Bologna Foodie Tour May 8, 2015

Bologna Foodie Tour 

First stop Majano Chocolate shop.  Chocolate was first brought to Europe by the Spanish who obtained it from the Aztec's while exploring Mexico.

Majani was the first chocolate maker to produce hard chocolate from the liquid drinks that were enjoyed by European aristocracy and clergy through the late 1700's. 

Up until the late eighteenth century, chocolate only existed in liquid form and was drunk exclusively by the aristocracy and the clergy, and only subsequently did this sybaritic delight start to spread to other sectors of society, beginning with the wealthy merchant classes. These were just the years when news began to spread about a small artisan confectionery-maker with the adjacent Teresa Majani shop, named the "Laboratorio delle Cose Dolci" (literally "Workshop of Sweet Things"), which had been opened right beside the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna in 1796: this would be the seed of a renowned Company and Family of Master Chocolate makers.

Majani is known for its fine chocolate as well as for the signature FIAT cubes of chocolate and "gianduia" cream of hazelnut and almonds that inaugurated the first FIAT car in 1911.   They were delicious.

The tastefully designed and classically European paper wraps are a prelude to the finest selection of products, including dark and milk chocolate, hazelnuts, almonds, nougat, gianduia, and fruit candies.

After tasting 4 or 5 different chocolates, we moved on.

Bologna is renowned for its cuisine, and for good reasons. This is the hometown of tortellini and mortadella,tagliatelle and ragù, among many other delicacies. Bologna boasts in fact one of the richest culinary traditions in Italy.

To experience this richness, we headed to the old medieval market and food shopping area, the Quadrilatero, whose tiny cobblestone streets are framed within a quadrilateral area by Piazza Maggiore, via Rizzoli, via Castiglione and via Farini. The market has occupied the same area in the city center since Roman times; its height was during the Middle Ages when, besides the many shops, it was home to the headquarters of many corporations of merchants which had begun to acquire great power with the shift to a new monetary economy. The little streets within the Quadrilatero take their names from the shops and corporations that used to be based there: via Pescherie is where the fishmongers concentrated, via Orefici housed the goldsmiths, via Caprarie was home to the butchers selling sheep and goat meat, via Drapperie was for the upholsterers, and so on.

This shop was originally where knives were sharpened.  Now he mostly sells knives and other culinary products.

A meat and cheese shop

types of meats and cheeses made in Emilia Romagno

There  are also many restaurants in the Quadrilatero area.  This unusual and very old one, Osteria el Sole, serves only beer and wine.  

Buy your Bolognese/Italian ham, sausage or cheese in one of the little streets or on the market, don't forget a piece of freshly baked Italian bread to go with it from the bakery in the next street. Go in to the bar, ask for a glass of wine or beer for about 2 Euro and voila you have lunch.  Sit down at communal tables and enjoy the locals and the atmosphere.  Oh yes, and bring your own water if you want, because they only sell beer and wine.

We went in and there was a table full of local men playing cards and the decor can 

only be described as "eclectic old stuff".  Our guide told us the locals will likely strike up a conversation if you go in for lunch.  

We plan to go back and try this for lunch one day soon.

Our guide pointed out a number of some old some new shops that have really quality products.

We then strolled down to the Chamber of Commerce which is not a tourist destination.  The Chamber has many of its offices in Palazzo Affari but the head offices are in Palazzo della Mercanzia, the old market square.  

We went there to get copies of the old Bolognese recipes that are registered with a solemn decree of the Accademia Italiana della Cucina – the Italian Academy of Cuisine.  They have all been notarized and deposited in the Palazzo della Mercanzia, the Chamber of Commerce of the City of Bologna.  As we all went in, we got a look at a couple of rooms in the old building.  Various Coats  of Arms.

A lovely old Medieval room with a beautiful mable floor and around the ceiling

various paintings of different businesses that operated in the markets

Gathering the free recipe books

And here it is - the real Bolognese sauce, how to make pasta the bolognese way right down to the exact width and thickness of theTagliatelle, and other sauces, meat, vegetable and dessert recipes.

On our way now to actually taste some of the local product

Our destination

Many shops are very small and just spill out into the street.  This lookes like one of them.  Tables and stools outside, but when you go in what looks like a meat and cheese shop with products to go

there is an upstairs where you can sit down and be seved

from the delicacies in the cases below

Very quaint decor

Our little group four young ladies from Hamburg, Germany, Moi and Terry and Linda Mitchell who is from New Zealand but lives in Perth Australia'  They brought us our choice of local red or white wines, and a platefull of Mortadella, Prosciutto, Salami and Parmesan Cheese witha warm flat bread.  Nummy stuff.

As you all know Miss Terry is and eater and wanted dinner.  Linda is traveling alone and we ask her to join us and so she did.  We went to a restaurant down the street that had been recommended by our guide, but without a reservation, we could not get in until 9:00 PM too late for us old folks.

We walked up around the corner to an outdoor restaurant.  We had to wait maybe 5 minutes, but the waiter took us in the bar and the served us a glass of wine for free.  I love this city

We sat down outside and got better acquainted with Linda.  She works in the Australian mining industry.  She drives great big dump trucks loaded with GOLD and other ores.  Hmmmmm, and here she is backpacking around Europe alone.  Did some of that gold fall off the truck???  She is staying in hostels, so perhaps not.  Ha.  She is delightful and we had a great time talking.  She leaves tomorow to meet a friend in Tuscany where they will spend a week.  We exchanged emails and will try to stay in touch.  We have met such great people on this adventure.