I’m not exactly into art museum. It’s probably the last thing I look for when I visit a city, especially if the weather is good. 
But what to do between a visit of a market and a walk to have breakfast at that lost bar in a lost neighbourhood? It can be nice to stop and learn more about an hidden artist to rediscover, daylife art almost disappeared or old photographs of the city you love. 
Here are 3 exhibitions that left me speechless for different reasons. You still a few time to visit them and you really should. 

It takes about 1,5h to arrive from Bologna at Fondazione Magnani Rocca. Seems a lot but trust me, your efforts will be more than repaid. The Villa itself, with its charming park and permanent collection of opera by Tiziano, Canova, Dürer, Goya etc., is astonishing. 
Until Dec.10 Fondazione hosts a unique exhibition about Italian advertising art. You can see how illustration started to being used as a persuasive tool to promote some of the most famous Italian products like Campari drinks or Baci Perugina chocolate.
Not only posters but also packaging tins and billboards: pieces of art inspired by futurism or liberty style.
One more reason to go? At the restaurant inside the Villa you can find the best dishes of local cuisine like torta fritta with culatello or Parma ham.

Info
When
Sept.9th ― Dec.10th 2017

Where
Fondazione Magnani Rocca, via Fondazione Magnani Rocca 4, Mamiano di Traversetolo (Parma)

Tickets
Adults 10€, School 5€

Contact
tel. +39 0521 848327 / 848148 
info@magnanirocca.it

www.magnanirocca.it/mostra-pubblicita/

I love photography. Taking photos is for me a way to enter a culture, an excuse to get close to people and talk to them, and I think a good photo can speak more than words sometimes. This exhibition makes you travel through the last 150 years of Bologna with images. It’s a complete collection of shots of the main events of 900′: from the demolition of the towers of Mercato di Mezzo, to the bombing during World War II, the students protests of the 70′s or the disaster at the train station of Aug.2nd. But mostly is the story of people and faces who made Bologna what it is today. I do hope this exhibition will be permanent. Be sure to save 1h to visit it.

Info
When
Sept.6th – Jan.7th 2018

Where
Piazza Re Enzo underpass, Piazza Re Enzo Bologna

Tickets
Adults 6€, Kids 4€Contact

Contact
tel. +39 051 2194150
bolognafotografata@cineteca.bologna.it

festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/evento/bologna-fotografata/

For most of you the name of Cesare Leonardi will sound unfamiliar. Even if many of his furnishings have been displayed at MoMA in New York or Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Leonardi is still largely unknown outside Modena. Over the course of a 50 years career, Leonardi’s practice has included architecture, town planning, photography, design, painting and sculpture, working non-stop on the boundary between artistic planning and practice. After lambrusco&nocino that end our food tour in Modena, it’s perfect to get lost inside the shapes designed by Leonardi. This exhibition is curated by Archivio Cesare Leonardi, the cultural association founded in 2010 with the aim of protecting and promoting the work of this underrated artist.

Info
When
Sept.15th ― Feb.4th 2018

Where
Galleria Civica di Modena, Palazzo Santa Margherita and Palazzina dei Giardini, Modena (MO)

Tickets
Free entrance

Contact
tel. +39 059 2032911/2032940 

www.mostracesareleonardi.it

Photos ©Francesco Boni

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The first suggestion I give to tourists who ask me what to visit in Bologna is to walk. Bologna is small enough to be covered in a few hours and walking around is the best way to discover its hidden secrets: gardens, painted porticos, canals and, most important, people are easier to meet if you walk around. Now spring has arrived so here are 3 nice day walks you can have, plus one very special trekking for the athletes readers.   

San Luca Basilica represents a lot for Bolognese. It’s the first thing you see when you arrive in town and, even for people who don’t believe, its Virgin has a mystic value around it. Walking up there, after the 666 porticoes that connect Porta Saragozza to the Basilica, is a tradition for bolognese. You can find people jogging, pilgrims praying, or just families with children for a Sunday stroll.
​I usually walk up there with my camera, especially during sunset or at night, to admire the beautiful lights and relax in the quiet of the hill. There’s also a train that will bring you directly to San Luca, but I do agree with Eliot that says: “the journey, not the destination matters“.   

