Calcio Weekender: Bologna

Most people think of Milan, Rome and Turin when it comes to Italian sports. Still, Bologna and its surrounding area are home to some of the nation’s most successful names in motorsport, basketball, baseball and even cricket. More importantly, it’s one of the world’s greatest food cities. Ever heard of Spaghetti Bolognese? Locally known as Spaghetti al Ragu, it’s from Bologna, which champions fine cuisine. Not forgetting mortadella, balsamic vinegar, and tortellini.

Bologna is the capital city of the Emilia-Romagna region and is home to the world’s oldest university, built in 1088, around 1500 years after the Etruscans arrived. Yes, I shamelessly looked that up, the last part anyway. Italofiles know the true potency of the area, as well as its culture and technological advancements that have infected every corner of the planet.

For a thousand years, scholars and academics have felt Emilia’s electromagnetic pull. Bologna-born inventor and Nobel Prize winner (1909) Guglielmo Marconi studied at the local university and later gifted us radio. Yes, he’s the culpable intellectual responsible for Milli Vanilli, Fedez, and Skrillex filling your airwaves.

Football geniuses have also passed through Bologna—Beppe Signori, Roberto Baggio, and Giacomo Bulgarelli, to name a few—to help keep the Ultras content at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara since the 1970s.

More recently, Thiago Motta masterminded Rossoblu’s Champions League (UCL) qualification earlier this year. Monaco, Lille, and Borussia Dortmund are due soon, three unarguable reasons to visit before the 2024-24 campaign ends. Here’s more UCL information for those interested.

Last season’s Europa League Champions, Atalanta, were in town for some Saturday night Serie A. We’ve been following both clubs and their respective coaches closely since the season began, and tensions were rising considering both Gian Piero Gasperini and Vincenzo Italiano tallied just six league points in the opening five rounds.

To get to Bologna from London, we flew into Milan Malpensa airport and caught a train to Milano Centrale in just 45 minutes. The perfectly timed connection to Bologna Centrale, located 221 km away, departed and arrived within 65 minutes—impressive compared to the 150-minute car journey. The Trainline app functions well across Europe, even in dysfunctional Italy, and a one-way ticket costs £44.

Don’t panic. There is an airport in Bologna, the Guglielmo Marconi, situated seven kilometres from the Centro Storico. The Green Line train takes you straight into Centrale in under 10 minutes. However, we opted for Malpensa due to overpriced flights (three times the price). Instead, we spent our savings on delicious local cuisine, which Emilia-Romagna is famous for.

I’d strategically booked our accommodation with walking in mind: ten minutes to the train and seven minutes to Piazza Maggiore. The temperature was perfect, the 23-degree (Celsius) temperature charging our enthusiasm for a host of local treats—Serie A and Serie B football, the latter in neighbouring Modena.

The region of Emilia Romagna is known for its produce, and the Mercato delle Erbe in central Bologna is decoratively tiled with ripe tomatoes, juicy peppers and pasta artigianale in every colour. We invested €15 on olives, ricotta, smoked Bufalina mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes and fresh bread, more than enough to fuel our walk down the San Luca Portici, the world’s longest arched portico, measuring 4 km.

Considering our football coverage obligations, we shamelessly opted for a light (and quick) dinner: three scoops of gelati, ordered and consumed right outside the Renato Dall’Ara at Gelateria Meloncello. The stadium’s exterior imposes itself upon you with a familiar colossal look. After all, it forms part of a sizeable Romanesque city, the seventh-largest in Italy, with a population of 400,000.

Upon entering the red and blue Dall’Ara utopia, we noticed Bologna owner Joey Saputo had installed a purpose-built VIP area. Indeed, Champions League status requires such prestige, and we were rightfully denied entry. To atone, we ascended proudly into the media stand, lanyards and all.

Our desks were closely positioned by a crew of local radio commentators who carried a licence to blaspheme. They rejoiced when Santiago Castro drilled in from outside the box and raved in disgust when Lazar Samardzić buried the equaliser at the end of the match. Points shared.

While their night was ruined, ours was just warming up. But before I tell you about our search for Irish pubs in Bologna, here’s a link to our podcast from the Dall’Ara featuring (another) Irishman, Joe O’Sullivan.

The theme may be predictable: Two Irishmen, Emmet and Joe, on a mini-pilgrimage through the Emilia Romagna heartland in search of pubs adorning four-leaf clovers and leprechaun statues (the images flickering in my mind when I think of rural Ireland).

But there’s a big difference between the North and South of Ireland I’ve learned, at least in terms of accents and patriotism. Behold Mark from County Mayo (south), who is on a solo holiday, drinking alone at The Irish Times Pub and dressed in the Ireland national team kit. This man personifies all things Ireland. Whenever he spoke, I wished for subtitles. Certainly, if Marconi was still around he’d have invented a remote control that could do that.

We drank Guinness (of course) as Mark bragged about his week-long escape: Champions League for Bologna-Shakhtar, Serie A for Bologna-Atalanta, top-quality food and entertainment. If only I could understand every word. But he was worry-free and living out his calcio fantasy, which included a romp at one of Bologna’s exclusive speakeasy bars until 6 am. When I asked him about what he’d been eating, he responded with “pasta”. I told him he could get a traditional Italian hangover breakfast at La Borbonica.

I respect a man who enjoys the simple things. But we were in town for ‘work’ so Emmet and I caved responsibly, ditching Joe and Mark to recharge our batteries (we literally had to charge up our equipment) in preparation for the next day, a Serie B matchday in Modena. To sum up, this is why we believe Bologna should be on your football bucket list…

Join us for our Modena chapter of our Emilia Romagna Calcio weekender, coming soon.

We’ll take a break from travelling due to the Nations League fixtures, Italy-Belgium and Italy-Israel. Check out our Derby della Lanterna watch parties with Genoa Fans UK and Napoli fans at Da Maria, both in London.

Read about our previous trips to Milan and Bergamo, Como and Monza, Genova, Campania and the Northern regions.

There is no better way to spend your weekends as long as the destination is calcio.