After spending the past few days in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, I’ve completely fallen in love with this absolutely delicious region.
For now, here’s an introduction in photos:
Bologna, Emilia-Romagna’s largest city, as seen from Piazza Maggiore, the heart of the city center. Bologna is a university city, a northern city, and a lesser touristed Italian city, and because of all those factors, you get a vibrant and local atmosphere.
Bologna is famous for its arches throughout the city — they actually run for more than 40 km! They were originally built to create more space for homes while leaving the street free for traffic. You see this style throughout cities in Emilia-Romagna.
Cured meats and red wine — I was in heaven. At this tiny shop in Bologna, we sampled salami and parmesan cheese with drops of balsamic vinegar as sweet as candy.
Our second stop in Emilia-Romagna was Castel del Rio, a town famous for its chestnuts. We gathered chestnuts while taking in the views in this bucolic corner of the mountains.
The most epic meal we’ve had in Emilia-Romagna so far was lunch at Gallo Ristorante in Castel del Rio — five enormous courses, starting with this lovely antipasto. That’s mushrooms and chicken liver pate on the crostini.
Our next stop was Rimini, Italy’s premier beach party town. Despite its Jersey Shore-esque reputation in the summer, Rimini actually has a tony, chi-chi side to it, filled with new designer shops, upscale nightlife, and chic boutique hotels.
And since we had landed on the Adriatic coast, of course we had to go out for seafood! This plate of crudo — Italian raw seafood — was our appetizer. The tuna and the raw shrimp were particularly fabulous.
The next day, we went to Sant’Agata Feltria, famous for its truffles. We went hunting for truffles with two dogs and found a few of these gems hidden in the ground. A white truffle this size is worth about 15-20 Euros.
Sant’Agata Feltria has its famous Truffle Festival every Sunday in October. There was an enormous market filled with so many delicious goodies — truffle cheese, truffle salami, jars of truffle sauce and more!
And that is just a taste of the delicacies that we experienced in Emilia-Romagna. Are you hungry yet?
Because I’ve got PLENTY more.
Many thanks to Emilia-Romagna Tourism and Wilde PR for hosting me on the Delicious Emilia-Romagna Blog Trip. All opinions, as always, are my own.
