How I became a Foodie in Bologna

A few years ago, I moved from Vancouver, Canada to Bologna, Italy. I knew that I wouldn´t get far with English in Italy, so I started to learn Italian as soon as the idea to go to Italy came up and felt well prepared.

I´ve never been so wrong! I wasn´t prepared at all for the tiny bars and market stalls, filled with a crowed of locals, from which each one seemed to reach for the world-championship in fast-speaking. I couldn´t even figure it was Italian.

Since I live in the heart of town, around the corner from Piazza Maggiore, the market was on my daily way and by showing up there regularly, the stall owners started to recognize me and the wish to sell, combined with their proud ness of the local products, let them talk to me in a slow and patient way. Curious like I am, I started to ask questions like Why do you offer six different kinds of tomatoes?, What is the difference between prosciutto San Daniele and prosciutto di Parma? or How is this cheese made? The vendors know everything about the products – where it’s from, how it’ s made and what it’s used for and never got tired to explain. Thank you guys!  I got to know all these little details and it opened the door to the huge field of Italian food and cooking for me. I passed it on to visiting friends – it didn’t take long and the idea of culinary tours for traveling Foodies was born.