trainer at fluentintuition
You can reach Bologna from London in two hours from London Stansted with RyanAir, from London Heathrow with British Airways and London Gatwick with EasyJet from approx £19-£100 round trip, seasonal variations will apply.
If you'd like a chance to learn Italian with Gabriele or the rest of the team, find out more about one-to-one personal programmes here:
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