Originally published in Portuguese here and kindly republished in English in the blog “More Time to Travel” (by Irene S. Levine and Jerry Levine), here.
Nice to meet you, salame rosa.
mortadella
True party in Bologna
O melhor lanchinho da MortadellaBò: “frittino di mortadella” (com Netuno atrás)
On October 4, there was a party in Bologna. It was the day of the patron saint of the city, Saint Petronius, the one that gives name to the city’s most famous church (cathedral, to be more precise): that beautiful unfinished work that rises right in the middle of Piazza Maggiore. The same church that should have been the biggest in Italy but due to the lack of money and internal fights within the Catholic Church was just less than half covered in marble.
Well, in that day, all the cardinals, priests and top politicians were there. The party was beautiful.
But, to be honest, what happened that day was nothing compared to what happened the week after…
Mortadellabo from above (Photo: Simone Tortini)
Between October 9 and 12, in the same square, the true celebration of the Bolognese tradition: the mortadella festival.
That’s right.
MortadellaBò
In front of the cathedral, dozens of little stands with local producers align themselves to provide curious and hungry people with an infinite feast of the Bolognese product par excellence; the one that carries within its name the whole city, the Mortadella Bologna.
Concentration… (Foto: @jogger1983)
Along with degustation of most beloved pink salume of the town, the piazza hosted lectures, history and cooking classes. It was lovely to see traditional families, tourists and students gathering around something as simple and essential as the mortadella.
To be more precise, the whole production process was illustrated there; from demonstrations of how the product is made, passing through exhibitions of exclusive creations, until the artists of the mortadella slicing – that transformed pieces bigger than me in almost see-through slices…
Pink slicer, pink slices
No comments for this lovely photo…!!!
All of that without mentioning, of course, stands with treats elaborated with the product (warm and cheap, perfect to fulfill empty stomachs at anytime of the day.)
The treats from the “finger food” stand
And there were so many days! The party lasted from Friday to Sunday and, of course, I was there in every one of them. Me that was never a huge fan of mortadella ended up falling in love with it – I’m just not sure if it happened before or after falling in love with the city.
For all such reasons, since all Bologna was painted in pink and declaring its love for the mortadella, I couldn’t have done it differently. Here it is my humble tribute to it.
A heart of mortadella (Photo: @fuocobio)
FloCiBO 