Saturday market

 Italians refer to Bologna by three nicknames, as I stated in an earlier blog.  One of those names is "the fat one."  That refers to the cuisine of Bologna.  Being rather high in fats and demonstrating a real love of pork, Bolognese cuisine includes sauces that are thick and made creamy by the addition of milk and sometimes liver.  The cured meat of choice here is by far mortadella.  It is made with pork and fat, then mixed with things like pistachios or olives or just big pieces of lard.  The Americanized version of this is, of course, baloney.... that icky pink Oscar Meyer stuff.  The real thing looks like this:

Saturday means that long stretches of the old part of the city are pedestrian only and a wonderful open-air market happens, bringing in all sorts of goodies, like.... pig heads:

Cheeses and fishes:

Hunks of prosciutto and exquisite produce: 

And street food is tempting and so satisfying.  How about a mortadella sandwich with pistachio salsa and pecorino cheese?  With a Select Spritz, of course.  Hey, it's 10:30 am.... lunch time!

We walked over to the museum that had a large collection of Egyptian and Etruscan art.  Such beautiful things.  So much evidence of splendor and sophistication.  I mean, if these mummified cats are any indication.....

I can really dig the impulse!

Anyway, then on to the civic museum of the medieval world, namely Bologna in the middle ages.  Gorgeousness.  

They were having this provocative exhibit in the cloister.  So fab:

At the end of the day.... I was feeling very: