shave ice & gelato

Wednesday morning, after eating a very filling breakfast at my hotel, I stopped at the beautiful Caffè Zanarini for an espresso.

Caffè Zanarini is located at the corner of Piazza Galvani on Via Farini. After paying, I ordered a caffè macchiato, which was excellent. Oh how I wished I had room to try one of the delicious pastries. I was very impressed that the barista gave everyone who ordered some type of coffee drink a little glass of acqua frizzante (fizzy water). I have not had this happen before, or at least that I remember.

Here is a review of Caffè Zanarini with more photos of some of the caffè's delicious treats.

I ate at Caffè Zamboni (Via Zamboni, 6) for lunch. Caffè Zamboni is a fun little bustling caffè. I ordered a stacchino (a type of cheese) and rucola sandwich with a flat type of bread. It was very good and very cheap.

For dinner, I ate at Osteria al 15 (Via Mirasole, 13). I wrote about my wonderful meal at Osteria al 15 and posted some mouth-watering photos last week.

Thursday was my last day in Bologna. I went into Tamburini to get some lunch. Tamburini is a very cool gourmet delicatessen. I love walking through this shop looking at all the food. I bought a little plate of greek salad and a little plate of pasta salad. The greek salad was very good, but the pasta was mushy and not so good.

In the afternoon, I trekked over to Pasticceria Laganà (Via S. Stefano,112), a pastry shop Chiocciola recommended to me that is very well known in Bologna. I wanted to go there to buy some treats for my friends Katia and Guido. Pasticceria Laganà is located on Via Santa Stefano. Note…it is not located near the Santa Stefano church. It is located at the other end of this very long street. It is also closed in the afternoon, which I found out after my very long walk there. Since Laganà was closed, I stopped at a nearby gelateria (which I will talk about in my gelato post) before heading back to my hotel.

I returned to Pasticceria Laganà again in the evening, this time taking the bus, to buy my pastries. Chicciola was right. This pasticceria was amazing! The woman waiting on me was very kind. She helped me choose a few different types of tiny pastries that would not spoil while taking two trains to Coccaglio the following day. She even wrapped them up with a beautiful ribbon.

Then it was time to buy something for myself. There were so many wonderful choices. I had a very difficult time deciding because I wanted one of everything. I finally decided on a zabaglione pastry and a pastry with strawberries and whipped cream. The zabaglione pastry was very delicious and filling. The strawberry and whip cream pastry was even better. It was my favorite. It reminded me of the strawberry shortcake my mom used to make. I ended up eating both pastries before dinner!

Unfortunately, I was too busy drooling over all of the pastries to think about taking any photos. I also was not able to find anything in English on Pasticceria Laganà but I did find this wonderful post about Pasticceria Laganà in Italian on an interesting blog about Bologna.

I was now down to my last meal in Bologna (besides breakfast at my hotel the following morning). I couldn’t decide where to eat. Of course after eating gelato in the afternoon and then eating the two pastries before dinner, I was not very hungry. My grandmother always scolded me when I would eat dessert before dinner. She was right this time.

I walked around checking out a few restaurants I had listed as recommendations but in the end I headed back to Ristorante Teresina. It was my last night in Bologna and I wanted to make sure I would have a fabulous dinner. I knew that I would not be disappointed with the food there. I also knew I would be treated wonderfully at this restaurant.

Photo of the nice waiters at Ristorante Teresina.

I ordered the tortelloni filled with ricotta cheese and spinach with burro e salvia (butter and sage). It was homemade and so delicious. I was much too full to eat anything else. After dinner, I waddled back to my hotel to pack.

I have barely scratched the surface, trying only a few restaurants in Bologna. I really need to go back and spend at least a month there to fully enjoy the delicious food of Bologna.

While planning my trip to Bologna last summer, I printed out the following two restaurant recommendation resources:

Matthew Lepori's Everything Bologna (scroll down towards the bottom for the food section)

Slow Travel Emilia-Romagna restaurant reviews

While writing yesterday's part 1 ~ the food in Bologna post, I found this resource: Where to eat in Bologna.