Here it is then, finally, the long awaited part three to the Calcio weekender review! After two days in Bologna, it was time to actually spend a day there. With no travelling to be done for this match, there’s a bit of tourism writing here!
Bologna had never really ever occurred to me as a tourist destination. Sure you go to Milan, Rome, Sicily, Turin – but Bologna? Short of being the home of bolognese, I didn’t really know anything about it.
Well hold on to your hats folks, because it turns out it’s bloody beautiful. Not as hustly and bustly as some of the bigger cities I mentioned earlier, Bologna is chilled. A perfect place to spend a day sat outside cafes with a coffee watching the world go by.
Not that there’s nothing to do there. Isabelle and I left the apartment with a clear plan of our day after a quick Google. We had plans, we’d researched what we were going to do, so what could go wrong?
Well. It was Monday by now. Despite the fact I was off work, booked annual leave and wasn’t supposed to be contactable, I work in sales so I’m never really off the clock other than weekends or Christmas. And sure enough, I was awoken by the sound of my work mobile going off. A crisis for one of my customers that needed sorting.
Cue an entire morning of back and forth phone calls with the customer and my office, with Isabelle’s face increasingly more fuming as the minutes passed! Don’t get me wrong, being sat in my office dealing with the crisis wouldn’t have been anywhere near as nice as sitting in a cafe Piazza Maggiore dealing with it.
Crisis resolved, I was marched back to the apartment by Isabelle to deposit the work phone and focus on her and Bologna. That’s where I noticed I still had Andrea’s sons fan card from Parma a few days before. Surely not, what a ballache!
A quick phone call, and I had an address to send it to. But no stationary to send it with and no idea how to send it. I figured it must be easier to post in Italy than when I get home so Isabelle and I set off for the nearest Post Office.
Now if you think UK/US post offices are a nightmare, at least you speak the language. PostItalia in Bologna was at least air conditioned but that’s where the positives end. When my number was called I approached the desk and opened with my best, “Ciao, Inglese??”. To be met with a firm shake of the head. Well how the fuck are we going to do this?
Turns out there’s no phone signal or free WiFi in this particular branch so speaking into Google translate is out. No amount of gesturing to the fan card, then to the address on my screen was working. Shouting “SEND” or “POST” while doing it wasn’t working either.
Finally, the bloke in the next booth was done with his client and apparently spoke some English and came to help. It cost me roughly €5 all in for the envelope and postage and I swiftly sent the tracking number to Andrea and wished him all the best in receiving because who knows if it’s making it there!
Well, it’s time to enjoy our day in Bologna, surely. We head straight for Le Due Torre, a large tower sticking out of the ground made of the local red brick. Nowadays it sticks out like a sore thumb but apparently in Bologna’s heyday there were loads of these towers all over town.
As we arrive, there’s a notice on the door, it’s closed for renovations while we’re out of season. Of course it is. Now what? Back to Google. The Clock Tower is open, over in Piazza Maggiore. Looks like that’s the plan.
We head over and finally greeted with a bit of good luck. It’s open and tickets aren’t ridiculously priced. It’s a shame there’s no lift to the top, but Italy is a country with many old buildings so I didn’t really expect one. I’m not a man exactly built for lots of stairs but the Clock Tower breaks it up nicely with art exhibitions on each floor so it’s not just constant climbing. The views from the top are great, over Piazza Maggiore, the entire city and over to the hills outside of town.
There’s just sight of the evening entertainment too, right over in the distance you can catch a glimpse of the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara. Home of Bologna FC since 1927. Tonight Isabelle and I are finishing our Calcio epic at Bologna v Napoli, an exciting prospect in a Serie A season where Napoli are chasing down Inter (they eventually succeeded, spoiler alert) and Bologna are pushing hard for a return to the Champions League (they fell away late and didn’t make it).
First, we need some lunch and it was time to embrace a tradition for Isabelle and I. Some people also partake, some people think we’re mad to do it in Italy. But we always, wherever we visit across the World, always, have a McDonald’s one day for lunch. For those who don’t know, the menus in McDonald’s are wildly different all over the World so we always insist on seeing what each country offers that the UK doesn’t.
On this occasion, Italy didn’t really offer anything more exciting that being able to have a beer with my meal, my favourite thing about European McDonald’s. I went for a spicy chicken burger of some description while Isabelle went for her favourite food of all time, wings – something else unavailable in the UK.
Our afternoon was spent exploring the rest of the town fairly aimlessly, basically walking around flitting from bar to bar, it’s matchday and I’m English so obviously beer is required. It’s also always required when there’s a city with the ambience and weather of Bologna.
When I tell you this city is beautiful, there’s no lie, it is gorgeous. The architecture on nearly every building is unique and ornate. I’ve no doubt that if I headed out of the centre to the outskirts I’d see the normal high rise flats built in the 1970s, but I’ve rarely seen a city centre like this.
We stumbled across the Finestrella. A small canal running along a street in Bologna, and rather cheekily named “Little Venice” locally. It’s literally one canal so I’m not sure it can rival Venice, or even Milan’s Navigli area! There’s a small window in a wall that opens out onto the street, but there was an awful long queue of travel influencers queuing up to take videos of the window opening to a trending audio. If you head across the road there’s an equally good view which is below.
As we edged closer to match time, I decided we should get some dinner. Kick off was at 9pm so around 5pm I thought we should eat and begin our journey to the ground. The stadium is around a 30/40 minute walk and I had designs on pub crawling down there!
