Bologna: from Prosciutto to Post-Impressionism

by Alex Porter

Piazza Magiore, Bologna

This year in August I visited the ‘foodie’ city of Bologna in the North of Italy. Bologna is most famous for its food delicacies such as Prosciutto di Parma, Parmigiano Reggiano and Mortadella cheese.The city of course, is also most famous for what we know as ‘spaghetti bolognaise’ although the Italian dish is different from the one that we know as it is made with beef/veal and pork mince and does not contain tomatoes, but instead incorporates carrots, celery and dry red wine. Tagliatelle is served with it rather than spaghetti. Pizza is also made differently in Bologna. The regional pizzas in Bologna differ from Naples, the ‘home of Pizza’ which goes for a soft, thick crust; in Bologna, they focus on a more crunchy and thinner crust. 

Tagliatelle Bolognese

Whilst I was able to sample different foods in the city, from pasta to pizza, I also managed to visit lots of different tourist attractions. Conveniently, the hotel that I stayed at was situated right by the main Piazza Maggiore, so I was able to see a lot of the city on foot. I visited the famous San Petronio Basilica and the Museum of Ducati, where the history of the famous racing motorbikes were on display.

Dada Poem exhibition in Mambo Museum of Modern Art.

One of the best places I visited when I was in the city was Mambo, the Museum of Modern Art. At the time of visiting, the Museum had an exhibition on the newest generation of artists in Italy. This display was quirky and slightly unusual, but cleverly did not separate itself from other exhibitions and the permanent collections in the museum. 

The exhibit was curated by Lorenzo Balbi, and included the works of 56 artists, who were born from 1980 onwards. One display was based on a poem about a group of women’s rights activists in the 1920s called ‘Dada’ produced by Lia Cecchin (2018), where she exhibited lots of tee-shirts containing messages about women and their strengths in the 21st century. 

Many of the modern exhibits were pieces that were individually created for the exhibition and artists portrayed their ideas in many different ways including 2D and 3D displays and life-sized pieces like a mounted door of an Italian police car and TV screens that were sequenced on the ground which cleverly displayed the seasonal changes of sea defences on the coast of Italy. 

Giorgio Morandi painting ‘Still Life’

There was also an exhibition based on Giorgio Morandi’s life and works (1890-1964). Morandi was a post-impressionist and modern art Italian painter and printmaker who is known for his still-life work. He is famously quoted as saying ‘There is nothing more surreal and abstract than reality’. He mainly based his paintings on household objects like glass bottles and vases and painted rural landscapes outside the city.