Where to start: Porta Saragozza
How long does it take: 55 minutes
My tip: go up there at night, even if the Basilica is closed the portico and its silence are invaluable

Villa Ghigi’s park dominates Bologna from a hill near Porta San Mamolo. From there you get a beautiful view of Bologna’s skyline and when the sky is clear you can also see Alps mountains. This park is my favorite location for a Sunday picnic, a lot more chilled than Giardini Margherita . So grab some bread, mortadella and a bottle of Pignoletto and relax between the rows of vines. 

Where to start: Porta San Mamolo
How long does it take: 45 minutes
My tip: visit Villa Ghigi in autumn, when the grape is ripe and the colors are beautiful

​www.fondazionevillaghigi.it

A nice and unusual way to spend a sunny afternoon in Bologna is to visit Parco della Chiusa. Start your walk (or ride) at Certosa Cemetery and visit it: it’s astonishing, then skirt one of the canal whose flow rate is controlled by “la Chiusa of Casalecchio”. La Chiusa (The Gate) is one of the oldest work of hydraulic in the world and helped the economic growth of Bologna during Middle Age by providing energy to its water mills to produce silk. La Chiusa is near a huge park that in the nineteenth century Stendhal, frequent visitor of these places, compared to Paris’ “Bois de Boulogne”. Take your time to relax or enjoy a trekking to San Luca through “De Bregoli” road.

Where to start: Certosa Cemetery
How long does it take: 40min
My tip: rent a bike and ride to Parco della Chiusa. Then leave it there and start your trekking around

​www.parcodellachiusa.it

Ok, I’m lying, if you know me you don’t expect me to walk the 130km that links Bologna to Florence through the old roman road called “Flaminia Militare”. But a few athletic friends made it and told me how beautiful this walking is.
Via degli dei (The Way of Gods) is the trekking path created in the late 80s of the ’900 by a group of Bolognese hikers, mostly follows these ancient tracks to rediscover some fine pavements of the Roman road. Not exactly a walk but still a good way to be in shape after a food tour in Bologna or Modena.

Where to start: Piazza Maggiore or San Luca
How long does it take: 4/6 days 
My tip: Take in in spring/late summer to avoid the bad or hot weather

​www.viadeglidei.it

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If you love modern architecture and international design you already know that in Bologna there’s a precious jewel that draws visitors from around the world: it’s Dino Gavina showroom in Via Altabella, 23. It was designed and built in the 60′ by Carlo Scarpa, one of most important Italian architectural design of the twentieth century, to host Gavina’s furniture showroom. 

Who is Carlo Scarpa
His prestigious teaching and professional activities are mainly concentrated in the preparation of exhibitions and shows, in the restoration of monuments, in the construction of private homes and shops.
Carlo Scarpa had the ability to develop projects and interventions in ancient contexts, thanks to his skill in reading the existing architecture. This feature was seen by his contemporaries as a limit but by today’s critics is seen as a strength: he worked like the great architects of the past and his architecture is therefore against the current movements of his time.

Gavina’s shop in Bologna
In Italy there are only two stores designed by Scarpa. One is in Piazza San Marco in Venice and hosts Olivetti showroom, the other one is in Bologna. 
This shop, on the ground floor of a Bologna house, was previously an ironmonger’s. Scarpa had to reshape an untidy space fragmented by load-bearing walls and unsuited to the client’s display purposes.
The solution designed by Scarpa, using an outside facade with large round windows, became one of the most unique references in the urban landscape, giving rise, at the time, violent controversy in the name of conservation and respect of the ancient city. 
Today this work is universally recognized as a cornerstone of contemporary Italian architecture.

How to visit it
The showroom was used by Gavina until 90′ and then became a toy shop by Hoffamann until Feb. 2016. Now the shop is a temporary store where architect Enrico Guandalini of Reverso decided to exhibit design furnitures and craft items, some of which designed by Scarpa, to give back this place its original aim.
​It will be open until Jan.2017 (and hopefully longer) and you can visit it for free.

Dino Gavina’s showroom
Via Altabella 32, Bologna

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Dozza is an open-air museum, where you can admire more than a hundred works by prestigious names of contemporary art created for Biennale del Muro Dipinto, an art event started in 1960 that every 2 years brings street artists like Ericailcane and painters from all over the world.

At the same time Dozza is not the classic tourist town with souvenir shops and coaches of tourists. If you are visiting on a weekday or a Sunday, you will certainly find curious visitors, but it’s still basically a simple village, with a few shops and its citizens, who walk safely between the streets and stop to chat on the benches.
But Dozza is not just the city of painted walls. There’s also a beautiful castle builted in 1250, Rocca Sforzesca, that you can visit. Kids will love its mysteries, like the cutting well and the prisons, and foodies will be amazed by the cuisine with vintage chef tools and fireplace. After the visit that takes about 1h what’s better than a glass of wine?

