Is a Food Tour in Bologna Worth It? An Honest Review!

Eating your way through Bologna, Italy, is the best way to introduce yourself to Italy’s foodie capital. While you can certainly plan a self-guided food tour in Bologna, especially if you’ve been before, a guided experience is WAY easier.

Our own experience with Secret Food Tours remains one of my favorite experiences not just in Bologna, but in all of our travels.

It came with a history of Bologna’s eating culture and plentiful samples of what makes the city so delicious.

My review here will start with details on what you can expect with your visit, along with some extra options if you’d like to shop around for a Bologna food tour.

The Best Food Tour in Bologna

The best food tour in Bologna based on our personal experience is run by Secret Food Tours.

It incorporates some learning about Bologna’s food culture alongside several courses of local food. Italy’s food culture is part of its identity, after all. It’s all connected.

Secret Food Tours accomplishes that with additional historical information throughout the afternoon. This is a true Bologna food tour from a local perspective.

I did quite a bit of research to figure out the best food tour Bologna had to offer, and I kept returning to this one. We booked their small group tour, but they also have private food tours if you don’t want to make new friends.

Tour prices vary based on group size, length of your tour, even when you book.

Our tour was still intimate enough that any questions I may have had were answered. If you go with the small group as we did, you won’t see more than 12 hungry little caterpillars on your tour.

Note: It’s also the top-selling Bologna food tour on Tripadvisor, so there’s a little more social proof for you if you need it.

If you’re already convinced, try to book at least a week out in the low season and several weeks in advance during the high season. We took our tour in October, and they had limited availability the week of our Bologna travel.

What to Expect on a Bologna Food Tour

Food tours in Bologna vary somewhat based on the tour company you book for your eating adventure. From what I’ve heard from other travel bloggers, many of the tours make similar stops to show off the best of Bologna’s food. 

Famous food in Bologna is mortadella, tortellini en brodo, and tagliatelle al ragú. That last one is pasta with the real Bolognese meat sauce.

A good food tour in the city will include most if not all of those foods for a complete foodie experience.

You’ll likely try cured meats like Parma ham, or Prosciutto di Parma, as well. This is the Emilia-Romagna region, after all. If you’re lucky, those meats will come with a side of Parmigiano Reggiano.

READ MORE: Love a food city? Naples should be on your list for its historic pizza scene.

Most tours involve a stop to walk through markets like The Quadrilatero to learn about local products.

Some tours come with a cooking class component that allows you to try making some adorable tortellini of your own. I liked leaving it to the experts but I would love to take a pasta-making class in the future.

Others incorporate wine tastings. Wine is a huge deal in Italy, and you’ll have quite a bit on even self-guided food tours in Italy. Our tour provided wine with lunch, with an upgrade possible if you wanted more booze throughout the day. 

It started at 10:30am, friends. I’m too old for that sh*t.

Secret Food Tours: A Detailed Review

We met our tour guide Sonia at the Two Towers, a symbol of Bologna and an essential stop for even a short visit to the city.

She had us confirm our names and provide email addresses for photos and our Bologna food tour itinerary after our food tour, and we were on our way.

You can choose between a morning and an afternoon tour when you book with Secret Food Tours. We went on our tour the day after we arrived in Italy from Chicago, so we figured a morning tour would be best to combat jet lag. 

We weren’t wrong. We were ready for a big nap after several hours of eating.

READ MORE: A Bologna food tour is my favorite thing to do in the city, but there’s so much more to explore. Use my Bologna guide to plan your trip!

Stop 1: Italian Sweet Treats

Italians go for sweet rather than savory to go with those baby cups of espresso. Our first stop was at Il Banco del Pane, a pastry shop known for its baked goods, including a sweet treat popular around the holidays.

These ravioli alla mostarda aren’t ravioli at all. They’re also not stuffed with mustard, but a sweet candied fruit jam. It’s basically a delicious Italian cookie that’s essential during the Christmas season, and I didn’t have any issues celebrating early.

During some parts of the year, your tour may kick off with a coffee and a croissant. I wouldn’t take issue with that combo, either.

Fun fact: Want to stick out as a tourist in Italy? Carry around a to-go cup of coffee while you check out the sights. You’ll do the opposite of fit right in. Care to blend in? Sip on il caffè as the locals do, while standing at a coffee bar. Please don’t try to tell an Italian barista how to make a mocha, either. Please.

