Restaurants in Verona and Bologna

I cannot recommend any special, because we never read reviews. What we do: we just walk around. Every restaurant has their menu written outside with prices, tax and tips included. So you can decide just at the moment if you want to go in or not.

I failed to make advanced reservation for restaurants in Bologna. As a result, I was turned away from about a half dozen places I had on my list to try. I wrongly thought October would be easier. Nonetheless, I enjoyed all the meals I had. One place that I did get in by going very early for dinner was Twinside. It is a bistrot with a limited menu that is located next to a more upscale restaurant. It is the more moderate priced option but shares the same kitchen and staff as the higher end "twin."

My daytrip to see the mosaics in Ravenna is one of the best daytrips I have done anywhere. While I agree with those who say more than one day would be even better, I found it a very satisfying daytrip from Bologna. I boutgh the 5 site combo ticket online several days in advance. I had to shift plans slightly because some of the mosaic sites were already sold out for the day I originally wanted. I did not get to Ferrara. I enjoyed several days worth of museums, churches, and wandering in Bologna.

In Verona Al Grottino - Osteria e Sbecoleria is a great hole in the wall place off Piazza Erbe for a drink and cicchetti. They have a limited wine selection but all the ones I tried were great. Cafe Monte Baldo nearby also has great cicchetti and more serious food if you want that. Right near the cafe there is Arcivio a super small, super hip cocktail bar. There are a bunch of restaurants running down Via Sottoriva under the porticos near the river just past the cathedral and then right. Osteria del Bugiardo is wine centric place with some food options on Corso Porta Borsari the shopping street that links the two big piazzas - Erbe and Bra. Also near there is Duchi Café which is nothing super special but always had good luck there is you just want a little sandwich with good brad and beer, spritz or wine to just pop in there. Since Verona gets a lot of German tourism beer is as generally as available as wine in places across Verona.

These are all in the main center of "downtown" in the bend of the river. There are also the neighborhood areas of Veronetta and San Zeno that have plenty of dining options in just neighborhood places that are often quite good. Verona has a very cafe culture feel with outdoor seating virtually everywhere as you walk through the city. There is no lack of good restaurants in Verona but read the menu carefully at the older places because the cuisine can be very "traditional".

Have a great trip,
=Tod

Thanks for all the quick replies and recommendations. I'm sure with only 3 nights in each place, I now have many options to look into. As we are going in the busy summer season, I will make some reservations.

At this point I am leaning towards Ravenna as a day trip. I will perhaps book a tour so the highlights are not sold out. Thanks everyone. I am really excited about this trip as these are parts of Italy I have not really explored before. What I am quickly finding out is that I love all of Italy.

Bologna Restaurants:

Our favorite restaurant was Ristorante Cesari. The food is delicious, the service is top-notch, and the ambiance is very warm and friendly. I recommend making advance reservations.

Trattoria Da Me Torre - The food is delicious; however, the portions were very small. My husband doesn't appreciate meals that are too creative and too fancy, in his opinion, and with small portions. Very nice ambience. Reservations are a must.

Trattoria Anna Marie - our hotel recommended this restaurant, which we enjoyed very much. They made reservations for us the day before. Food is very delicious, ample and traditional. No fancy combinations; no fusion meals.

Verona Restaurant:
Botteca Vini - This restaurant came highly recommended. Need advance reservations. Unfortunately, it was not the best night for us. I think we ordered the wrong meal. We ordered steak, which was too rare. And my husband usually likes his steak rare. We probably should have asked them to cook it more. We saw customers near us ordering pasta dishes, and they looked delicious. That's probably what we should have done.

Just to clarify, in case I gave the wrong impression, you don't need to book a tour to reserve tickets for the popular mosaic sites in Ravenna. You can just book tickets for the sites from the official onlne ticket office. There are also a couple that don't have advanced tickets but are less centrally located.

Verona

Trattoria Al Pompiere
https://www.alpompiere.com/it/

Bologna

Sfoglia Rina
https://www.sfogliarina.it/en/

Ristorante Diana
https://www.ristorante-diana.it/

Osteria Al 15
https://www.facebook.com/share/1CBkAWBwPV/

Website for Ravenna mosaic tickets: https://www.ravennamosaici.it/en/ticketoffice/.

Tourist and school-group traffic in Ravenna apparently varies considerably from day to day, but as of now (after Wednesday closing time) there are tickets available for nearly all tomorrow's entry times. It seems ticket sales begin about a week before the planned date of visit. As is fairly typical, it seems the early entry times tend to be most popular.

Ristorante da Nello al Montegrappa in Bologna is a traditional Bolognese restaurant that I highly recommend. It is full of tradition and not stuffy. We always try to reserve an outdoor table.

We enjoyed our food tour with Delicious Bologna - https://deliciousbologna.com/delicious-bologna-activities/. We booked it through AirBnB https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/224204 but it looks to be the same. Mattia was fantastic very knowledge and lots of good food.

We also really enjoyed Osteria dell'Orsa. My husband still raves about their Tortellini en Brodo.

Thanks again for all the great suggestions and links to restaurants and the mosaics. It will be hard to choose just a few restaurants. Their menus all look delicious and a blend of traditional and new age Italian. To be honest, the food is what I love best about italy... you are hard pressed to make a bad choice. :)