Emilia-Romanga is said to be Italy’s food capital, boasting some Italy’s most well-known and well-loved products… think Parma ham, Balsamico di Modena, Mortadella Bolognese, and none other than Spaghetti Bolognese¹! I visited the region for the first time recently, spending the vast majority of my time in Bologna, but I also had a chance to visit Modena, and the Ferrari museum in Maranello, and there is much that I want to say.

I decided to split my thoughts in two articles, Slow Food², where I share my revised thoughts on Italian food and a few Emilian dishes, and Fast Cars, where I share my thoughts on everything else.

This is part 2: Fast Cars. Slow Food can be found here.

Bologna City

A City that Never Sleeps

My first impression of the city is one to be remembered: I arrived past midnight, but just in time for the last scheduled Marconi express train which boasts a 7 minute ride to the city centre. I rushed past the airport buzz to the train station, only to find that the electronic gates were off, as indicated by an aggressive red light emanating from them. How could this be the case, when the departure board clearly showed the live arrival time of the train, indicating that it was due to arrive in 5 minutes?? I waited and waited, with dwindling hopes of the gates magically opening… only to suddenly have the lights of the station turn off! As per the dear departure board, the train was 1 minute away, but I guess it had forgotten about us.

With drooped shoulders I arrived back at the ground floor to grab a cab, only to be greeted with a massive queue of at least a 100 people. I hoped that cabs would be frequent, but there seemed to be none³! I knew that my best chance was to grab a bus to the center, which had at least a 30 minute wait time.

The bus was packed like sardines, and smelt like Primark on a busy and crowded day. I couldn’t get to the centre of the bus to pay, and so near the front entrance to the bus I stood, hoping that people would get out, rather than in. The bus driver must have sensed the mood in the bus, his 6th sense active, understanding the mood in the bus, as he drove assertively through the city to get us to the center as soon as possible. I paid on exit, and was delighted with a bill of only 1.5 euros! This seemed a far better option than the rickety⁴, unreliable and obnoxiously overpriced Marconi Express!

I was greeted by a city that was seriously vibrant for a Thursday night at 1:30 am!

The Bolognese

I would not describe the Bolognese as smiley, for it is rare to see it on their faces as they are going about their day. However, you would be immensely mistaken to assume that this is a sign of them being unfriendly: on the contrary, once you break the barrier of strangerhood⁵ you are introduced to warmness that you wouldn’t even expect from yourself if you lived in such a touristy country. I felt very happy that my meme-level Italian was in no way an impediment to being treated with kindness and respect – something that can be quite rare in Western Europe.

I assume that the Bolognese are very well read people, for there is bookstore in every corner of the city. Strangely though, for a city that sits in the heart of Italy’s food capital, I found the cookbook sections of the bookstores lacking! But I did find a few interesting ones that I was seriously tempted to buy:

What’s Up With The Cops?

Despite my best efforts to fit in as a local, with my olive skin and statuesque Roman nose, the cops could see right through me, for they stopped everyone and their mother but me. I’m not asking to be stopped… but hey I was feeling a bit left out! What the cops were looking for is beyond me, but what I found very curious is that there were so many different types of police, sometimes all in the same place. I spotted at least four types:

• City police
• Regional police
• Military police
• Security police

And each had a costume goofier than the next (particularly their hats). It was rather sad to see that most of them were young, and I mean really young, just over 20 I would say.

The Enemy of Pedestrians

The city is interesting enough (and big enough) that I could see myself living in it… if it weren’t so hostile to pedestrians! For once I don’t even blame drivers, but rather the city planners who seem to have put space for everything on Bologna’s streets but pedestrians. There are streets with cycle paths but no sidewalks… and how a city can be more friendly to cyclists and pedestrians was a thought often interrupted by my survival instincts kicking in to avoid getting hit.

And we need to talk about the elephant in the room: the traffic lights are timed so horribly for pedestrians. You’ll have traffic lights spaced quite far from one another, forcing all the pedestrians who need to cross to clog the rest of the barely existing sidewalks waiting for their turn to cross the road… but unlike other cities were you don’t need to wait too long for the lights to change, you have to wait excruciatingly long times in Bologna. I dreaded each time I had to cross the street when I was there.

Screaming Walls

One of the most fascinating things about the city is the amount of political graffiti/street art that one sees, and these were mostly dominated by pro-Palestine slogans while I was there (I lost count at some point, but it would not be a stretch to say that I saw at least 50!). I found it interesting that they went beyond the simple “Free Palestine” slogans that you see elsewhere – perhaps another sign that the Bolognese are well read.

What I found quite bold was the giant “Feed Gaza” poster hung outside the city hall. This is in massive contrast to other major cities in Western Europe, that often have Israeli flags draped over their city halls.

There were a couple of nods to the “Women Life Freedom” movement too, with a beautiful mural of Jina Mahsa Amini.

Hidden Gems of the City

Bologna city centre is beautiful, and it is bustling with restaurants packed to the brim, so it is very easy to just go with the flow of people and not pay attention to the buildings around you. However, if you do, you’ll find a few quirks that may bring out the hidden child in you!

The first quirk is that one of the two towers in Bologna city centre is leaning, much like the tower of Pisa. In fact it is leaning to the same angle! I found that it made for some very nice photos, contacting the other buildings around it.

The second quirk is that Bologna, much like Venice, used to have many canals running through it. However, over time these canals have been completely filled in. There is one publicly visible canal, aptly named Little Venice, that you can still see.

In my case, I couldn’t spot the blue viewpoint (which is the one I was really curious to see) as it was hidden beside the entrance to a restaurant! So I scoured the entire neighborhood to find it, and as I was doing that I noticed a second canal on the map. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t get a good view of the canal, as it only seems accessible by certain residents of the buildings surrounding it!

The third quirk, is that there is an arch in the city centre that acts like a whispering wall, where if whisper into it on one corner, a person standing on the opposite corner will be able to hear you. Despite this being mentioned online in multiple places, my companions and I were the only ones trying to make it work… and this had the effect of getting all the other tourists who passed us to get curious and try it as well! Below is a picture of me looking like an idiot speaking into a wall!

The final quirk, and this is truly a hidden feature of the city for you need to have a seriously dirty mind to spot it, is to do with the statue of Neptune (or more commonly known as Poseidon).

The statue itself, in my humble opinion, exceeds the baseline of Italian statues in kinkiness and homoeroticism. But if that’s not enough, then all you need to do is to change your perspective, which allows you to reimagine Poseidon with a fat hog as a opposed to a micropenis!

Modena and Maranello

I spent a very brief time in Modena and Maranello, so I don’t have too much to share. However, in this time I did get to visit the Ferrari museum in Maranello, and had a few impressions of Modena.

Modena

Unlike Bologna, the vibe that you get walking through this city is “Old Money”. It’s hard to say exactly what made me feel this way, but I would guess it’s the combination of the well-kept buildings, the abundance of furniture stores and people who are older, and who dress fancy. The city is very small, so I found that it got quite repetitive after a few hours. I would see myself going there to dine, but not much more, at least not in this current phase of my life.

I did notice an interesting form of protest in Modena though. I can only assume that what you see below is about the massacres of children in Gaza:

Ferrari Museum

I was rather disappointed to see that the museum had omitted all detail about what Ferrari was doing during fascist Italy. From a brand protecting perspective, this makes sense, but I had hoped for a bit more responsibility.

It was doubly disappointing to see a photo of Enzo Ferrari with the disgraced King Leopold as one of “Ferrari’s loyal clients”. I’m still not sure which is worse: at least the omission of Ferrari’s involvement with fascist Italy is an admission of wrong. The fact that the museum is completely oblivious to the horrors inflicted on the Congolese under Leopold’s Congo Free State is an indication that the conversation is really behind, and that we must always remember that there are victims whose voices we don’t even hear. For an introduction to the topic, I recommend the Rest is History‘s series on Congo Free State.

Some of the classic cars were very nice to look at though.

Other Cool Things I Noticed

Spanish Makes Your Italian Worse

Prior to this trip, I was hoping that my slowly improving Spanish skills⁶ would help me read and understand Italian better.

After this trip, I’m convinced that honing my French skills would have been more suitable, for my little knowledge of French from school a decade ago was more helpful!

For instance:

• mangare is to eat in Italian, which is very similar to manger in French, and completely different to comer in Spanish
• Ho bisogno is to need in Italian, which is very similar to j’ai besoin in French (both literally translate to “I have need”). In Spanish it is yo necesito

I know very little French and even less Italian so take this next statement with a pinch of salt, but I feel that French is to Italian, what English is to Spanish in terms of being able to transfer knowledge from one language to another.

On another note, I learnt that that “particulare” in Italian does not directly translate to “particular” in English. This is because a waitress at a restaurant told me:

• “I would recommned this dish, because it has more of a particular taste”

And I understand that she must have meant, special or interesting.

So if you are learning languages, and trying to transfer knowledge from one language to another, be very careful about these small intricacies.

Condoms and COVID Tests

I found it really cool that there were health product dispensers in the city.

I think this is an excellent way to promote sexual wellbeing. Some of these also had pregnancy tests too. I did wonder how up to date these products are though, as if you pay close attention to the dispenser above, it is even selling COVID tests!

Final Thoughts

Emilia-Romagna is know for its food, but there is much more going on, especially in the major city of Bologna. If you visit the region for food, do give yourself some time to see the other side of it too, for it may open your mind and challenge your perceptions!

1. Which is technically not Italian, I know. ↩︎
2. Yes, this is a nod to Massimo Bottura’s incredible cookbook Slow Food Fast Cars ↩︎
3. I later found out that Bologna limits the number of cab licenses it issues massively, and that Uber is banned. ↩︎
4. While I haven’t been on it (and for the record: I don’t intend to), I’ve heard this from a couple of independent sources. 1.5 EUR bus is the way to go. ↩︎
5. Yes, I just made that word up. ↩︎
6. A growth which has sadly slowed down again 😦 ↩︎