Restaurants

Expensive/Moderate -- After dinner, many restaurant patrons skip the dessert course and head for Gelatauro, Via San Vitale 98 (tel. 051-230049), run by three brothers. Bologna's best ice-cream vendor is known for its organic gelato, including one divine concoction made from Sicilian oranges. Was that Umberto Eco we recently spotted lined up for his fix of ice cream flavored with such fresh herbs as jasmine and bergamot?

Inexpensive -- Enoteca Italiana, Via Marsala 2/B (tel. 051-235989), is an inviting and aromatic shop-cum-wine bar on a side street just north of Piazza Maggiore. You can stand at the bar and sip a local wine while enjoying a sandwich. For a movable feast, you can stock up on ham, salami, and cheese at the deli counter, and enjoy a picnic at the nearby Neptune fountain. Open Monday to Saturday 7:30am to 8pm.

On a stroll through the Pescherie Vecchie, the city's market area near the Due Torri, you can assemble a meal. Along the Via Drapperie and adjoining streets, salumerias, cheese shops, bakeries, and vegetable markets are heaped high with attractive displays. The stalls of Bologna's other food market, the Mercato delle Erbe, Via Ugo Bassi 2, are open Monday to Wednesday and Friday and Saturday 7:15am to 1pm and 5 to 7:30pm, Thursday and Saturday 7:15am to 1pm.

Bar Roberto at Via Orefici 9/A (tel. 051-232256), near Bologna's central market, turns out delicious homemade pastries that attract a loyal breakfast clientele.