Rocca basement hosts Enoteca Regionale, local wine promotion board headquarter, where you can find more than 800 selected labels from all Emilia Romagna. You can find Albana, Sangiovese, Pignoletto wine but also a small selection of Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale of Modena and a wine bar for guided tastings.

Well, it’s still a food blog right?! So I know what you want to know. If you’re looking for an elegant location with view on the hills you can choose Canè and ask them for truffles and porcini mushrooms in season. If you prefer cozy places who pays lot of care in the selection of ingredients go at La Scuderia, just in front of the castle, and try their tagliata with Cervia’s salt or theri tenderloin with porcini mushrooms.

La Scuderia
Via XX Settembre, 53, Dozza (BO)
Tel. 0542 678103
lascuderiadozza.it

Canè
Via XX Settembre, 27, Dozza (BO)
Tel. 0542 679200
ristorantecanet.it

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Oh beers. You start at 15 with a Bud, you get drunk at 20 with a Weisse, at 25 you find out that Guinness is not that bitter, around 30 you go deep inside the beautiful world of microbrewery. Bologna wasn’t a city for beer lovers until a few years ago, but over the last years a lot of interesting microbreweries got born, so it’s time to dig inside the world of craft beers. These are absolutely my 5 favourite beers produced in the area of Bologna. Check them and cheer together!

Have you already tried one of these beers? Am I missing something? I’d LOVE to hear your favourites, don’t be shy. Cheers!

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Born in Bologna in 1809 from a rich family, Cesare Mattei was among the founders of a bank, a deputy in Parliament and close friend of the Pope. The key event which marked his life and led Rocchetta Mattei to birth is definitely his mother’s death. That event produced in Cesare a deep mistrust in traditional medicine and he began to study alone an alternative medicine: electrohomeopathy.
This treatment is based on homeopathic-like granules enhanced with vegetable electricity that Mattei believed to be able to capture in his fluids. His purpose was to restore the balance between body electric charges and bring the painful part to neutral state. The success of these treatments was enormous and immediate: they were sold around the world, expecially in China and India, and he founded the first real drug multinational company, also cited by Dostoevsky in “The Brothers Karamazov”.

In 1850 Mattei purchased the land where stood the ruins of the ancient fortress of Savignano, on which lay a castle that belonged to Matilde of Canossa. On the same year he laid the foundation stone of the castle that would have called “Rocchetta”, where he settled permanently in starting from 1859 and personally followed the construction.
After Cesare’s death, Rocchetta Mattei didn’t live a happy time: during Second World War, it was occupied and severely damaged by German troops. Then in the 60′s it became a restaurant and hotel, and closed in 1989 with the owner’s death. It was reopened to public in 2015.
At the entrance of Rocchetta Mattei you are greeted by statues of lion, hippogriff (yes Harry Potter’ fans, definetely him) and harpies, but Christian, pagan and astrological symbols and references are endless. Rocchetta Mattei’s design is based on Copernican’s planets constellation: clock tower is the center (that would be the Sun) and the halls are the planets that revolve around it.

After the entrance courtyard you meet the “90s’ room“, where in Mattei’s plans he was expected to celebrate 90 years with 90 other people, also 90 years, but he died before, at the age of 87 (a lot for that time!). 
But the most surprising place is the chapel which houses Mattei’s tomb: it is a miniature reproduction of Cordoba’s spanish cathedral with striped columns and a beautiful decorated ceiling.
Nothing here is what it seems, from the slanting columns to the used materials, it seems to enter into an Esher‘s painting. Styles alternate from room to room, passing by the representation of Alhambra’s courtyard in Granada (really!), to the room in which Mattei received his patients with pentagonal ceiling and floor, as alchemists containers.
Among the thousand secrets of Rocchetta Mattei there’s also a diamond, perhaps kept in one of the pyramids that make up Mattei’s lab ceiling. No one knows if it’s really hidden there, but if you decide to get married in Rocchetta Mattei (yes you can!), your love can be celebrated between the mysteries of a unique place.

Rocchetta Mattei 
Strada Provinciale 62, 40030 Grizzana Morandi BO
Tel: 051 916845 - 051 6730311

Opening time
Weekend 9:30am-1pm 3pm-5:30pm with reservation required at viviappennino.com

​Price
​10€/adult 5€/kid

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