Recently I was fortunate enough to go to Bologna and eat at Amerigo with the RSFP.  It was a great weekend and we had one of the best meals I’ve ever had in Italy.

The weekend began in Bologna, where we quickly parked and walked through the old center of town.  We first found Cafe Terzi where I had one of the most interesting cups of coffee I’ve ever had: Papua New Guinea Espresso.  Also the most expensive: 3 euro!

Next, we made our way over to Tamburini and had the biggest meat and cheese platter I’ve ever seen, and a bottle of wine.  The meat platter included mortadella, head cheese, prosciutto, three kinds of salami, bresola, pancetta, grana, some kind of goat cheese……  it was overwhelming and perfect.

We walked off our lunch and explored a bit.  We walked through a huge antique fair and into a few old churches.  Almost every main street in Bologna is lined with amazing, beautiful porticoes.  I’ve never seen anything like it… and I do like it a lot.

We picked up the rest of the gang and headed to Amerigo, where we were also booked to stay the night.  The meal was amazing.  I split all my dishes with Miles so as to have the opportunity to sample as many different dishes as possible.  It turned out to be a great idea because he chose way better dishes than I chose.  Here we go:

Our Antipasti included duck and incredible sweet breads.  They tasted almost rendered, fried slowly.  They were heavenly.

For our Primi we ordered Risotto con Fave e Tartufo and Tagliatelle al Ragu.  Again, both were pretty darn tasty.  We also tried the Caramelle, which should have been both of our choices.

For Secondi we had the Venicen and Beef Cheeks.  We also tried some of the Egg, two ways with tartuffo which was a wild dish and tasted pretty ridiculous.  Definitely never had anything like it before.

Next we had a little palette cleanser: wine granita.  Also, wow.

And then finally, dessert: Crema Gelato, Gelato con Balsamico, Pistachio Semifredo, and pear with some other stuff which, by the time I got to was deliriously full and content.

We finished with Fernet, Nocino, and China.  All house made, all very low in sugar, all perfect.

The next morning we wandered through the antique fair in the city where Amerigo is located, Monteveglio.  We also had some delicious chestnut flour cookies.

We returned to Bologna for lunch and ate a great college style beer bar called Trattoria del Orso.  Loud, fun, picnic tables…. beer on tap.

We finished off our trip with some gelato on a stick, dipped in chocolate and pistachios.  Mine was just plain mango.  Yummy.