You landed in the Italian food capital but you have only one day to spend there?
Don’t panic. It’s possible to get the best from Bologna in one day if you know how to mastermind distances, sightseeing and – of course – carbs.

Here’s my recipe to have the perfect day in Bologna: amazing food, a bit of culture and something unexpected.

A whole foodie day awaits you.
The temptation to skip breakfast can be strong, but don’t fall into it. 
​
Since Italians eat a little in the morning, it will take only a few minutes, but you’re definitely going to need those energies!
There’s a full post about the best breakfasts in Bologna with the addresses you shouldn’t miss.

My tip
Sit at the counter, order a cappuccino and a savory croissant (we call it “La Salata”). It’s light, fast and with enough butter to start the day with a big smile.

Bologna is the perfect city to spend all morning looking at the shops in the food markets. 
Especially if you were wondering in how many different ways pork can be cooked (Spoiler: soooo many).

Our Bologna food tours can save you time and bad tastes, but if you prefer to go on your own walk around Mercato di Mezzo.
The medieval Piazza Maggiore, the two towers and the intricate complex of Santo Stefano are just a few steps away from the mortadella.

My tip
Is it noon-ish? Get inside the Basilica of San Petronio and see the longest sundial in Europe working.
It happens only at noon, but it has to be the astronomical noon. How to know when it is exactly? Play with maths or just look at the chart next to the entrance of Bolognini Chapel.

Make sure to take your time for lunch, it will probably be your most vivid memory.
Best way to experience the living culture of the town is to put your legs under a table, grip a fork and relax.

At Sfoglia Rina, the menu is written on a blackboard on the wall, and – apart from the very traditional unchangeable dishes – it’s renewed every week.
Pasta is the freshest you can have, and they have special attention to the details.

My tip
Since you have one day, but unfortunately only one stomach, focus on the fab four:
1. Tortellini in brodo
2. Tortelloni with ricotta and parsley 
3. Lasagne alla bolognese 
4. Tagliatelle al ragù

Impossibile choice?
​Try one and learn to make the others during our cooking class in Bologna, because new cooking skills are the best souvenir you can get here.

Bologna isn’t only famous for tortellini. 
The University here was established in 1088 and it’s the oldest in the western world. 

Palazzo dell’Archiginnasio had been its venue for almost three centuries. You can read the students’ names in the 6000 coat of arms painted on the walls, and try to guess which country in Europe they came from.

Don’t miss Teatro Anatomico at the first floor, with its wooden stands around the marble table for the human bodies dissections.

My tip
Dig into the weird old studying methods at Museo di Palazzo Poggi. Anatomical waxes, optical experiments and old maps will make your day.
Plus, it’s in the southern part of the city, so you can have a nice walk through the former Jewish ghetto to get there.

Too early to go to dinner, too late to visit anything else: it’s time to have aperitivo.

During the summertime, relax at Le Serre inside the city’s most lovely park: Giardini Margherita. 
Besides the cool location, with trees and light bulbs everywhere, the menu is getting more and more interesting every year. 
Plus, they have an exciting program of live music and new-wave cinema, a nice way to keep you thoughtfully entertained while you’re sipping your freshly minted Hugo.

When it’s too cold to drink outside, MamBo (Bologna Museum of modern art) is one of the best aperitivo in Bologna.

My tip
Aperol Spritz is the king of aperitivo.
Craft beers, natural wines or a tailor-made cocktail work pretty well too. 

If you just one night in town, you should go for something really traditional. 
At Cantina Bentivoglio, they kept the vibes of the old restaurants and the recipes of the grandmothers. Their tortellini in brodo is legendary. After dessert, you could listen to some jazz music coming out of the cellars. 
If it happens, stay and enjoy: their concerts worth every penny.

My tip
Bologna is a perfect city to walk. Its almost 40 km of porticoes will cradle you around.
​It’s even more fascinating in the night, when the red light turns on and the music comes out of the windows.

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From North to South, you find a food market in every dusty corner of Italy. Indoor, open air, liberty, temporary, gourmet, gentrified, dirty, harsh, noisy. Surely never boring.

​This is my selection of the 5 best food markets I’ve met during my food trips.

Bologna is a market. It was in the past and it is nowadays. We start all our Bologna food tours in Piazza Maggiore because it was a market, but now it’s Quadrilatero the beating heart of our food scene.

