Italians refer to this Northern city variously as La Grassa ("the fat one," for its culinary delights featuring lots of meat and cheese), La Dotta ("the learned one," for its ancient university, the oldest in Europe) and sometimes La Rossa ("the red one," for its leftist politics). So if you're a left-leaning, cultivated foodie, this is the place for you. It is also very accessible from Milan, Venice and Florence.As part of its 36 hour series for brief visits to a city, today's New York Times has an article on Bologna. What caught my eye is the reference to the Giorgio Morandi museum. Morandi is a major twentieth century artist who specialized in still lifes (one is shown in the picture) and was from the region. He deserves to be better known, and I would carve out some time from my consumption of tortellini, Lambrusco, lasagne, prosciutto, mortadella ("bologna" or "baloney" comes from its name), parmigiano, ragu' and other specialties of the area to dedicate to the austere artist. Man does not live by pasta alone.
