Sara / Scottish

So the first person wiped away my bad experience in Bologna was Sara, a Scottish mathematician who had been living in Italy for a year. I swear I learned a lot more about Bologna and its food from her than my Italian host who had been living in this area for more than ten years.

I first met Sara in York, when I was couchsurfing at her place out of boredom (who else from Leeds would couchsurf in York otherwise?) We got on really well and kept in touch every now and then. We didn’t manage to meet again since she moved to Italy, but here I was in the city she lived, and we arranged to meet.

She showed me the wonderful sides of Bologna. We had Piadina, a tradition Italian flatbread from the region of Romagna, filled with different fillings which you could customised yourself. Followed by a gelato at Lilasù, where I had this amazing salted peanuts gelato in a real waffle cone.

Yes, they have a thing in Bologna where every gelateria uses this shitty, plastic-tasting waffle cone.

We walked a lot, and met up with her friends, had some really yummy focaccia for dinner before going to this lovely piano recital in a museum’s courtyard. Her friend, Antonio from Sicily, came and joined us, then we roamed Bologna at night together. Thanks to Antonio, we ended up in this Sicilian deli/bar where everyone seemed to be from Sicily, and more specifically the town of Messina where Antonio came from.

Except this one guy from Naples though.

It was an authentic experience. We ended the night with a drive up to San Luca at two in the morning before going home.

I slept like a baby until almost twelve, it was a rare occasion for me to wake up this late.

We met up a few more times after I got myself out of the farm and couchsurfed different people in Bologna. For once during this whole trip, I felt like I was, to a certain extend, being taken care of. It was just what I needed in that moment.

Whether it would be in Italy or Scotland, I’m pretty sure we will manage to meet again.


Heidi / German

When I got back to the farm after spending the weekend with Sara, I decided I wanted to leave. As soon as I could. Bologna had so much to offer and being at the farm was just a waste of time for me.

I set no expectation, so when Heidi got back to me I was over the moon, and I started packing my back straight away.

On the next day, a warm and sunny Monday, I waved goodbye to the farm for good.

So many gelaterias and places to eat were waiting for me in Bologna!

Heidi was an Erasmus student from Germany. She was so German from the first moment we met and it was impossible to mistake that. It made me miss Germany a little bit I have to say.

She arrived in Bologna around two weeks ago, with no place to stay, and ended up couchsurfing this guy for a week, then she couch surfed another girl’s flat just to find out that one of the rooms in that flat was free.

So she ended up staying there, renting a flat with her couchsurfer host!


After our early lunch, we took a nap and went out for a gelato at Sorbole, I had the most incredible vegan dark chocolate orange gelato ever. It was amazing.

That evening, Heidi bumped into her ex-host (who she spent her first week here with) with his new couchsurfer from Taiwan (who travelled around Europe for 2 months with a tiny backpack the size of my daypack.) He invited us to have pizza at his place, a lovely apartment in the city centre with a roof terrace where we sat outside, enjoying our pizza and wine under the stars.

What a life.


Lisa / Roman

Lisa was a character, and she was young at heart, just like Sara.

The difference was that she was very Italian.

She was an Italian with lots of experience. A salsa dance teacher, bartender, chef’s girlfriend (hence all the good recipes she had) and Italian teacher. Now she’s learning French because it has always been her dream to speak this beautiful language.


Her one-bedroom apartment was in the middle of university quarter. I was lucky that she didn’t have her French class on the evening I visited so we had a bit more time to hang out. Turned out that she did the Vipassana course over the new year this year as well. Despite our age difference, we had a lot in common, and our conversation ranged from childhood memories to education system. Lisa also had great knowledge of Italy and its amazing food from different regions.

We went out for some aperitif in the evening at a bar called ‘Senza Nome’ or no name in Italian. There were two amazing things about this specific bar behind Mercato delle Erbe. First, the aperitif buffet was incredible cheap and tasty. We had a small beer which costed 2.5 euro, plus an empty plate to put food in for a euro, and we could eat as much from the buffet line as we wanted. There were couscous with pesto and tomatoes, lots of green veggie dishes and different kinds of salad, also some sandwiches with cheese and proschiutto and yummy roasted peanuts in the shells.

It was a great dinner, all for the price of 3.5 euros.

Another great thing here was its concept. This bar is run by a community of deaf people, the first and only one of its kind in Italy.

Great food, good company. What else could I ask for?

The next day, we had some lunch together. Lisa made some yummy pasta with pumpkin and pumpkin flowers, and I tried the best onions I’ve ever had in my life. They were so sweet even when I ate it raw. So delicious that I wanted to bring these Calabrian onions back to England with me.

I had such a great time with Lisa, learned a lot about Italian food (and language) from her. And also which pizzeria to visit when I go to Rome again next time, it’s her brother-in-law’s one!


Ambra / Piedmontese

My last host for the trip, just when I was running out of energy to meet new people, she radiated her cheerfulness and shared it with me.

Ambra was one of the sweetest person I met, and I could feel her brightness through her voice, even before I saw her face. Even though I only spent like 5 minutes with her when we first met, as I was running late to go and meet up with Sara. She was very understanding, and all her flatmates were no less friendly than her.

Back in the flat, after two hours, the coffee was brewing in her Moka pot for the tiramisu she was making for dinner later today.

We hung out and talked for a while before she had to leave for her Tai Chi class. She let me stay at home and regain my energy, which was just how I wanted to spend my last afternoon in Bologna. It has been a long trip after all.

When she got back in the evening, she made some vegetable pasta and we had dinner together with her housemates. They were all students, two on master degree in Astronomy and two on Bachelor degree. It was a great student-y atmosphere, delicious food, good laugh and a glass of wine. Nothing crazy like those British students getting wasted.

The best part of the dinner, though, was her Tiramisu. It was the best I have ever eaten in my life. I had to ask her for the recipe straight away (and now I’ve got in my journal!) Even her flatmate from Rome said it was ‘better than Pompi’

I really loved how people here cared so much about food, even though the students with low budget, they still bought some things organic and local, and cooked this amazing meal.

The rest of the night was spent talking about travelling and all the random stuff. Ambra had this really great ‘I don’t care’ attitude. She didn’t drink alcohol, simply because it didn’t taste good. And she would go out only when she wanted to, otherwise she was perfectly happy chilling in her bed reading book. She didn’t care what people would think of her, and I loved that.

She also spent her whole summer holiday workawaying and travelling around Ireland, cooking proper food for her host, hitchhiked and couchsurfed her way around. It sounded like an amazing experience, and she did enjoy very much.

The next morning, I had to wake up early to get ready and take a bus to catch my flight. So I had less than 3 hours of sleep and I woke up exhausted. When I got out of the bathroom, Ambra was preparing all kind of breakfast stuff on the table, and I was well fuelled. Apart from the best tiramisu, she also had the best honey I have ever had, again, in my entire life. Bitter wildflower honey with a small hint of molasses was just the perfect combination of sweetness and flavour.

If I were to buy any honey to bring back home, this would be it.

And it was made by her friend’s sister.

She said I could take that jar home and she’d buy another one. I was so close to doing that, but no, I felt like I would love to give back to people before receiving more from them.

In the past five days in Bologna, I have accepted unmeasurable amount of kindness from people many would classify as strangers. I left this country with my heart filled with joy and happiness. Liveliness radiated from me, and I travel back to England with a smile painted on my face.

I knew that this happiness wouldn’t last, but as long as it did I cherished every moment.

And I knew I should be back here, soon enough, one day.