If I say Michelin starred restaurant near Bologna your first thought will go to Massimo Bottura’s Osteria Francescana.

And I can say you’re right because #1 restaurant in the world is a worth-a-plane place.
But it’s not the only Michelin star that you should check out if you are in Bologna.

It took me some time (and money) but here are 3 very different places that have more than a star in common.

Savigno is a small town inside Val Samoggia, about 25min from Bologna, surrounded by woods and hills full of vineyards.

Since 1934, Amerigo offers the best products of his land in a family trattoria opened by Alberto Bettini‘s grandparents.
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You won’t find any fois gras or caviar there, but only the best local and seasonal products like mushrooms and truffles (black and white), river fish like salmerino del Corno alle Scale or deer in a cuisine that celebrate tradition in combination with innnovation.

The location is very warm and cosy and it is inspired by a vintage style  with old coffee machines and liquor posters on the walls. A jump back to the ‘30s!
At the entrance there’s a small shop to buy some products, I recommend their liquors (China China or Marasca) or Saba (cooked grape must).

Prices 
50€ à la carte, 60€ fixed-price menu

I suggest you
On the first Sunday of the month, Savigno hosts the antique market. Go for a walk and take home some vintage souvenirs

One dish not to miss
Amerigo’s egg. A sort of soufflé, soft as a cloud usually served with truffle when available, I ate it with asparagus

Via Guglielmo Marconi, 14-16, 40060 Savigno (BO)
Tel. +39 051 670 8326
Email: info@amerigo1934.it
www.amerigo1934.it

Agostino Iacobucci is a Neapolitan chef who moved to Bologna in 2008 to bring the only Michelin star of Bologna city centre.

​The setting of this elegant restaurant is the eighteenth century’s caffè chantant, called Teatro Eden, renovated for the occasion.
In Iacobucci’s cuisine you can find his origins by the usage of top-notch quality ingredients, like spaghetti of Gragnano or buffalo cheese. The chef looks far from Bologna’s cuisine, creating an original fusion between the two regions.

His savory babà is a pleasant surprise and “Naples meets Emilia” (tortelli stuffed with neapolitan ragù, Parmesan mousse, Piennolo’s tomato coulis) is a dish who talks by itself.
Everything dish is a surprise at I Portici and even if 2017 just started, I can tell that I will remember this place for my top year ranking.

Prices
84€ (meat menu), 90€ (fish menu), 110€ (tasting menu).

I suggest you
Ask to eat inside the old ice cave used by the pope. A wonderful and intimate location to eat by candlelight.

One dish not to miss
Buffalo milk ice cream, peppers and raspberries with caper powder

Via dell’Indipendenza, 69, 40121 Bologna
Tel. +39 051 4218562
Email: ristorante@iporticihotel.com
www.iporticihotel.com/ristorante-i-portici

UPDATE 2018:
From March 1st 2018 Iacobucci is no longer the chef of I Portici. Emanuele Petrosino took his place. One more reason to visit it again soon.

​It’s not easy to find a woman chef with a Michelin star.

Along with his brother Massimo (whose service will offers you the best Pignoletto I ever had), Aurora Mazzucchelli is the only starred woman chef in Emilia Romagna and she keeps her star from 2008 with firmness.

The restaurant, renovated in 2016, has now a modern and elegant style, anyway you will feel at ease.

​The combination of local ingredients and excellent products creates dishes like their famous Macaroni al torchio, smoked eel, raw oysters and spinach or the turnip ravioli, goat cheese and balsamic bubbles.

In this way Aurora shows her bravery and her skills.

Prices
Menu 65€ (5 courses) 85€ (8 courses). 

I suggest you
After lunch visit Rocchetta Mattei, an astonishing castle not far from there

One dish not to miss
​Parmesan cheese tortelli with lavender, nutmeg and almonds

Via Porrettana n.291, 40037 Sasso Marconi (BO)
Tel. +39 051 846216
E-mail: info@ristorantemarconi.it
www.ristorantemarconi.it

Ok, it’s about 1,5h far from Bologna, but I promise it does worth the efforts.

We’re in the bassa, the flat humid area near Po’ river where you go to follow one myth: culatello. A heavenly cured meat, caressed by the fog raising from Emilia land.

Massimo Spigaroli gets the best from it, like for its guinea-fowl covered by culatello and cooked in clay.
Or just try it pure, just to taste how the aging changes its flavors.

If you haven’t had enough great culatello at our Parma food tour, that’s the address you should write on Google Maps.

Prices
90€ (Tasting menu)

I suggest you
Try also the Hosteria del maiale, for a cheaper experience dedicated to the pig.

One dish not to miss
Podium of Culatelli from “White Pig” aged over 18, 27 and 37 months 
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Strada Palazzo due Torri, 3, 43010 Polesine Parmense PR
+39 0524 936539
www.acpallavicina.com

The story of San Domenico began in 1970 with Nino Bergese.
​People used to call him “the king of chefs, the chef of the kings” for his noble background. 

