Bologna is so dishy, stylish and charming

It’s all about the food, apparently. And intellectual pursuits. And let’s not forget bricks.

Red bricks, at that. In Italy, Bologna, the capital of Emilia-Romagna, is referred to as ‘La Dotta, La Rossa, La Grassa’, which translates, quite precisely, as “the educated, the red, the fat”.

‘La Dotta’ pertains to the city’s university, which is the oldest in Europe and home to such intellectual greats as Umberto Eco (writer of, among many other works, the cerebral whodunit, The Name Of The Rose); ‘La Rossa’ refers to two aspects that Bologna is renowned for: the bricks that most of the city’s ochre-coloured porticoes and historic buildings are constructed with, and the city’s long history of left-wing politics. ‘La Grassa’, meanwhile – and keeping strictly in line with the translation – reflects the, er, weight of Bologna’s culinary history, one which is based on rich meat dishes and creamy pasta sauces. More about food later.