A nest of tiny streets with signs of the past on the walls and family shops owned by generations.
Definitely one of the best food markets to visit in Bologna.

What to buy
Save space in your luggage for a mortadella from Simoni or its hidden brother salame rosa. 
Or get a quality knife at Aguzzeria del cavallo, one of the oldest shop of Bologna. 

Where to eat
Get a tagliere of cold cuts at Romanzo inside Mercato di Mezzo and ask to include boar mortadella.
​If you’re not in a hurry, you can go at Sfogliarina and wait in line for a cheap and well made fresh pasta.

Info
Open Monday to Saturday, 8 am – 6 pm
Enter from Piazza Maggiore or Via Rizzoli.

Bologna and Modena, enemies in the past, neighbours with the passion for food today.
​Albinelli indoor market is a liberty jewel still unknown by mass tourists where old ladies with their trolley are the queens of the kingdom.

What to buy
You can’t leave Modena without Balsamic vinegar and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.
During our Modena food tour we dig deep and tell you how to choose them properly (and not overpay for them).

Where to eat
​Chiara and Sara make the best sandwich in Modena at their Bar Schiavoni. The menu changes daily, but ask for cotechino and you won’t regret it.

Info
Via Luigi Albinelli, 13, 41100 Modena MO
Tel. + 39 059 211218Open Monday to Saturday, 6:30 am – 2:30 pm
www.mercatoalbinelli.it

Less famous than its brother San Lorenzo, for sure more alive. Sant’Ambogio is an indoor market far from the aprons with Michelangelo’s David.
​If you’re looking for another Firenze, made of farmers and family business, you should head here.

What to buy 
Locals call it just bistecca (the steak), but fiorentina works too. Ask for it at Macelleria Menoni, opened in 1921 and owned by the same family for 3 generations.

Where to eat 
Inside the market there’s Rocco and his rough cuisine and wine to share.
Get the best street food of Firenze: panino al lampredotto in a food truck called Pollini just outside the market.
​For a more fancy lunch, il Cibreo by the theatrical chef Fabio Picchi waits for you.
​Here’s a list of other remarkable places to eat in Florence.

Info
Piazza Lorenzo Ghiberti, 50122 Firenze FI
Tel. +39 055 248 0778
​Open Monday – Saturday, 7 am to 2 pm
www.mercatosantambrogio.it

Testaccio is a genuine Roman neighbourhood with a pyramid, a slaughterhouse and a British cemetery full of artists.
Its old market was moved in 2012 in a modern and healthiest structure.
​Buy fresh artichokes and eat pizza romana in the indoor market and take a tour of the archaeological area under its floor.

What to buy
Samuele at Libreria del Mercato sells old books but also t-shirts and bags with original prints by her wife.
At NAT – Home Decor you find vintage furniture and artworks carefully selected by Barbara.

Where to eat
Think about the classics of Roman cuisine and push them into a sandwich. That’s the spirit of Mordi e Vai. Hard to choose between picchiapò (boiled meat with pepper), Scottona (tender beef meat) or artichokes and Roman Pecorino cheese

Info
Entrance from via Beniamino Franklin, via Alessandro Volta, via Aldo Manuzio, via Lorenzo Ghiberti.
​Open Monday to Saturday, 7 am to 3:30 pm
www.mercatoditestaccio.it

You’re sat under an elephant and you hear screaming men wielding big knives .
Relax, you’re not on the set of Apocalypse Now 2 but at Catania fish market.
​Hard to describe with words the noise, smell and atmosphere of an open-air theatre where fish is the main star.

What to buy
Unless you travel with a refrigerator in your bag, it will be hard to bring home some fish.
Don’t give up.
​Get Bronte’s pistachio (in autumn, where they are fresh) or dried fava beans in the stalls of Piazza Pardo.
​The price is never the one you read on the label!

Where to eat
Mm is both trattoria and street food for a fast lunch. Try their crazy carbonara with turmeric, mussel, bottarga and lemon peel. Scirocco lab offers fried fish cones until late night.

Info
Piazza Alonzo di Benedetto, Piazza Pardo
Open Monday to Saturday, 5 am – 2 pm

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No, it’s not THAT one you’re already thinking about.
​It’s called Ristretto Vicolo Coccapani and let me explain why I’ve been there 10 times in the last month and I can’t get enough.

First it was the name.
​Ristretto. Like the short coffee you take at the counter while arguing about football.
Vicolo Coccapani. It’s the name of the street where it’s set, with one of the best views you can get of Ghirlandina tower.