Stop 2: The Science Behind Pasta

Next up, we worked up a bit of an appetite by making a historical stop at an entrance for the city’s old Jewish ghetto. This was a part of the city that was separated from the rest of Bologna. 

There were three entrance gates during the confinement and a set nightly curfew. It was a sobering part of our tour, but I wouldn’t have known what I was looking at if Sonia hadn’t been there to explain it to me.

Note: If you’re in this part of town, look to the walls for the porcelain hand-shaped tiles next to the street names. This is the Hamsa, or Hand of Miriam, a symbol of the Jewish faith and in this case a marker of the old ghetto.

We then made a quick stop inside a local deli to take a look at the cured meats they were prepping for us along with the freshest pasta you’ve ever seen.

It was a preview of our official second stop at a pasta lab, where we watched a group of women folding tortellini.

There are labs like this all over the city, but this one was above La Prosciutteria, a chain found throughout this region of Italy. You can find better cold-cut markets elsewhere, like Bruno e Franco, the local shop we visited above.

Fun fact: These women — and they’re typically women, for whatever reason — work up to 12 hours per day in the weeks leading up to the winter holidays. Italians love their tortellini at Christmas!

This was also where one of our groupmates elbowed her way into the back of the pasta lab to take her photos. No one stopped her, but that doesn’t make it OK. This is an actual workspace, people.

Stop 3: Italian Savory Treats

It’s time for all of the cured meats.

We returned to Bruno e Franco to pick up our platter of Parma ham, pink salami, mortadella, and several other varieties of delicious Italian meats. You won’t look at lunch meat the same way again. I guarantee it.

Chunks of aged Parmesan cheese rounded things out.

This was one of my favorite stops along the tour because I’m a big fan of charcuterie in my regular life.

Unfortunately, it got awkward when our resident Instagrammer grabbed the platter of meats and cheese from our guide to take a photo of it in one of those, “Here’s my food!” photos you see all over social media.

You know the Instagram pose. You hold the thing out, often in front of the shop you bought it from, to show off said food. Yes, it’s overdone, but it’s especially awkward on a group tour when we’re all waiting to dig in on the platter you’re holding.

We weren’t passing the platter around, by the way. We were supposed to approach each platter, grab our goodies, and snack away. It was rude and it was cringe but our guide was polite despite it all.

Stop 4: The Fresh Pasta

It was time for lunch. We visited the traditional Trattoria del Rosso for two different kinds of pasta — tortellini in a cream sauce and tagliatelle al ragú — and generous helpings of Sangiovese.

No, it’s not spaghetti bolognese. We’re doing it wrong.

You’ll likely start feeling quite full at this point, but push through that. Our guide also ordered us some crescentina fritta at this point. It’s a fried bread typical in Bologna and perfect with cured meats.

In this case, it was an additional carb on our plates, which wasn’t an issue.

Along the way to our lunch stop, we stopped by several quintessential Bologna attractions that were on my list for later on in our trip.

This is why I suggest booking a Bologna food tour as early in your Bologna visit as possible. You’ll likely see quite a few things already on your list.

Here’s what we saw:

• Ventana al canal: This “window to the canal” is a little peekaboo of the canal below. It’s a very popular photo on social media. Is it worth a stop? Sure. Is it all that impressive? The food’s better.
• Piazza Maggiore: You’ll need to return to Bologna’s central square to check out the inside of the half-finished Basilica of San Petronio, but hear about the history of the church and a secret spot used to share gossip.
• The city’s towers: We met at the Two Towers, but we also passed by several other towers that now serve purposes outside of housing royal residents. That includes the Prendiparte Tower, Bologna’s second-tallest.
• The Quadrilatero: It’s one of the more touristy things to do, but that doesn’t make it any less of an essential stop in Bologna. See a variety of fresh fruits and veggies at the oldest market in the city.

Stop 5: Aged Balsamic Vinegar

Bellies full from carb-loading, our next stop lightened things up a bit with an aged balsamic vinegar tasting. Balsamic vinegar in the Emilia-Romagna region is just as legendary as its Parma ham and Parmigiano Reggiano.