Flowers, abat-jours, leather sofas and baroque music create the warm atmosphere of a time when eating out was a luxury habit. Those times have gone, but 40 years later the 2 Michelin stars are still shining.

A pristine classic cuisine that picks up local ingredients like red potatoes, pigeon and asparagus and elevates them with the skills and precision that only study, repetition and experience can build.

The dish to wait for? 
Uovo in raviolo with butter, Parmigiano Reggiano and white truffle. When Anthony Bourdain was in Bologna he went there to watch the full process. Not hard to say why.

Prices
Menu from 160€

I suggest you
Go on Wednesday if you’re born after 1970. They make the same menu for a cheaper price.

One dish not to miss
The pigeon

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He hated brunch and loved Negroni.
Visited 120 countries and ate in best and worst places on the planet.
He was a TV star, but he always said his truth about food.

Anthony Bourdain visited Bologna and Emilia Romagna in 2012 for his show No reservations.
He won’t come again but he left us a great document about the food of our land.

Let’s track down the places he visited.

Bourdain chose a special host to guide him around Emilia Romagna’s food. 
His Virgilio is Michael White, a chef from Wisconsin who trained at Ristorante San Domenico in Imola.

The show begins inside the kitchen of this Michelin Starred restaurant, opened in 1970. Gianluigi Morini and Nino Bergese, known as “the king’s chef”, for his past work with royal Savoia family, were the founders. 

They got 2 Michelin stars in 1977 and never let them fade away. 
Michael began his career in San Domenico’s kitchen, before flying back to the USA.
He shows to Bourdain the preparation of one of their most popular dish: uovo in raviolo.

They come back at the end of the show for a full dinner.
Bourdain looks enthusiast about the duck press tool. And of the 1914 cognac they share with Mr Morini.

Info
Ristorante San Domenico
Via Sacchi, 1, 40026 Imola BO
Tel.0542 29000
www.sandomenico.it

Massimo Spigaroli introduces Micheal and Anthony to the most valuable cured meat of Emilia Romagna: culatello.

A 700 years old court near Po river hosts the cellar of magic.
The air enters from an open window to cultivate sweet mold, raised by the moisture of the river.
White and Bourdain hang a culatello just near the one of Alain Ducasse and Prince Albert of Monaco to cure for 2 years.

I do hope they had the chance to come again to take it out of the wall and have it with a bowl of wine.

Info
Antica Corte Pallavicina
Strada Palazzo due Torri, 43010 Polesine Parmense PR
Tel. 0524 936539
​www.anticacortepallavicinarelais.it

It’s no surprise that Bourdain loves Balsamic vinegar of Modena.
A man who respects real food. A food made by men of passion, far from marketing slogans and healthy trends that last a season. 

Bourdain arrives at Acetaia Pedroni on “Sparky”, his red Ferrari, but the charm of luxury cars is blown away by the batteria of wood-made barrels of Giuseppe. 
Each Balsamic takes its name from the wide Pedroni’s family tree, starting in 800′s century after a lucky bet on lottery numbers.

I’m 100% sure that Bourdain respects and knows how to use Balsamic vinegar. But after the visit of the acetaia, he stops at Osteria di Rubbiara to taste Balsamic on Modena traditional dishes. 

This Osteria is not a place for #foodgasm (a term hated by Bourdain). 
The old owner confiscates your phone as soon as you enter. There is no written menu and you’re not supposed to leave leftovers on your dish.

Those rules may seem unpleasant and out of time, but they are a flashback in an area were food was work and efforts before pleasure. Things that Bourdain well knows.

Info
Acetaia Pedroni
Via Risaia, 2, 41015 Nonantola MO
Tel. 059 549019
www.acetaiapedroni.it

Despite some footage of market life at Quadrilatero, Bourdain spends only a few scenes in Bologna.
Sit on the tables of Il Calice in Via Clavature, he has a Negroni with Michael, sharing opinions about Italian style and filling “hot pancakes” (they’re called tigelle Michael!!!) with mortadella. 

They joke about Italian self confidence in wearing red trousers and fanny packs, without caring about age and dress code.
It’s a funny scene, but that’s the only contact with Bologna. 

And my biggest regret.

No leftover dishes like passatelli, no old Osterie who only sell wine on tap, no poor and tasty meat made with pork ears, tongue and heart (yes, we have it, and I put in on the table during our Classic Bologna tour).

But Bourdain and Michael still have their authentic local lunch. 
In Borgo Tossignano, near Imola, they have a real Romagnolo feast. 
Vegetarians can skip this part.

Just 40min from Bologna, the cuisine of Osteria Fita already seeks to Florence. Starting with ficattola, a local fried bread with DOP cheese squacquerone the main attraction is fiorentina steak.

In his most famous article on the New Yorker Don’t eat before reading this, Bourdain explains why never order well-done meat in a restaurant. Fortunately, fiorentina can definitely be eaten.

Info
Trattoria Fita
Via Roma, 3, 40021 Borgo Tossignano (BO)
Tel. 0542 91183
www.fitaborgo.com

At Tre Monti vineyard Bourdain talks about happiness.
After admiring a sfoglina making tagliatelle, Anthony and Micheal sit in a vineyard on the hill with wine producer Vittorio and his father.

