Festival della Zuppa
Sunday, April 13th, 2014
When I had lunch with Franco last week he told me about the Festival della Zuppa (soup) scheduled for this weekend in a near-by suburb of Bologna, Corticella. Since I have always wanted to go so some kind of festival or sagra related to food ( I think a sagra is always a food thing) I decided to go today. Getting there was a bit more of an adventure than I had bargained for. First of all the bus that runs near my house was the problem. On days when there is a soccer match (partita di calcio) my usual bus, the #20 doesn’t follow this route from 45 minutes before the start of the game until 15 minutes after and from 15 minutes before the end until 45 minutes after. As luck would have it there was a soccer game scheduled for 12:30 today so when I arrived and saw everyone walking toward Porta Saragozza I quickly realized the problem. So I started walking too. When I got close to the porta (what was once one of the entrances through the walls of the city) I saw a #20 going the other way so knew that the buses must have started running again, thank God. So I took this bus to the point where I would change to another one to take me to the final destination. It was CROWDED. Like sardines in a can (Italians use anchovies instead of sardines). I was lucky to get on at all and we were elbow to elbow the whole way and it was a pretty long ride. I was glad to get off because after awhile it was like an oven inside.
It’s a street festival and the whole street was totally packed with people. After I arrived I found a small dish and a spoon and tasted at least 20 soups. Four of five were very good, most of the resto were so-so and one was pretty bad. Still it was quite and experienc. People taste soups and can vote for those that they think are the best. Some stands handed out something to remind you of the number of their booth to help win your  vote. It was quite a street party as you can see from the photos below.
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- The brochure and things given me at booths. They have the number on the back of the soup except the one.
The tourist office gave me a brochure for the festival and another for festivals and sagras in the Emilia-Romagna region during the spring so I plan to go to another one easily accessible by train.
