Where Italy comes to eat.
Tortellini folded by hand, Parmigiano cracked open at the source, a Ferrari warmed up in Maranello and 38 kilometres of portico in between. What each tour is really like, what it costs, and where to book.
Seven the whole city agrees on.
First trip or fifth, these carry a visit: the food walk through the Quadrilatero’s stalls, a morning folding tortellini with a sfoglina, the Ferrari museum that books out weeks ahead.
City Center Walking Tour
Bologna city center on foot with a certified guide. See Neptune Fountain, San Petronio, the towers, and Quadrilatero Market for $26.
From $26 per person
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Maranello is closer than you think.
Half an hour past Modena the road fills with the sound of tuned V8s. Walk the Ferrari museum, strap into a 488 on the Fiorano circuit, stand in the Lamborghini factory where the Countach was born, then back in Bologna for dinner.
Which food day is yours?
Everyone eats well in Bologna; the question is how you spend the day around it. Three ways to do it. Pick the one that sounds like you, and every tour behind it is already reviewed and priced.
Graze the stalls
The market crawl
3 hours 30 minutes (approx.) · from $118 · 1,328 reviews
Follow a local through the Quadrilatero’s lanes, plate by plate: mortadella sliced paper-thin, tortellini in brodo, squacquerone on warm crescentina, a glass of Pignoletto to wash it down. Half a morning, and you leave understanding what La Grassa means.
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Hands in flour
The pasta class
3 hours (approx.) · from $59 · 527 reviews
Roll the sfoglia thin enough to read through, then pleat tortellini or cut tagliatelle for a proper ragù the way a Bolognese nonna would. You eat what you make, usually with wine. The most useful souvenir you can carry home.
See the cooking classes →
Out to the source
The producers’ run
4 to 5 hours (approx.) · from $151 · 601 reviews
Into the food valley at dawn: a Parmigiano dairy cracking a wheel at the moment of tasting, a prosciutto cellar in Parma, a balsamic acetaia where barrels outlive their owners. The real thing, at the door it comes from.
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The evening starts with a spritz.
By seven the Quadrilatero’s counters turn to wine and cicchetti, students spill onto Via del Pratello, and Osteria del Sole pours for anyone who brings their own plate. The trick is knowing which door to open first.
Nobody here eats in a hurry.
Bologna eats like it means it: a board of mortadella and squacquerone, tagliatelle under a slow-cooked ragù, gelato on the walk home. If you book three food hours in this city, make them these.
Things with engines.
Test-drive a Ferrari on the roads it was built for, ride shotgun in a Lamborghini, or stand nose-to-nose with the cars from the posters. Bring your licence: some of these put you behind the wheel.
Nine hundred years, all under cover.
Thirty-eight kilometres of portico, the longest of them climbing 666 arches to San Luca. The world’s oldest university still keeps its anatomy theatre carved in spruce. Climb the Asinelli tower for the roofline, then let a guide read the city back to you.
One region, five good days.
The old city rewards slow mornings; the food valley rewards a day trip. Bologna for the porticoes and the market. Modena for balsamic and Ferrari. Parma for the ham. Ferrara for the walls.
Pick your kind of day.
Twelve ways into the same region. Choose the one that sounds like your kind of day, and every tour behind it is already reviewed and priced.
An hour out, home for dinner.
The regional trains make short work of the map. Balsamic cellars in Modena, Parmigiano dairies past Parma, Ferrari at Maranello and the walled quiet of Ferrara are all a morning away, and back in time for aperitivo.
Three days, one appetite.
You can’t eat all of Emilia in one trip; you can absolutely do the right three days. This is the run we’d hand a friend stepping off the train at Bologna Centrale tomorrow.
Day 1
Settle into the red city
Piazza Maggiore at opening, the Quadrilatero for a tasting lunch, the Asinelli tower for the roofline, then aperitivo as the porticoes light up.
Plan day one →
Day 2
A day in the kitchen
Fold tortellini with a sfoglina in the morning, out to a Parmigiano dairy and a prosciutto cellar in the afternoon, dinner back under the arches.
Plan day two →
Day 3
The road to Maranello
The regional train to Modena for a balsamic cellar, on to the Ferrari museum, a lap of Fiorano if you’re brave, home by dinner.
Plan day three →
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