They eat pasta and cheer together with a glass of Sangiovese red wine called Thea, in memory of Vittorio’s mother.   

​After lunch, Bourdain says:

Reading those words today can lead to different thoughts. 
It’s impossible to distinguish where fiction ends and starts the reality.

I spent most of my teenage summers up on those hills, and I know how unique and beautiful they are.
​
My only wish is that in that vineyard, drinking wine and talking about food, he had some moments of peace. 

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 Ad accompagnare il tutto tre varietà di bruschette, pane fresco di un panificio di Corato (veramente gustoso e profumato), la prima di queste con burrata andriese e pomodori secchi tagliati a strisciette, una con ricotta forte, lardo di colonnata e infine la classica con olio e pomodori freschi.

C’è inoltre una buona scelta di vini che sicuramente verrà ampliata nel tempo (la gestione è cambiata da sole 3 settimane). Il menu comprende anche panini, piatti caldi (che cambiano periodicamente) e pesce marinato a secco, tutto preparato da loro.

Ecco una piccola PHOTOGALLERY del locale:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/CiboVinoCultura

One tips that I always give to the guests of our Bologna food tours is to wander through the city centre to discover the hidden beauty of Bologna. But winter is coming so even if we have km and km of porticoes, it’s still nice to find some warm and beautiful places to rest and chill. Museums, libraries and churches may help with that. These are my favourite 5 places to visit when it’s cold or rains outside, but don’t make the mistake to miss them in each case if you have time to spend in Bologna.

The so called “7 churches Basilica” is a unique place to visit not when it’s raining and one of my favourite in Bologna. You can walk through chapels, crypt, middle age courtyard inside a place surrounded by myth and mysteries. A lot of symbols recall the life and death of Christ, like the cockerel statue inside Pilato’s courtyard or the black marble column of the sepulchre church that gave 200 years of indulgence to pilgrims who visited the Basilica. Legend says the in the last courtyard, Dante wrote some verses of the Divine Comedy during his time in Bologna, inspired by the horrendous figures sculptured on the columns. I don’t know if it’s true but this Basilica and its square make me proud to live in Bologna every time I pass next to it.

Tip
In the boutique you can find some products made by monks who still live and work in the complex, like honey or spirits.

​Opening Time
Everyday 8am – 7pm

​​I already spoke about it but it’s an hidden gem where you can find warmth and relief when it’s raining outside. Just in front of Nettuno’s fountain, enter this former trading centre, basketball arena and botanical garden which now is a public library with café and sofas where you can read and chill drinking a coffee with hundreds of students or get free wi-fi. Open all days but Sunday, I can spend hours around this amazing venue reading magazines and browsing books.

Tip
You can walk between the Roman ruins of Via Emilia that you see from the main hall. Just go at -1 ground and follow indications.

Opening Time
Monday 2.30pm – 8pm
Tuesday-Friday 10am – 8pm
Saturday 10am › 7pm

Website

Palazzo Pepoli is a museum dedicated to the history, culture and transformations of Bologna, from the Etruscan age until our days. Opened in 2012, it’s a very interactive and interesting museum not boring at all and perfect also for kids to learn how Bologna changed over the years. Towers, porticoes, art and music will be uncovered in a funny itinerary inside a beautiful middle age palace. Warm yourself with tea or coffee at their public café (no ticket to enter the bar).

Tip
Sometimes in summer they also make acoustic shows inside the courtyard that hosts the “Time tower”, a great venue for intimate events.

Opening Time
Tuesday-Sunday
10am – 7pm

Website

One of the most underrated and hidden gems of Bologna is this XII century church that hosts statues by Michelangelo, that Michelangelo. If you were in Florence you would have to queue for hours to see this amazing ark sculptured by Niccolò dell’Arca that contains the rests of Saint Domenico. A young Michelangelo sculptured 3 statues on the ark, but is all the church that deserves to be seen.

Tip
At the back of the Basilica, in Via Castiglione, you can see another beautiful profane church, “Santa Lucia”, whose façade reminds the most famous San Petronio.

Opening Time
Monday – Friday 9am – 12am e 3.30pm – 6pm
Saturday 9am – 12am,  3.30pm – 5pm 
Sunday 3.30pm – 5pm

Born inside the former city bakery that produced bread for all Bologna during World War 1st, in 2007 became Bologna’s Modern Art Museum. Permanent collection hosts modern art works by Guttuso, Marina Abramović, Maurizio Cattelan etc. and from 2012 MAMBO is the location of bolognese painter Giorgio Morandi museum. If you’re lucky you can also visit amazing temporary exhibitions like “David Bowie Is”, until Nov.13th 2016.

Tip
The bar on the ground floor is one of the best places in Bologna for aperitivo (7pm to 10pm). Just next to MAMBO there’s Zenzero, one of my favourite restaurants in town.

Opening Time
Tuesday-Sunday
10am – 7pm

Website

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