‘THE FAT, THE LEARNED AND THE RED’ ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BOLOGNA
BOLOGNA THE CITY
Bologna’s nickname — ‘the fat’, ‘the learned’ and ‘the red’ — reflects what it’s best known for: great food, the oldest university in the world, terracotta buildings and left-wing politics.
Typical Bolognese specialities include tortellini in brodo (tortellini in broth), lasagna verde alla Bolognese (green lasagna) and mortadella (Bologna sausage). But there’s no such thing as spaghetti Bolognese. What Brits might think of as an Italian staple is actually just an imitation of the real thing: tagliatelle al ragù (tagliatelle with a meat sauce).
The University of Bologna was founded in 1088, making it the world’s oldest university. Its alumni include Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Erasmus and several Popes, while Bettisia Gozzadini was the first woman to earn a degree and teach at a university when she lectured in Bologna in the 13th century.
Bologna is Italy’s seventh-largest city, with a population of around 390,000. It is also the capital of the northern Emilia-Romagna region.
Its most famous natives include Nobel Prize winner Guglielmo Marconi, four Popes (Gregory XIII and XV, Benedict XIV and Lucius II) and writer and film director Pier Paolo Pasolini.
BOLOGNA FC
Bologna Football Club were founded in 1909 and were one of the original members of Serie A.
They have won seven Serie A titles, the same number as Torino, making them Italy’s joint-fifth most successful club.
Six of those titles were won between 1925 and 1941, with their only postWorld War Two Scudetto coming in the 1963-64 season.
They later won two Coppa Italia titles in the 1970s but, since then, their trophy haul has been limited to one Intertoto Cup in 1998. Bologna have produced players like Roberto Mancini, Gianluca Pagliuca and Angelo Schiavio — a 1934 World Cup winner with Italy who remains the club’s top scorer with 251 goals. The Stadio Renato Dall’Ara, named after a former club president, was built in 1927 and has a capacity of 38,279. This summer, the final project proposal for the stadium’s renovation and modernisation was put to the City Council.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the likes of Roberto Baggio, Giuseppe Signori and Julio Cruz led the line for Bologna, but winger Riccardo Orsolini has been their top scorer for the last two seasons.
7 The number of Serie A titles won by Bologna — making them the joint-fifth most successful club in Italy