Bologna

Rick Stein's series of long weekends across Europe - taking in markets, restaurants and vineyards, the culture, history and scenery, and including fabulous dishes to cook at home.

This time Rick visits Bologna in northern Italy, a city so famous for its food that it's known as the stomach of Italy. He learns how to make the local fresh egg pasta used for tortellini, tagliatelle, ravioli and lasagne. There's stuffed rabbit filled with parma ham and parmesan frittata for dinner. At the market, Rick finds a fish stall and cafe, where he enjoys squid stuffed with mashed potato and capers.

Bologna is a medieval city with a university even older than Oxford, and Rick explores the local cloisters and the Whispering Walls. He even climbs Bologna's famous Asinelli Tower, despite vertigo. He also drives up into the hills to a cheese dairy, where he tastes 13-year-old parmesan. Nearby, there's lunch at a pig farm with restaurant attached. Out in the back, they're making brawn, but for the crew lunch they serve huge pork steaks, grilled over charcoal, with a big glass of local San Giovese wine. Delicious.