Where Can You Eat Street Food in Bologna?

Three Streets and What They Sold

Via Drapperie was the textile street, Via Clavature the blacksmith street and Via Pescherie Vecchie the fish street. The Salaroli guild of salt, cured meat and cheese merchants had as many as 281 shops by 1294. The Quadrilatero opens early, so it works as a breakfast stop.

Mercato di Mezzo on Via Clavature

Mercato di Mezzo stands at Via Clavature 12, inside the Quadrilatero. It became the city's first covered market after the Unification of Italy and was redeveloped in 2014. Check the hours posted at the door before you plan a meal around it.

Street Bites and the Tours That Serve Them

This table lists seven Bologna street bites, what each one is, and which walking tours on this page serve it, taken from each tour's own tasting list.

Bites You Buy on Your Own

Local top-10 lists also name pizza al taglio, crescentine, scrigno di Venere, ciccioli, a cone of fried fish, crema fritta and caldarroste. No walking tour on this page lists them, so buy these on your own. Crema fritta is a fried custard bite in high demand during Carnival, so look for it in that season rather than in summer.

What the Mortadella Rules Require

The figures below come from the Mortadella Bologna IGP production specification, the rule book every slice sold under that name has to meet.

Mortadella Day and How to Spot the Real Thing

Cardinal Girolamo Farnese laid down rules for making mortadella in 1661. Mortadella Day is celebrated on 24 October, the same date as those rules.

A real slice has a uniform bright pink cut surface and feels velvety, and the whole piece is oval or cylindrical. Mortadella Bologna IGP is made only in Italy, in Emilia-Romagna, Piemonte, Lombardia, Veneto, the province of Trento, Toscana, Marche and Lazio, and slicing must happen in that zone too. For a sandwich, the Secret Food Tours Bologna Food and Market Tour lists an artisan Mortadella sandwich among its tastings.

The Three Market Stops Compared

This table compares the three market stops in central Bologna by address, history and what each is best for, using Bologna Welcome's own descriptions of them.

Which Tours Walk the Markets

The Taste Bologna Food Tour walks through Mercato delle Erbe and the Quadrilatero in 4 hours. Guests buy their own lunch at the stalls, then eat it at a historic osteria. The Delicious Bologna Small-Group Food Tour meets at 9.55am, starts with breakfast, then walks the Quadrilatero food market and the main square.

The Secret Food Tours Bologna Food and Market Tour ends in the Quadrilatero market with a tasting of balsamic vinegars aged 8 to 25 years.

The Ages Each Tour Pours

This table sets out the cheese and balsamic ages each walking tour lists in its own tastings, next to its length and its price per person.

DOP or IGP on the Label

Traditional Balsamic DOP is made only from cooked grape must, and every production stage takes place in the province of Modena. Balsamic of Modena IGP adds wine vinegar. A 12-year DOP pour, as on the Taste Bologna Food Tour, is the youngest traditional grade.

Parmigiano Reggiano is made only from milk, salt and rennet, with no additives and no preservatives. A wheel weighs 40 kg on average.

The Official Filling

The Dotta Confraternita del Tortellino deposited the filling with the Bologna Chamber of Commerce in 1974. For about 1,000 tortellini it uses 300 g pork loin, 300 g ham, 300 g Mortadella Bologna, 450 g Parmigiano and 3 eggs with nutmeg. Every tortellino carries mortadella inside, fried or in broth.

Where to Taste Fried Tortellini

The Bologna Street Food Tour serves fried tortellini with Parmigiano cream as one of five tastings in 2 hours, for $57 per person. It meets at Palazzo della Mercanzia, home of the Chamber of Commerce, where the golden sample of the Bolognese tagliatella, 8 millimetres wide after cooking, is kept. Its tastings can easily replace lunch.

For the broth version, the Delicious Bologna Small-Group Food Tour lists tortellini in broth among more than 20 local specialties across 6 stops.

Traffic Limits and Closed Areas

Pedestrian zones and the T area of Via Rizzoli, Via Indipendenza and Via Ugo Bassi are restricted 24 hours a day. Mercato delle Erbe sits on Via Ugo Bassi, so arrive on foot or by bus.

The area around the Garisenda Tower is cordoned off for restoration and safety works, and the Asinelli Tower is closed for area maintenance. The Bologna Walking Food Tour with a Local ends at the Two Towers after 3 hours, so expect the finish at street level, without a climb.

Dietary Rules by Tour

This table sets out what each walking food tour states about diets in its own listing, with its length, so you can rule a tour in or out before booking.

Kids and Strollers

The Bologna Walking Food Tour with a Local does not allow baby strollers. On the Delicious Bologna Small-Group Food Tour, infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller. The Taste Bologna Food Tour is wheelchair accessible and covers about 3 km on foot.

Every listing that sets a drinking age puts it at 18.