Humans of Bologna

Francesca
Today was the Fourth of July, so of course we had to find an American themed restaurant
to celebrate the holiday (even though none of us are especially patriotic). Once we were seated,
our server Francesca approached us. She said, “So I assume you all know about today’s special
deal.” We all shook our heads no and she went on to explain that they had unlimited red solo cup
drinks in celebration of the Fourth of July, and as she started to explain what that holiday was we
cut her off to exclaim, “that’s why we’re here!” She then seemed to be very surprised and
confused about what a group of American students were doing in Italy for the great American
holiday, but was incredibly friendly nonetheless. We’ve had very mixed experiences with
customer service here in Bologna so far so it was a breath of fresh air to have such a welcoming
and social server. As our meal continued, Francesca kept popping in to make little jokes and be
friendly with us. Eventually we worked up the courage to ask if she’d be willing to answer a few
questions for a school project, to which she responded, “An interview! Of course!” She didn’t
have much time to answer due to the increasing business of the restaurant but in a few short
questions we learned that she was originally from Brussels and had moved to Bologna 4 years
ago to attend the university. Her favorite thing about the city was the atmosphere on the streets
and how social people are. She highly recommended Osteria dell’Orsa and a gelato place just
down the street from the restaurant. She liked her job, although it wasn’t her all-time favorite,
she liked to socialize with her customers. And finally, she said that the biggest difference
between American and Italian tourists is that Italians tended to go for the more authentic places
and they were much more low key while Americans tended to be very loud. And with that,
Francesca chortled a quick goodbye before rushing off to entertain another table. Out of all of the
people that we’d met so far in Bologna, Francesca seemed like the first person that I could
genuinely see myself being friends with, and she made our foreign American dining experience
delightful.

Francesco D’Ascoli
While I was fortunate enough to meet Francesco at all on this trip, I was too unfortunate
to have met him on day 3 of this trip so I was unable to get a photo of him. Luckily, I was able to
find his instagram pretty quickly, but his account is private and he hasn’t accepted my follow
request so here’s his instagram profile picture for now. Francesco was the first Bologna resident
that I had the pleasure of having a real conversation with. I had talked to a couple of servers and
said “ciao” to a few random people but hadn’t had an in-depth conversation with anyone so far.
Francesco was the Gucci store employee who helped me look for a luxury bag while I did some
window shopping (I didn’t buy anything but it was sure fun to look!). Every other store that I’d
been into, I’d felt extremely uncomfortable and awkward with the employee/salesperson that
approached me and didn’t say much to them. I thought it was going to be the same with
Francesco, but just 10 minutes into our conversation, I knew that he was a genuine person. In our
45 minutes together, I learned that he was a Bologna resident, born and raised, now 25 with no
intention of leaving anytime soon. He was also queer, and hated the current Italian government (a
female leader that had become very conservative compared to their past leaders). He also loved
New York City (as you can probably tell by his profile picture). He pretended to know where
Minnesota was, but I doubt he really did. We discussed the Trump administration, which wasn’t
all that surprising because I knew that Trump had unfortunately become the face of current
America. He expressed how Trump was “no good” but Biden was not much better, to which I
agreed. I thought it was funny how most of our conversation seemed to be him trying to relate to
my American-ness, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. He highly recommended the coffee shop just
around the corner (which was delightful), and asked that I should stop by again sometime,
although I don’t know if that’s because he enjoyed my company or really wanted the commission
from my purse purchase (I assume the latter). But for being the first genuine conversation I had
in Bologna, it was very pleasant. I just wished that there wasn’t the pressure of me buying a bag
hanging in the air the whole time.
Sogol
“Are you here for The Driver Era?” A girl behind me pipes up. I spin to face her, a young
looking Italian girl with long, curly brown locks standing in front of a tall Italian looking man,
whom I presume to be her boyfriend. “Yea we are actually!” I thought that this was a pretty
random question given that we were hanging out at a park in Bologna and not even at their
concert which was 2 days from now. “Oh my gosh, I love them so much! I hope that maybe I’ll
meet them one day!” I tell her that she’s actually standing a mere 10 feet from their table and I
offer to introduce her to them since I had already met them a little over an hour ago and had been
chatting/drinking with them on and off all night. After I introduced her to them, I ended up
talking to her for a good hour or so. Turns out she was 20 (the same age as me) and a student in
Milan but she grew up in Bologna and had come home for a few days to go to the concert and
visit family. I was right, the man following her around was her boyfriend Chris. He seemed very
nice and cared for her very much but his English paled in comparison to hers so I didn’t get
much info about him. I asked why her English was so flawless, because it really was the most
fluent I’d heard in Italy so far. She told me that she took private lessons growing up and ended up
graduating the program with a certificate that pronounced her officially bilingual. In our
conversation I found out that her favorite thing about Bologna was how small and cozy it was
compared to Milan. She loved how many young people were there and that, although it’s pretty
small, it still has a good amount of tourism, visitors, stadiums, and events. She just moved to
Torino last year and it’s slightly bigger than Bologna and it’s pretty close to Milan. She studies
music/performing arts and Bologna didn’t have a good program for that so she felt that she had
to move to a bigger city to pursue her dream. She likes to travel basically anywhere in Italy
because Bologna has such a big train station she’s been to basically everywhere in Italy, but
Florence and Rome are her favorites. She thinks the best food is the tagliatelle cono bolognese,
tortellini, lasagna, and the gelato! I was happy to hear that all of the foods she recommended I
had already had on my trip. Also the gelato shop that she recommended was one that I had been
to earlier that night so that was funny! We ended up meeting up at the concert later that week and
I told her that she must visit me in the United States for her 21st birthday next summer!