Living Slowly in Bologna
I slowed down. After two years in Bologna I’ve reached a different pace of living, day by day.
Against the backdrop of an old city center that holds a strong historical heritage, smoothly navigable by bike, the lives of enthusiastic university students unfold. This fusion of lively social energy and centuries-old urban history awakens the senses and positions me differently toward daily life.
I began to become familiar with the typical arcades (portici). Crossing their 62 kilometers of picturesque passages, I gradually started paying attention to details. Each is characterized by wooden or stone columns, vaulted ceilings or brick-lined walls, time-worn house doors and shops. I began creating preferred routes just to admire the sunlight filtering through the roofs.
A quite number of shops are not branded, but artisanal and original. They may range from design shops to herbal shops, from literary cafés to traditional taverns, from modern bookstores to antique dealers - many of which hold real hidden treasures. A true local tradition that settled into my habits. It leaves the joy of discovering, from carpets and porcelain and furniture, paintings, vintage toys, LPs and books. Besides the well-known antiques market that is held in the city center every second Sunday of the month, several antique dealers are located in Via di Santo Stefano and Strada Maggiore.
City center is a mosaic of well-preserved medieval, Renaissance, and 19th-century architecture. Within a few hundred meters stands the Complex of the Seven Churches, an extraordinary ensemble of Early Christian, Romanesque and Gothic architecture, while a few steps away soars the medieval Torre degli Asinelli - nearly 100 meters of brick, and the Basilica di San Petronio, one of Italy’s grandest religious architecture.
In Piazza Galvani, once the site of the silk market, the colorful tables of the historic Caffè Zanarini - operating since 1930 - extend from the porticoes of the monumental Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio into the square. But I prefer to stop a few hundred meters away, at the Antico Caffè Scaletto, an intimate and charming bar open since 1921 and recently renovated in retro style: the buffet is always filled with miniature pastries. I’d prefer squeeze inside this small café and sense the city’s routine more than anywhere else.
Throughout the year, plants and flowers become part of the city’s rhythm, dressing it as the seasons change. In the old city center it is common during winter festivities to find small shops where florist-artists signal their presence through joyful window displays. Some of them are hidden in the narrow streets, such as Frida’s on Via di Santa Margherita, Fleur d'Âme on Piazza Minghetti or Quadrilatero Fiorito, on Via Drapperie.
On a sunny Sunday, I saw a large palm tree carried onto a bus. Then rosemary plants under people’s arms. Then a Monstera, neatly wrapped in a paper bag. During spring and summer Bologna hosts two traditional events dedicated to plants and flowers: in April Piazza Minghetti hosts an exhibition of trendy plants and flowers - from roses to aromatic herbs - while during May and September the Giardini Margherita is the venue for a large exhibition of flowers, a real festival of greenery. This seasonal opportunity gradually developed into a habit - tending to living things, of cultivating beauty and feeling grounded the passing of the seasons.
There’s an activity that requires a true suspension of time: becoming immersed and focused in a kaleidoscope of books across the city’s libraries. While Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio, the former seat of the University, houses the large Coop Zanichelli Bookshop which stocks a wide variety of catalogues of major publishers, few steps away the Stoppani Library is mainly dedicated to literature for young readers, featuring many illustrated books. It is a temptation to feel like children again.
Culinary artistry it’s one of the reasons behind the city’s reputation - still, quite honestly, mainly untouched by an overly tourist-driven approach. Traditional local cuisine vary from fresh tortellini, to aromatic tagliatelle al ragù, to the intense scent of mortadella. This craft-based tradition has, over the years, sparked my curiosity to deepen the knowledge of it - and even try making some dishes at home.
Street food blends perfectly into a stroll through the arcades and the streets of the old town, keeping the rhythm of the city’s summer evenings. MortadellaLab enhances the traditional mortadella in different combinations of seasoned rosetta. Traditional trattorias otherwise needs to slow down and settle in. They are appointments, gathering people around a table when, in winter, the city is silenced by cold air or a rare snowfall. Their warmth keeps the evening alive. Places like the small Trattoria di Via Serra preserve an authentic Emilian environment and simple yet tasty recipes - even in a dish as straightforward as their ricotta-filled tortelloni.
Bologna enters personal experience little by little, without raising its voice. Its rhythms are not immediately evident; they work with care and precision on small, everyday gestures. They are almost unnoticeable—understated—yet they develop day after day, for those who stay and for those who simply pass through.