​Then were the rumors I heard from different people, one of which is Massimo Bottura.
He said that “after service ends at Osteria Francescana around midnight, we all go there together and he [Gianluca, one of the owners] usually wants us to taste something, so we let him surprise us”.

​But if Osteria Francescana is that bottle of Bordeaux, stored for years in the cellar, that when you finally open it, it has to be great; then Ristretto is the flask you always put on the table and that you fill with the red wine bought from a local farmer, too good to be true.
​
Usually big expectations bring big disappointments. That’s not the case.

Ristretto is open from 11 am to 1 am.
During this time you can have:

- lunch. For a seasonal daily menu with classics like passatelli, garganelli, or pastrami burger. You won’t spend more than 16€ with a glass of wine and coffee.

- aperitivo. You can get just a cocktail, or beg Marcello to prepare an insanely good tagliere with cured meat from Antica Ardenga (second only to the one prepared by Rita at our new Parma food tour), cheese and gnocco fritto.

- dinner. The prices rise a bit, like the fantasy of the chef. It won’t be easy to choose between ravioli with goat cheese, artichokes and rosemary or potato gnocchi with kale. Low lights, relaxed atmosphere, great food.

I can say for their passatelli with squids, but you can’t taste the flavour through your phone screen.

I can say for the kindness of Marcello and Emanuele, but you can’t hear their big laugh from your headphones.

​​I can say because of the perfect quality/price ratio, but you can’t imagine how great Ristretto is until you’re there.

If you’re looking for a traditional menu with taglietelle al ragù and tortellini in brodo, Ristretto is not the place.
You can find them sometimes on the menu, but there’s always a pinch of creativity in their dishes.

Thinking of that, they opened Cucina di Quartiere, a bigger restaurant just outside the city centre focused on regional food.
​Of course I’ve tried it, of course it has to be on your list.

Ristretto Vicolo Coccapani
Vicolo Camillo Coccapani, 5, 41121 Modena MO
Tel. +39 059 839 6497
Closed on Sunday

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A legend of street art meets an ex-teacher with the passion for vintage during Russian October revolution.
​No, I’m not crazy. I’ve just visited 3 amazing art exhibitions in Bologna. You still have a few time to follow my steps.

Before Banksy, after Warhol. Keith Haring and his unique line is a myth that continues to be celebrated in every corner of the planet.

Since January 30th, the National Art Gallery of Bologna hosts 60 works by the American artist from public and private collections.

The exhibition focuses on the last years of Haring, from 1985 onwards, in which his line becomes harsher, determined and violent as his disease progresses.
A series of works with intense and gloomy tones, fundamental for understanding the contribution of the artist to contemporary visual culture.

Since you’re there, why not have a cup of tea with Carracci brothers, Giotto and Raffaello at Pinacoteca?

Where
Pinacoteca di Bologna
Via delle Belle Arti, 56, 40126 Bologna

When
Opening time: 11am – 7pm
Until February 25th, 2018

Tickets
3€

Contacts
Tel. 051 420 9406​
www.pinacotecabologna.beniculturali.it

Can a shop be a piece of art? Gavina’s showroom in Bologna is an answer but isn’t the only example.
Maurizio Marzadori worked as a teacher for 30 years after deciding to follow his passion and open Freak Andò: a hidden vintage shop inside a cloister in Via delle Moline.
The mystical charm of the place would already deserve a visit. But is Maurizio’s collection that makes it unique and got the attention of MoMa in New York.

The exhibition Tra futurismo e Decò shows Italian artistic renewal from 1920s to 1950s. But it’s not about paintings or statues.
Chairs, tin boxes, radios, wooden toys, cups and teapots, mirrors and cutlery: objects of daily use that are also real works of art.

Among the best pieces, a red statue of Pegasus created by Giovanni Gariboldi for Richard Ginori (1933), and a futurist box made of different woods by Fortunato Depero. 

Like pinball museum, Freak Andò is another hidden corner of culture between the streets of Bologna to carefully look for. 

Where
Freak Andò
Via delle Moline, 14

When
Opening time: Tuesday to Saturday 10am – 1pm, 3pm – 8pm
Until April 30th, 2018

Tickets
Free entrance

Contacts
Tel. 051 271404
​www.freakando.com

If story is a circle, like philosopher Vico said, we don’t have to forget what happened in Russia in January 1905.

