Bologna is defined by three nicknames: the Fat (for its extraordinary cuisine), the Learned (for its ancient university), and the Red (for its terracotta towers and, later, its communist politics). Each epithet tells a chapter of the city's long story and its citizens carry all three with fierce pride.
The University of Bologna, founded in 1088, is the oldest in the Western world, and for centuries scholars from across Europe — Dante Alighieri among them — came to study law and philosophy under its porticos. The city's merchants and guilds grew prosperous, and that wealth poured into the kitchen: by the Renaissance, Bolognese cooking was considered the finest in Italy, producing ragù, tortellini, and mortadella that the Este court at Ferrara and the Papal States alike coveted. The red of Bologna's rooftops and its distinctive brick towers — two of which, the Asinelli and the Garisenda, still lean over the medieval centre — gave the city its colour long before politics arrived. After the Second World War, Bologna became the capital of Italy's communist-dominated 'red belt', a band of regions from Emilia to Tuscany where the PCI (Italian Communist Party) won election after election until the 1990s. Partisan resistance during the Nazi occupation had been fierce in Emilia-Romagna, and the left-wing tradition that emerged from the Liberation became the backbone of the cooperative movement and the welfare state that made the region one of the wealthiest in Europe. The three adjectives fused into a single civic identity that Bolognesi defend as intensely today as their grandparents did.
The three epithets developed separately over centuries: 'la Dotta' from the medieval university tradition, 'la Grassa' from Renaissance gastronomic reputation, and 'la Rossa' from the brick architecture — the political meaning being added only in the twentieth century.
A tour guide introducing Bologna to a group of foreign students
Benvenuti a Bologna: la Grassa per la cucina, la Dotta per l'università più antica d'Europa, e la Rossa per i tetti di mattoni e la storia politica.
Welcome to Bologna: the Fat for its cuisine, the Learned for the oldest university in Europe, and the Red for the terracotta rooftops and political history.
A Bolognese grandfather explaining his city to his grandchildren
La nostra città ha tre anime: la Grassa che ti nutre, la Dotta che ti istruisce, e la Rossa che ti insegna a lottare per la giustizia.
Our city has three souls: the Fat that feeds you, the Learned that educates you, and the Red that teaches you to fight for justice.
A journalist writing about Emilia-Romagna's economy
Bologna — la Grassa, la Dotta, la Rossa — è ancora oggi il motore economico e culturale di una delle regioni più ricche d'Italia.
Bologna — the Fat, the Learned, the Red — is still today the economic and cultural engine of one of Italy's wealthiest regions.
A student from the south moving to Bologna for university
Quando sono arrivata qui capivo cosa voleva dire la Dotta — la Grassa l'ho scoperta al primo piatto di tagliatelle al ragù.
When I arrived here I understood what the Learned meant — I discovered the Fat with the first plate of tagliatelle al ragù.