We ate at Sfoglia Rina on a few recommendations. There’s no reservations so expect to queue, but we weren’t waiting longer than ten minutes for a table. Sfoglia Rina all feature fresh pasta made on site and is a popular place with locals and tourists alike. There’s one large table in the middle where different groups can all sit together. Not really my thing, so we plumped for a small table for two on the outside.
Isabelle was keen to have a proper Bologna bolognese and went for the Taglietelle Bolognese Ragout, which was delicious and I had the Gramigna with Sausage Ragout. It was absolutely fantastic. A great meal to end our time in Italy.
After the meal, we popped into the Celtic Druid Irish Pub around the corner, we’d been in a couple of times when returning from the other cities and I knew there was a lot of Bologna FC themed decoration and figured there’d be some fans in pre-match.
I wasn’t wrong and the atmosphere was lively. I love the way Italians talk so expressively and with their hands. Even though I don’t know what they’re saying, I can pick out footballer and team names, there’s so much discussion on the previous weekends Calcio going on here.
We have a couple of pints here and begin the long trek to the ground, stopping at a few pubs along the way. The amount of people on the street increases the closer we get and there’s a few livelier fan bars here. In one I’m immediately accused of being “Napolista” because I’m different to them. I refer him to the fact I’m English and show Isabelle’s scarf bought earlier at the club shop in the City Centre and I’m immediately bought a sambuca and welcomed. I’m not sure how many more sambucas I can take.
When we head to the ground it’s about half an hour before kick off, and this is a mistake. The beautiful old facade to the stadium is also the only entry point to that stand, which is where our tickets were. There’s only two gates and two long queues stretch in either direction and in a very Italian way there’s absolutely no organisation. The queue is carnage, absolute chaos. It’s anarchy. The Brit in me breaks out in a cold sweat.
The other uniquely Italian thing about the queue is across the road from it, it is easily the biggest moped parking area I’ve ever seen. It raises a smile in me, this is a unique country and I love it.
We eventually get into the ground about 5 minutes before kick off and head to our seats and we’re confronted with another Italianism of football matches. Just because your ticket has a seat number on it, unless you get in early don’t expect to be able to sit there.
It’s every man for himself and we arrive to our seats to see them filled with Napoli fans. Again, in Italy it’s very common for away fans to sit in any area of a stadium and not just the allocated away section. You won’t find them in the ultras section obviously, but they’re generally accepted. If you’re watching your team as an away team in the home end, just don’t rub it in if you’re winning. You’re allowed to cheer the goals, but not excessively, then sit down and shut the fuck up is basically the rules.
Even last year at the Milan derby I was sat with both Inter and Milan fans who were chatting about the game together.
Anyway, the section we’re in is crazy, the game is sold out so rather than go in the hunt for two seats together, we plonk ourselves down on the stairs with a few others and watch the first half. Napoli take the lead after 18 minutes through Anguissa. It’s a scrappy goal that started with some nice football and Anguissa going through 1v1. The goalkeepers attempt to close him down results in a messy “rounding” of the keeper by Anguissa who taps in as he’s falling over.
No one in a Napoli shirt cares how good or scrappy the goal is though, and they’re up. Flares are lit and the noise cranks up a level in the ground. Bologna aren’t in the game and they’re in danger of being overrun here. Napoli can smell blood after Inter’s draw on Saturday.
Half time comes and Isabelle and I have noticed a smattering of empty seats right down at the front, so we head there (via the bar). Down in position right in the front row, we strike up conversation with a half drunk guy next to us. He’s Scottish and travelling Italy watching football, and came to this game to see the obvious Scott McTominay, but also last season’s best midfielder winner Lewis Ferguson who turns out for Bologna.
As the second half gets underway Bologna have decided to play. They’re much more positive, much more decisive and much quicker. The Napoli section quietens down and the Bologna ultras step it up. They’re rewarded in the 64th minute when Dan Ndoye scores a quite audacious goal. Meeting a cross from the left he flicks it through his own legs with his heel, the ball rising to meet the underside of the bar and settle in the back of the net.
They deserve the equaliser and there’s absolute pandemonium. Suddenly Conte’s team look happy with their point and there’s a ten minute spell where they look like they won’t get it. Eventually, the game settles back down and rather peters out in the final few minutes. Napoli have done a good job of killing the momentum Bologna were enjoying.
All told, the point is probably deserved. It’s not terrible for Napoli who saw Inter also drop points. And it kind of helps Inter out too. As we leave the ground with our new Scottish friend in tow, there’s a row of buses waiting and we hop straight on one heading for the City Centre.
We depart the bus outside the Celtic Druid pub and head in for a nightcap. The trip to Italy is coming to an end and tomorrow I’ll be hungover in an airport heading for home. It’s been three fantastic days and we haven’t seen one team win a game, witnessing three draws. I guess that’s almost appropriate for a country whose entire football identity is built on strong defence.
Writing these reviews of the long weekend have done nothing to quench my thirst to get back out to Italy and watch some more Calcio. I was over there 4 times last season and it wasn’t enough. As I mentioned back in part one, in my opinion Italy does food, beer, football (and women) better than anyone in the world and I think it comes from passion. Watch an Italian talk to another person and there’s passion oozing out of them, they apply the same to cooking, their football, to everything. Last week the fixtures for 2025/26 were released and I’m already planning trips.
The Calcio Blog 