I'm having trouble getting my post about Bologna to publish. I got it to publish text, so now I'll publish "chunks"


Kim and I made a two-day excursion to Bologna. We left Macerata on the 6:29 a.m. train to Civitanova, where we had to wait 43 minutes for our connection. Our train got into Bologna just after 10:30 a.m. (what would be a 2 1/2 hour drive ends up 4 hours by train). A digression about the cost: we paid 19 Euros each to go to Bologna and 22 to return. There was a promotion to get people through Civitanova, I guess, and so that was discounted. You know, I just pay what they tell me.
In Bologna we met up with family. The picture shows my cousin Nico (who I haven't seen since 1972), Kim, my cousin Cetta and my brother Jack.
Bologna is well-known, among Italians and Americans, as a real city for foodies. I'm standing in front of Tamburini, a well-known and oft-visited shop with fresh pastas, meats and cheeses. Several US public TV cooking shows have visited, as well as Lynn Rosetto Kaspar, host of "The Splendid Table" on public radio and author of the definitive Emiglia Romagna regional cookbook of the same name. As you might expect we ate in Bologna. For lunch, Cetta took us to lunch at Trattoria del Rosso, a good place with traditional regional foods. For appetizer we got crescentine, a sort of fried bread that is served with all sorts of accompaniments. We had mortadella, sausage, cheese (if you get it for dessert, you can get it with Nutella). For dinner, Cetta and her husband Stefano took us to Ristorante Merlo, more upscale than where we went for lunch but also a good restaurant with an excellent offering of authentic regional food. As always, I wanted authentic local food, so I opted for the tortellini in a butter and sage sauce.

Don't you think Stefano looks like the old actor James Coco (he died in '87 - you younger readers won't remember him)? Cetta and Stefano are the ones I referred to in an earlier post, who visited the US and commented on the lack of gates/outer doors. She told me when she read my blog, she knew I was talking about them and told Stefano "he's talking about us!" Cetta walked us around the center of Bologna, dominated by Piazza Maggiore.