Emilia-Romagna

Actually we spent most of the day in Modena. We leisurely went to the station and took a regional train, half an hour’s trip, to Modena. Amr’s first priority was to check out the Enzo Ferrari museum which was a short walk, not in the heart of the city. To see this museum was about an hour’s duration and I happily read my kindle in the garden outside…Amr enjoyed it, and then we set out to see the sights of Modena. It is a small city, and very much quieter than either Rome, Venice or Bologna. No crowds, and no bustle, though a good feeling. They also do arcades along the streets which is attractive…we went to the Piazza Grande where there is the Duomo di Modena - one of the most beautiful we have ever seen (and we’ve seen many along our Caminos!)…the outside is the pink marble of this region and inside it is soft brown brick (I read that it was terracotta in an Italian description - but was a brick effect). It is Romanesque, built in the 11th century, and just lovely. A UNESCO world heritage site. Then we found the markets and loved wandering there (Balsamic vinegar di Modena of course is a specialty, but also tortellini seem to be special…). We chatted with a man at a stall and have found that tortellini are the tiny ones, tortelloni are the medium size ones (like the ones we have in Oz I would say) and the very big ones are tortellacci! Anyway, we had fun there, had some bread and cheese and a coffee/chocolate in a caffe and then headed back to the station, as we remembered the tortellini festival in Bologna, and the festival of San Petronio, the patron Saint of Bologna.

We got back at about 4.15pm, and had about an hour or so of downtime and then set off to see what was happening. Well, that was when the fun started…we walked down the main street - via dell’independenza - that goes right down from the station to the main square…and found that it had been closed off as a pedestrian area, with side streets leading into it, and it felt as if the whole of Bologna was out and about and celebrating the holiday. Such fun. We made our way to the tortellini area, and found that for €5 you could have tortellini OR a glass of wine, or a gelato, or cheese….and there was a long queue waiting for the experience, so we abandoned that idea, and went into the main square opposite the cathedral where many were gathering, found a table at a bar (you had to be quick, as soon as someone stood up the table was again occupied)…and we found we had a ringside seat for all the festivities, as soon there was singing from the cathedral, and a procession came right round the square. From time to time there was a very noisy banging and percussion din from a nearby building - at first I thought it was part of the action, but we decided it was protests against the religious traditions (in the recent elections Bologna was a centre of left wing sentiment!)…anyway, the church singing continued, and the din continued and it gradually got dark, with very lovely pink clouds…quite magic. Then we set off to find dinner and went down a nearby side street - all the eateries in this central area were buzzing - we again were lucky to get a table in the centre of it all and had a perfect meal (tortellini!), while watching the masses - young, old, families - all out and about!Read more