More than 100,000 workers on the streets of St. Petersburg asked Tsar Nicholas II for freedom, civil rights and minimum wage.
The answer was fire on the front lines and the beginning of a new political and artistic phase.

An exhibition in MAMBo – Museum of Modern arts of Bologna retraces the years that brought to October Revolution through the eyes of the artists who observed, celebrated or rejected it.
From the initial euphoria of Ilija Repin’s paintings to the impossible ideals of Malevič, up to the ending ideological bunker of Pavel Filonov, the forgotten genius.

Revolutija is a way to impress in your eyes an era that we usually skip at school. Don’t miss it.

Where
MAMbo Museum of Modern Art of Bologna
​Via Don Giovanni Minzoni, 14, 40121 Bologna 

When
Opening time: Mon – Fri 8.30am – 6pm, Sat 9am – 1pm
Until May 13th, 2018

Tickets
14€

Contacts
​Tel. +39 0517168808
www.mostrarevolutija.it

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Wake up in the morning with daylight hitting San Petronio Basilica. Make breakfast with eggs and strawberry picked from a vegetable garden of a Villa. Come back at night to enjoy the paintings of an Iranian artist.
These are a few things you can do by choosing one of my 10 best Airbnb in Bologna.

1. Grandma Tina loved to read romantic novels in that terrace. To her is dedicated this attic in a 800′ palace that her daughter Silvia put back to life.
From the terrace you can Bologna’s skyline: the two towers, San Petronio and San Pietro’s Cathedral bell tower

Price: 50€
Type: full apartment
Find it on Airbnb

2. Probably Martina will never lose her Sardinian accent, but her heart is in Bologna. She renovated a small and cosy apartment close to Certosa cemetery, an underrated landmark of Bologna. Far from the crowded city centre, choose this to sleep in a authentic nice area of the city.

Price: 50€
​Type: full apartment
Find it on Airbnb

3. A nest, from which you can fly to discover Bologna. And come back to rest in harmony with the landscape. That’s how Annalisa describe its panoramic apartment in Cirenaica neighbourhood. A workers and family area just outside the city walls, perfect to start your visit as a local.

Price: 40€
​Type: full apartment  
Find it on Airbnb

4. The best way to enjoy one of our foods tours in Bologna without regrets, is to walk the steps of San Luca portico. Antonio’s apartment in the quiet of Saragozza neighbourhood is the perfect place to start your walk.   

5. A small studio-apartment near the train station furnished with vintage and recycled materials, like the beautiful bookcase made of wooden beams.

Price: 42€
Type: full apartment
Find it on Airbnb

6. An elegant old man with a fancy hat. Claudia’s apartment in Casa Machiavelli, an ancient house of 500′ century, looks like that.
A unique apartment, where new custom-made furnishings perfectly integrate with the vintage of the building.

7. Bolognina is an authentic and multicultural industrial neighbourhood outside the city walls. It worths a visit not only for a nice food market and my favorite Trattoria di Via Serra, but for being the most creative and artistic area of Bologna.
You can feel this atmosphere at Barbara’s. Art events, photo shootings, readings in a nice apartment with industrial design touch.

Price: 87€
Type: full apartment
Find it on Airbnb

8. Corte Paradiso arises from the idea of hosting large groups of friends or globetrotting families always on the move.
It’s a small courtyard on two floors, with a nice outdoor area where you can have cappuccino for breakfast or dine with candle light and red wine.

Price: 170€
​Type: full apartment
Find it on Airbnb

9. Sara and Luca’s loft is made with love. Love for restoration, of a former mechanical workshop that they bought in 2013 after years of research. Love for design, with the selection of rough materials and the wise use of natural light. Love for good food, that you can prepare in the kitchen: a 4 meters black block and a huge wooden vintage tailor table.

Price: 275€
Type: full apartment
Find it on Airbnb

10. You can’t just walk by without notice it. Villa Benni was raised in 1924 by Alfredo Benni, an agronomist with lands in Bologna’s countryside. The present owners opens its gate to travelers and treat them like nobles: breakfast with home-made bread and cakes, rooms with fireplace and frescos and a huge park with vegetable garden to pick tomatoes and onions.

Price: 205€
Type: private room
Find it on Airbnb

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I’m not fond of entertainment parks (except Jurassic Park, that was great!) so when I first heard about FICO, the Eataly World food park who opens today in Bologna, I was a bit sceptical. Then I first visited it this summer while it was still in progress, met and talked with some of people behind it and my interest started to grow. Finally I’ve visited it and this is what I’ve found.

You can see people at work
Most of the kitchens are open and you can closely see the work of artisans and chefs. Like the old ladies from Campofilone, who prepare the egg dough for maccheroncini like XV century’ tradition. You can see them stretching the dough on large marble slabs, then wrap it in cotton cloths to slowly absorb moisture.
Where else you have the chance to see a Michelin star kitchen at work? It happens with “Il mare di Guido” a seafood restaurant from Rimini that offers haute-cuisine from Romagna straight to Bologna. I could stare at that window for hours, looking at the young chefs dancing through the stove.

It’s exclusive
FICO brought to Bologna things you can only find in here. A few examples?
The meat area at the entrance puts together some of the best Italian producers. The hams of Cinta Senese pigs of Savigni near the black pigs of Calabria, the Osteria of Culatello from Antica Ardenga, where you can eat between old furniture from a monastery, and the quality of Zivieri butcher. 
Innovation is provided by local company. Qbo from Bentivoglio produces jams and juices with a new method, using vacuum and pressure to avoid oxidation. The cooking is very fast but at low temperatures and the result is one of the best jam I’ve ever tried.

It’s unique
I’ve visited many food markets and fairs that may have inspired FICO, like San Lorenzo in Florence, Mercato di Mezzo in Bologna or even Borough Market in London or Boqueria in Barcelona. FICO is something new. Like all the new things some people will criticise it but it sets a new touchstone for food lovers.
I bet some of the places open now will change during time and there are still a few missteps during the path. But I have no doubts saying that FICO represents a good part of Italian food excellences and a unique way to discover them.

The entertaining part is not for me
Mini-golf, library, beach volley, soccer camp and in general all the entertaining area seemed to me a bit forced and not completely cohesive with the rest of the park. It has probably been created to help people spending a full day inside FICO and to relax between the lots of restaurants and food shops. For my personal interest I will skip it very often and pass to the next aquarium with mussels or the craft beer pub.

Aquarium with mussels

Not much about coffee
FICO confirms that one of the most important Italian products is still out of the trends of the moment. If you look for a good, well made, selected Italian coffee you won’t find it. There’s Lavazza stand, but that’s not exactly my synonymous of quality. Luckily we have created an amazing coffee course in Bologna to cover this lack.

Will you visit FICO? Have you been there already? Let me know your opinion about it.

FICO Eataly World
Via Paolo Canali 8 – 40127 Bologna (Italy)
Free entrance
Open from Monday to Sunday, 10am to 12pm
How to get to FICO
www.eatalyworld.it

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Andrea, where I can have the best tortellini in Bologna? I can’t remember how many times I’ve heard this question, but all the times I give a very vague answer. 
The truth is I usually don’t order tortellini at the restaurant. If you still haven’t left the website I explain the reason: tortellini for me and lots of bolognesi mean winter Sunday lunch with family, Christmas dinner with gifts and Panettone etc. It’s a special dish for special occasions, that takes time to be prepared, not something we have everyday and in every season. But every year there’s a way to find out which is the restaurant that makes the best tortellini. ​

Oct.4th is St.Petronio, a very important day for Bologna. Lots of celebrations, parties and one unique event for foodies. Tour Tlen(tortellino in our slang) Association created this event 6 years ago with the aim of having together the best chefs of Bologna and make them challenge on our most popular pasta.
Just 2 rules: 

1. the dough must be handmade with wood rolling pin 
2. the shape of tortellino must be the classic one.

Except those, every chef is free to create and innovate, mix and combine. 
Tortellino Festival takes place in the stunning hall of Palazzo Re Enzo and in 2017 hosted 24 different chefs.
​With 20€ you can have 5 different tasting of tortellini.

I carefully selected and tried 3 different tortellini:

Acqua Pazza
My first choice. I went straight to them to taste their fish tortellini with ray, anchovies, buffalo mozzarella in butter and truffle sauce. I’ve first run into this fish restaurant just outside Bologna at Mangirò food walk, where they prepared an amazing shrimp with gazpacho, and I was looking forward to meeting them again. Hardcore bolognesi can be skeptical about a fish tortellino, but for me it was just a perfect and well balanced dish.

