Last week, I went on the IES Cultural Trip to Bologna. We escaped a very rainy Siena early Friday morning and arrived in the food capital
Bologna
around mid morning. After an authentic Bolognese meal, we spent Friday afternoon touring the city. Bologna has a wonderful vibe – metropolitan and sophisticated, yet still genuine and Italian. In the evening, IES took us out to dinner – a four course feast with vino rosso. Afterwards, I met up with friends who introduced me to the lively Bolognese nightlife.
The next day, we spent the morning making torelini, torteloni and tagliatelle. We stuffed the tortelini with pork and the torteloni with ricotta, parsley, raw eggs and nutmeg. We shaped the two into crescents and sliced the tagliatelle. After two hours of assembling, we sat down with antipasti – plates of mortadella, prociutto, cheese and ham and cheese bread. Our pasta slowly started to emerege dish by dish (including a spinach-lasagne: the best lasagne ever made).
Flower Market in Bologna
We returned to Siena late Saturday, and I spent Sunday in Siena. After a well-deserved lie-in, I went out to lunch overlooking the city. Afterwards, my friends and I went to see our friend Ennio’s soccer game twenty minutes outside of the city in the middle of Tuscany. It was a beautiful afternoon and Ennio’s team ended up winning!
More Fruit!
On Tuesday, my art history class climbed the unfinished, would-be façade of the Duomo. The Siena Duomo was meant to be the largest in Italy, but its construction halted after the Black Death. To this day, the unfinished skeleton of the façade stands next to the completed cathedral.
Check out more photo’s on my flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/89037797@N04/
Fruit at the Market in Bologna!