Being in Bologna from the end of May onwards means having lots of energy and perfect organization skills, because this little postmark of a metropolis (Copyright Samuel Broche) offers a plethora of events and cool things to do.
Let’s begin with this very week end, where at least three unmissable things take place. One is Di verde in verde: once a year, just for three days, private gardens are open to the public, allowing people to discover the inner green heart of the historical center and the surrounding hills.
The last edition gave me the opportunity to discover the lovely and very central (just two steps from Fram Café and Rialto Cinema) Orti di Via Orfeo. This year, among the 48 secret gardens I hope to discover some new gems and hopefully enjoy part of the collateral classical music program, dedicated to Rossini and courtesy of Teatro Comunale.
Another unmissable little thing is Capsula, the design market organized and hosted by Le Serre dei Giardini. It’s the first week end of this small, carefully selected market that will go on once a month ’till september, showcasing illustrators, jewelry designers, vintage and young designers’ clothing within the lovely setting of Le Serre.
And once you’re at Le Serre you might as well stay for the rich and eclectic program of IT-A-CÁ. This cool and vibrant festival dedicated to sustainable travel and turism was born in Bologna nine years ago and is now touring Italy with its set of conferences, meetings, parties and exhibitions.
Bologna is still the first stop of the moving festival (that will later move to Ravenna, Ferrara, Trento and other destinations of Northern Italy) and this year it will gave special attention to topics such as home sharing, AirBnb etc, plus the opportunity to meet great travel bloggers and globe trotters like the lovely Giulia Raciti of Viaggiare Low Cost. I interviewed her some months ago for a magazine articles on digital nomads, while she was on a train journey across South Africa, and was impressed by her spontaneous kindness and obvious happiness. After all, she’s a woman under 40 who solo travelled the globe before establishing her own little budget travel web agency. Respect.
IT-A-CÁ Festival will go on until May28, while you only have today and tomorrow to go do some artisanal beer tasting at Festival dei Birrai Eretici (the festival of “heretical brewers”) taking place at the very bolognese, very “democratically un-fancy” and very nice DLF Bologna. Usual program: local brewers, street food and then a party tonight (saturday 20th) at Locomotiv Club.
This is just a small portion of the rich menu of Bologna’s festivals for the “warm season” (also including tonight’s closing night of Pulse and the ongoing contemporary musical festival Angelica). Stay tuned for the approaching Smell Festival and Biografilm, keep taking your vitamins and enjoy blooming May in blooming Bo. See you at Le Serre?
Flaneur in Bologna 