Ristorante Cesoia
I was scrolling down Facebook newsfeed when I encountered a photo of a red&blue tortellini. I first thought about a well made work of Photoshop but then I read and realized it was an idea of Pietro Montanari. This young chef has a family tradition in Bologna and took Ristorante Cesoia by the hands of his grandfather 3 years ago. But how to make it look like them? I’m curious, I asked him. He decided to separate the filling: on the red one he mixed in the dough the pork loin and mortadella, for the blue ones he put the pollanca (pullet) with some squid ink and dried kale. This tortellini weren’t just an aesthetic divertissement, but a real example of the skills and imagination of this young guy.  

Massimiliano Poggi
Finally a classic tortellino. Cooked in beef and capon broth by the hands of Max Poggi, probably one of the most underrated chef of Bologna. Max is out of the Michelin Stars circuit and prefers to stay in the kitchen rather than walking around the tables, but his cuisine has nothing to envy to awarded restaurants of the area. He well combines modern techniques and grandmother’s tips, respects the tradition but looks forward to innovation and collaboration. A dinner at his restaurant in Trebbo di Reno worth a special occasion. Like a good bowl of hot tortellini.

Ristorante Cesoia
Via  Massarenti, 90/2d, Bologna
Tel. 051 340942
www.ristorantecesoia.it

Acqua Pazza
Via Murri, 168, Bologna
Tel. 051 443422
www.acquapazzabologna.it

Massimiliano Poggi
Via Lame, 65, Trebbo (BO)
Tel. 051 704217
www.mpoggi.it

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I’m always suspicious with popular restaurants on Tripadvisor. I had terrible experiences in the past and, even if it’s an essential tool to make our food tours in Bologna known, I don’t trust it that much. That’s probably the reason why it took me so long to visit Trattoria di Via Serra, #1 restaurant in Bologna on Tripadvisor. But I have another powerful tool in Bologna: very trusted foodies friends who kept repeating me how great it was. So I went. Curious to find out if Trattoria di Via Serra is the best restaurant in Bologna?

Flavio and Tommaso are from Zocca, a small village between the mountains of Appenino famous for tigelle, great cheese and an Italian singer (that I don’t like), where they owned Trattoria del Sole. They moved to Bologna in 2012, to bring the flavors of Appenini mountains directly to the city.
​This Trattoria takes its name from the street, Via Serra, where is set inside Bolognina neighbourhood. It’s not a fancy area, you don’t go to Bolognina for a drink or aperitivo: it’s a multi-cultural worker’s neighbourhood that rises close to the railway station, site of strikes and protests during the 70′s. So you need a good reason to go there.

Most of the suppliers are the same of the previous restaurant, so cheese comes from Caseificio Rosola and the organic flours from Mesini farm. 
​
I started with a simple antipasto made with tosone, the trimming of Parmigiano Reggiano, bacon and balsamic but you if available go straight to the crescente (tigelle) with mushrooms. But it was with first course that I was surprised: the out-of-menu green chitarra pasta with codfish, pine nuts and tomatoes will probably end up in one of my best dishes of 2017. If you prefer the tradition, handmade tagliatelle with ragù and tortelloni with ricotta cheese won’t disappoint you. 

The rabbit amongst the second courses is a must, hard to find in most of bolognese restaurants for the long process which needs. Leave space for the desserts like Torta Benassi, a chocolate cake without flour and yeast, or a cheesecake with visciole cherries.

One thing that surprised me is the attention to the details. You can feel that they care a lot about their customers. Not only for the warm welcoming or the cosiness of the place, but for the food itself. Bread arrives from Forno Brisa, one of the best bakeries in Bologna, and house wine (which usually sucks, you know that) was an organic red of unexpected quality. Even at Osteria Francescana, where I had around 6 waiters around the table, I didn’t feel such important. 

Is Via Serra the best restaurant in Bologna? If you’re looking for it, I don’t know if it’s the place. There are other great restaurants that maybe deserves this award (I Portici? Scaccomatto? Max Poggi?). But it’s not important. Flavio and Tommaso probably don’t even care. They just want you to be happy when, at the counter, you will have their home-made wild fennel amaro and you say goodbye with a smile, sure you will meet them again very soon.

Trattoria di Via Serra
Via Luigi Serra, 9/b, 40129 Bologna BO
Tel.051 631 2330
www.trattoriadiviaserra.it
Open everyday but Monday, Tuesday

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