But it’s hot, still.

Summer in Bologna can be very hot.
The good news is that you can find an escape in the green. 

Giardini Margherita is our Hyde Park.
People jogging in the evening, a small lake and a light, unexpected breeze.
From 2014 it also hosts my favourite place to spend a summer night in Bologna.

Le Serre dei Giardini Margherita are former greenhouses brought back to life by Kilowatt association. Photos hardly describe the atmosphere of this place. Enjoy one of the best aperitivo in Bologna, listen to live music or just relax between rosemary and thyme. 

Rudere is the next big thing.
Literally translated as “the ruin”, Rudere is another example of regeneration of a forsaken place. Free-grill, live music and craft beer on a hill with a view on San Luca Basilica. Not bad, uh?

Not exactly a place for aperitivo, but once you’ve tried Scaccomatto agli Orti then it’s hard to not talk about it.
An oasis of peace and harmony hidden behind a gate.
A secret vegetable garden where you can have dinner under fig trees.
A chef, Mario Ferrara, who greets you with a smile and surprises with his dishes.
Fixed menu that changes every evening. Be sure to book in advance.

Info

Le Serre dei Giardini Margherita
Via Castiglione, 134, 40136 Bologna
leserre.kilowatt.bo.it

Rudere
Via Gaibara 1, 40136 Bologna
www.rudeosteria.it
Tel. 051 235944

Scaccomatto agli Orti
Via della Braina 7, 40124 Bologna
Tel. 051 263404
www.ristorantescaccomatto.com

From mid-June to August 15th, Piazza Maggiore becomes a cinema. The best cinema I’ve ever seen.
 
First Cinema Ritrovato Festival brings back to life old masterpieces, restored by the lab of Cineteca di Bologna.

Then Sotto le stelle del cinema enlightens the biggest screen in Europe with old Italian movies, the hidden gems you’ve missed in the last season, and some unique events like silent movies with an orchestra. 
All movies are in original language, with English subtitles if Italian. 

June is also the month of Biografilm Festival: a month of previews, small productions and documentaries that enrich the park of Cavaticcio day and night. After the movie, you can have some street food in a park and enjoy live music near the old Cavaticcio canal. 

If you speak a bit of Italian, or you’d like to learn it, Arena Puccini is another open-air theatre to consider.
Not only because of the selection of movies, mostly last season highlights.
The park around it called DLF (former after-work railway area) now hosts beach-volley playing fields, a nice restaurant and the great pizza of Pizzartist. 

Info

Cinema Ritrovato
June 23rd – July 1st 2018
Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it

Sotto le stelle del cinema
July 2nd – August 15th, 2018
Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
www.cinetecadibologna.it

Biografilm Festival
Parco del Cavaticcio, Via Azzo Gardino, 40122 Bologna
Tel. 051 219 3111
www.biografilm.it

Arena Puccini
Mid June – first days of Sept
Via Sebastiano Serlio, 25/2, 40128 Bologna
www.cinetecadibologna.it

The most important clubs move their stages outdoor during summer.
Botanique offers a wider range of concerts, but it’s also a place to get a beer and relax sitting on the grass.

Jazz lovers, we don’t forget about you. 
Via Mascarella, the street of jazz, closes for pedestrians in summer and becomes a living room.
During Salotto del Jazz Festival, hosted by Cantina Bentivoglio and Bravo Caffè, Moustache and Cinema Odeon, you can relax with a glass of wine and a dish tagliatelle al ragù while the brushes are drumming.
 
Enter the old gate of Palazzo Re Enzo in Piazza Maggiore for Round Midnight Jazz Club. A temporary jazz club with live concerts and jam session after midnight. With a view on Neptune’s fountain. Not bad, huh? 

Info

Botanique
June 16th – July 22nd, 2018
Via Filippo Re, 40126 Bologna
www.botanique.it

Bravo Caffè
Via Mascarella 1, 40126 Bologna
Tel. 051 266112
www.bravocaffe.it

Cantina Bentivoglio
Via Mascarella 4/b, 40126 Bologna
Tel. 051 265416
​www.cantinabentivoglio.it

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.

Since 1934, Amerigo offers the best products of his land in a family trattoria opened by Alberto Bettini‘s grandparents.
​
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).

​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.

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

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.

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

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 
​
Strada Palazzo due Torri, 3, 43010 Polesine Parmense PR
+39 0524 936539
www.acpallavicina.com

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