A little Nutella, a lot of Bologna

February 5th, 2007 · Tags: Bologna · Italy · Nutella Day

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What a Monday! Caught between two big-activity days for me - the Super Bowl is usually one of my favorite events of the year, even before I started working in advertising…because I like the ads! By now being out of the country doesn’t stop my enjoyment - the ads are already on YouTube or debut directly there anyway. You can skip the game entirely!

And tomorrow is World Nutella Day! Are you ready? Remember to send us your information when you’ve posted your contribution - send an email to nutelladay **at** nutelladay **dot** com with your post URL, and a 100×100pixel picture if applicable.

We spent the weekend visiting friends in Bologna. My first and last visit to Bologna was in 1999, while I was studying abroad here. While I enjoyed my trip, I’d never been back. I always seemed to have another trip pulling me in a different direction. But I’ve definitely been missing out. Bologna is the type of city that makes you feel small but doesn’t alienate you from its secrets.

I didn’t post all my pictures here - if you’d like to see more pictures of Bologna, view my Bologna photoset on Flickr.

The main piazza, Piazza Maggiore, has a way of overwhelming you and welcoming you at the same time with its large spaces that are vertically dominated. You can tell it’s a university town - there is an abundance of youth that I haven’t seen in any other Italian city, and it reminded me quite a bit of San Francisco. Like SF, almost every person you pass has their own style and vibe different from the next.

Piazza Maggiore

San Petronio, the basilica in the middle of Piazza Maggiore, technically has an unfinished facade, but I like the texture. The center has such majestic buildings concentrated all together with small roads radiating out from the main piazza in every direction.

San Petronio from afar

San Petronio's texture

Now I’ve seen at least five leaning towers in the world - Pisa, Venice (2), and these two, Asinelli and Garisenda.

Asinelli and Garisenda - Leaning Towers of Bologna

I love the “uniform” of men at this age in Italy. You must have a hat, probably a fedora, and your trusty jacket to walk with a friend or sit on a bench and watch life go by. You can see that it’s still considered quite warm for early February as their jackets are open.

Sunday Passeggiata in Bologna

The covered walkways of Bologna are one of its most unique and useful features of the city. We weren’t worried about rain with most of the streets being covered. Bologna also has so many buildings and palazzi in various shades of red that it gives off a warm feeling, and when the sun came out on Sunday, we sat in Piazza Santo Stefano and soaked up the rays.

Perspective

Ironically, there’s a Nutelleria in Bologna - a cafe dedicated to Nutella and serves only things with Nutella - crepes, waffles, corn flakes, filled donuts! It was closed when we went by, which is fine with me since in these days I’ve been overdosing a bit and was glad for the break from Nutella.

Nutelleria

Nutelleria - Via Independenza, 45 - Bologna

We’ll be back, Bologna.

5 Comments

5 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Isabelle // Feb 5, 2007 at 2:13 pm

    I’m having something like a Nutella overdose myself too ! Actually I had eaten none of it for 2 or 3 years (the only way to avoid emptying the jar in 2 days, with a spoon…) and because of you and Shelley, I bought a jar on Friday and had a terrible week-end lol !!
    Eager to see your entry tomorrow ;-)

  • 2 nyc/caribbean ragazza // Feb 5, 2007 at 3:23 pm

    I just saw a Samantha Brown’s show Passport to Europe show on Bologna yesterday. She was saying after being in Venice and Florence it was nice to be a city that was not over run with tourists. It looks beautiful and I hear the food is great. It’s on my list of places to visit.

  • 3 Ms. Adventures in Italy // Feb 6, 2007 at 10:09 am

    Isabelle, I look forward to your entry!! :)
    NYC, I can’t wait to go back - it was so cheap from Milan!

  • 4 tracie b // Feb 6, 2007 at 11:16 am

    e come si mangia! mamma mia:)

  • 5 Jackie // Feb 14, 2007 at 12:06 pm

    great little trip. i’m crazy about bologna. come down a little further to le marche sometime and hang out!

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