Our tasting happened at Drogheria Gilberto, a wine bar and sweets shop that also boasts a cellar of very old balsamic.

We tried spoonfuls of vinegar that were eight, 12, and 25 years old. Our resident photog was allowed to taste the 40-year-old balsamic vinegar, which didn’t seem fair. There just wasn’t enough of the stuff to go around.

We also learned that aged balsamic is used as a savory topping for vanilla ice cream. The older it is, the thicker it gets, so I can see that being quite the treat.

Stop 6: Your “Secret” Meal

Secret Food Tours include a “secret” meal that isn’t on your expected itinerary. Ours was a rice cake, or torta di riso di grazianella, from Paolo Atti & Figli, a central pasta shop that also specializes in baked goods.

It was dense but delicious, and not overly sweet. It’s all sweet treats from here!

Stop 7: A Gelato Stop

No matter which Bologna food tour you book for your eating adventure through Italy’s foodie city, you’ll likely finish things up with some gelato. Our pick was Cremeria la Vecchia Stalla.

This is where we learned that you shouldn’t patronize gelato shops that have all of their product outside their business, whether you’re in Florence, Bologna, or Rome. Classic shops keep all their gelatos out of view with a simple list of flavors for you to choose from when you come inside.

More modern shops may have their gelato in view, but not displayed as aggressively as many of the tourist shops in Italian city centers.

I’ll be honest. I didn’t have a bad bite of gelato over several weeks in Italy, so if you have a craving and aren’t sure of the arbitrary rules, I won’t be mad at you.

It was a perfect end to a perfect afternoon. We ran well over our expected time, so I’d suggest keeping the rest of your itinerary for the day fairly light, even if you book a morning food tour in Bologna.

You may not even need dinner that night, by the way. We didn’t.

More Bologna Food Tours

I can only go by reviews and what my fellow travel bloggers have shared with me as far as comparison shopping for your Bologna food tours.

If Secret Food Tours is all booked during your trip to Bologna, here are a few more highly-rated options:

• Bologna Guided Traditional Food Tour
• Delicious Bologna
• Classic Bologna Food Tour
• Italian Days Food & Wine Tours
• Stay Hungry Stay Bologna

Travel Tips for Bologna Food Tours

I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job getting you all amped to book a food tour of your own.

To make sure you’re prepared with more than just stretchy pants, here are a few more tips for the best food tour:

• Book your tour early in your trip. Our tour came with quite a bit of history on top of all of the delicious Italian food we consumed. It’s an excellent way to get acquainted with Bologna’s city center, too. 
• Wear comfortable shoes. These food tours are Bologna walking food tours. You won’t go far outside the city center, but you will be on your feet for quite a bit. Don’t try to break in your new Vejas on your tour. Ask me how I know.
• Be open to trying everything. Every top food tour Bologna has to offer can make adjustments for vegetarians, vegans, etc. If you don’t have dietary restrictions, I urge you to get beyond what you think you like or don’t.
• Be present. There was a gal on our tour that was more about snapping photos for Instagram than focusing on the tastes in front of her. She didn’t even try everything she was snapping. That’s weird, right? Our guide was impressively patient.
• Be mindful of others. Along those lines, if you’re here to photograph every bite at the expense of others in your group, private tours are available with every major Bologna food tour company. 
• Tip your guide. Bring euros to give to your guide when you’re all done with your taste of Bologna. Bologna, as with most of Italy, isn’t a city where you necessarily need to tip servers, but guides are a different story. They rely on tips.

Where to Stay in Bologna

We stayed at the Olly Apartments in Bologna for a full week. It was outside the city center, which we didn’t mind. We felt better about eating all of the pasta when we had a 30-minute walk at the end of our adventures for the day.

Interested in something more central? Check out the map below for Bologna hotels and apartments:

Introduce yourself to Bologna’s food scene.

A food tour in Bologna is a great way to introduce yourself to the local cuisine.

I would recommend taking Secret Food Tours while visiting Bologna, Italy, as it’s a food tour led by locals who know about the best food in the city.

They have connections all over town, too, so you’ll have a chance to interact with shopkeepers, butchers, and cheesemongers who only add to your guide’s expertise.

It remains one of my favorite experiences in Italy, and certainly my favorite thing to do in Bologna.