27 hours in Bologna

What do you do when you only have 27 hours in Bologna? Eat lots of gelato, walk everywhere and drink beer of course.

Our 27 hours in Bologna were inspired by this article by the New York Times.


Monday

1. Hotel Porta San Mamola | 12pm

We arrived from Athens around 11am, caught the bus into town and walked to Hotel Porta San Mamola. This was a random find on Trip Advisor and a fantastic one at that. Charming, sweet and the most lovely backyard terrace / garden connecting the various small buildings of the hotel. Oh and a oh-so-sweet breakfast included? Yes. Please.

2. Mercato di Mezzo | 1pm

Fantastic little Italian food market / court. Lots of food vendors to select from -- pasta, pizza, sandwiches, seafood, coffee, etc. We chose some yummy little sandwiches (no pictures -- we were starving and demolished the sandwiches quickly -- SO GOOD). There was also a little brewery here. Yes. We had read about the craft brewery scene here in Bologna so we planned to explore but were happy to find a little brewery to enjoy while we ate lunch. 

3. Asinelli Towers | 2pm

After our sandwiches and beer, we decided we were ready for some exercise. 498 steps of exercise. Each way. The stair are narrow, small and wind around the interior of the tower. Talk about Vertigo. I pretty much blitzed it up the stairs, only stopping when I was out of breath. I knew if I stopped I may freak out. Whew. Made it to the top -- gorgeous views all around. Apparently this is one of 24 towers (out of originally over 100) in Bologna. We did not attempt to climb any other towers. 

MADE IT. 

4. Gelato. All the gelato. | 3pm 

We deserve an award for not freaking out climbing up all those steps. Lonely Planet advised at least 8 different Gelaterias. We set about to find as many as we could. 

Stefinos Bio - Kind of like a Molly Moon gelateria. More unique flavors. Although like Molly Moon, we found it underwhelming. 

Sorbetteria Castiglione - Easily our favorite of the day. So much so we went their twice. Once in the afternoon and a second time later in the evening. Hands down the best Niccola (hazelnut) we've had. Oh and their sorbetto was AMAZING. I had strawberry and apricot the first time. Peter had banana and pineapple the second. Delicious. 

5. Nap Time | 4pm

After waking up at 6:30am (going to bed at 12:30am), we were pooped. Back to the hotel for a little nap. 

6. Dinner time at Ranzani13 then Da Maro | 8:30pm

The New York Times article mentioned this little pizza brew pub just outside of the center. We checked times on Google and trekked our way across the city (about a 30 minute walk from our hotel). Well GOOGLE LIES. It was closed. Really probably should have called but what 'cha going to do. Head to a little restaurant by the brewery we were going to go to anyways... We ended up at Da Maro, just down the block from Birra Cerqua (more on that next). It was pleasantly crowded with Italians. Figured that was a good sign, so we winged it and walked in. Turns out it's a Sicilian restaurant in Bologna. So not exactly typical fair for this city, but it was good. We had some seafood arancini and two pastas. Pete's was delicious (squid ink pasta with calamari), mine was not to my tastes. I'm sure it was excellent for what it was but I did not care for it (pasta with nuts, raisins, breadcrumbs and sardines -- I did not care for the sardines, WAY too salty). 

7. Birra Cerqua | 10pm

A real honest to goodness craft brewery in Bologna. Brewing facilities onsite -- looked to be maybe a 5 barrel system. 4 beers: a pale, a whit / white, an american IPA, and a English porter. All very good. We had a pint of the whit (pleasantly spicy and crisp) and the pale (nicely hoppy, good malts). Great little neighborhood spot. 

Tuesday

8. Breakfast at the Hotel | 9:30am

A stay at Hotel Porta San Mamola includes a lovely buffet breakfast on their terrace and breakfast room. Meat and cheese, toast, croissants, yogurt, eggs, coffee and juice. Fantastic. 

9. Check out and more Gelato | 11am

We had a couple hours to kill before catching our train to Florence (where we'd pick up our rental car), so we decided to find a couple more gelaterias. 

Gelateria Gianni - Oh yum. There were easily 20+ flavors to try here. Pete had something with a nutella fudge thing with crispy rice. I had some hazelnut nutella thing with whole hazelnuts folded in. I want to go back to there.  

Gelateria Galleria 49 - This was probably my second favorite place. As we had just tried gelato at Gelateria Gianni, we decided to go with sorbetto here. This was a good life choice. Peter had raspberry and blueberry. I had strawberry and lemon. Oh so tart but oh so good. 

We found Bologna to be a wonderful city. I wish we'd stayed longer. It was extremely walkable and bike friendly. Very few tourists or tourist shops which was so very refreshing. There were porticos on nearly every building making walking in the shade (or out of the rain) so easy and for that matter -- beautiful. You can walk across the historic center in no more than 30 minutes (which we proved several times, cross-crossing for gelato). We will definitely return.