Italy Travel And Hotel Guide

Like Bologna, Modena is a terrific place to eat , with a large array of restaurants in all price ranges. Try if you can to sample some of the local pork-based specialities, like ciccioli - flaky pork scratchings ordered out in bars in the evening - or, in a restaurant, zampone (pig’s trotters, boned and filled with minced meat) or cotechino - the same thing, but stuffed inside an animal bladder. At the bottom end of the price scale, Giusti, Via Farini 75 (closed 12.30-5.30pm), a delicatessen since the seventeenth century, is a good source of picnic food; Giusti also run a bar, a few doors up, which is a good place for ready-made sandwiches. There is a self-service restaurant, Il Chiostro , at Via San Geminiano 3 (closed Sun), and a reasonable mensa at Via Leodino 9. Up a notch, the ristorante-pizzeria Al Grotino , Via del Taglio 26 (closed Wed), and the Trattoria Aldina , Via Albinelli 40 (closed Mon), are both decent, inexpensive standbys. If you want to try Modenese specialities, Da Enzo , Via Coltellini 17 (tel 059.225.177; closed Mon), is a nice, slightly old-fashioned place to do so - though not especially cheap; there’s also Santa Chiara , on Via Ruggera (tel 059.225.302; closed Sun), a swish restaurant with adventurous contemporary local cooking. Nearby Fini , off Largo San Francesco (tel 059.223.314; closed Mon & Tues), is a pricey and rather upscale establishment, but the food is delectable in the extreme.

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