Thursday, October 18, 2018

10/18/18: Bologna day 2

Snoozed a few times this morning to try to let Muslimah try to get over her cold, which has been taking a toll on her for the past couple of days. We went to two museums before lunch: the ones for medieval artifacts and musical instruments. 

The atmosphere at the medieval museum was dampened a bit by stuff that seemed a bit attentive and maybe even suspicious. They were the only one to require checking a bag, but nothing in there was stealable. 








The craftsmanship on display was predictably amazing. The giant illuminated hymn book made me realize how some eager for knowledge might pledge a life to the church in exchange for access to knowledge and academic resources. How lucky we are to have increasingly democratized education. 

For lunch, we went to Polpette & Crescentine, a casual spot specializing in those eponymous items. Polpette are meatballs, and crescentine ended up being like savory beignets. 






My fried meatballs and potato wedges were to salty, but everything else was not so salty that it wasn't delicious. The crescentine were great. Muslimah's gnocchi were perfectly soft and the right amount of gummy vs tear apart. The cream sauce was tremendous. The chicken meatballs in carrot puree was very novel and still quite good flavor. 

After lunch, we had a lull for a window visit before the evening bike tour of the city. Unfortunately, a lot of the archeology museum was closed, so we only got to see the Egypt wing. Which to be fair had specimens of exceptional preservation. 

Heteronormativity through the ages, I guess. 

The bike tour was exceedingly mellow, revealing corners of the city that were quite different from the intensely youthful town center. The tour information was somewhat redundant and not a huge highlight. 




Dinner was at potentially the fanciest restaurant on our list to try. The ragu was the best I'd had so far in Bologna. The dish translated as boiled meat was also good, but in an even more rustic way -- get the broth right, get the meat tender, and apply a simple flare in the sauce. 








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