I'm visiting Bologna, a charming Italian medieval city that flourished around the early renaissance. The oldest university in the world can be found here and if you're interested in the late medieval and early renaissance period, you won't want to miss it. Bologna is just about a little more than an hour away from Milan, fourty minutes from Florence or a bit over two hours from Rome by high speed train. Bologna is not as touristy as Rome or Florence, and much livelier than Milan, making it a wonderful place to spend a bit more time in. And there's a Bitcoin community, too!

🥪I first came across Sfardini by chance. The small shop in the central market makes wonderful flatbread sandwiches called Piadine. I noticed the Bitcoin sticker as I walked past and asked about it. I was welcomed warmly and shown a Lightning invoice on the manager's personal phone from Bitcoin Swiss Pay, which uses BTCPay as their front-end. The Swiss Pay node seems to be very well managed, and I paid only 1 sat over my 30,000 sat payment covering two sandwiches, water and a typical Italian orange lemonade: An Aranciata.

🍸Just behind the market is Pastis, which opens in the late afternoon and serves aperitivos. I had a Spritz Bitter, but the kitchen only opened a bit later so I could not try the snacks. It's a very cool place with a great atmosphere that eventually became very lively. There's also another bar across the square called Pastis Cuvee, which also takes Bitcoin. The checkout process felt very professional, and they also used the familiar BTCPay interface, but with a node in the back I don't recognize. With disappearance of cash payments, tipping has become even less common in Italy, a convenience I very much enjoy. In places where tipping is common, Bitcoin payments in bars can be a lot more awkward.

🍝People in Bologna tend to have dinner relatively late, from eight in the evening, but many places have their kitchen open until midnight. I walked to Osteria Le Moline, a simple restaurant serving local dishes. In fact, everything in Bologna is oddly traditional and simple. There are a few meals that everyone makes: Tagliatelle al Ragu, known outside of Bologna as "Spaghetti Bolognese," a Lasagna with the same minced meat filling, Tortellini (small) and Tortelloni (large). I tremendously enjoy these dishes, but don't expect much variety or even foreign cuisine in the city. I eventually even somewhat become suspicious of restaurants with a broad menu. Le Moline was packed, and when it came to paying I was asked to come downstairs where the waiter pulls up Muun wallet on a tablet by the cashier. He said he hasn't processed a Bitcoin payment in over four months, and he had to rewatch a video explaining how to do it. Muun seems a bit of an odd choice here, as it isn't easy to use and I now have to assume the keys to the Bitcoin are stored on that tablet that lies around in the store. I paid over Lightning, and my Zeus wallet showed the payment as failed (should have been "in-flight"), but after about a minute the funds arrived in the wallet. I'll come back here for the food, not the Lightning payment experience.

🐍There's a small and beautiful pharmacy called Pavaglione in the city center that takes Bitcoin. I bought some generic medicine and asked to pay with Bitcoin. I'm probably lucky the person I assume to be the manager is here, an older man who confidently pulls up his phone and invoices me through Wallet of Satoshi. I wonder how that would work when he is not present.

🌾Near the market is Granaglie, a small store selling organic grains, beans, nuts and dried food. It's a beautiful shop that I would frequent more often if I lived here, but on my visit I only bought a bottle of apple juice from South Tyrol. The cashier used Wallet of Satoshi as well, and the payment goes through smoothly.

🚅There are two main operators serving the national high-speed market. The government-run Frecciarossa and the private Italo. Both have gift cards for sale on Bitrefill, but the Italo gift cards are quite a pain to use and the Frecciarossa cards aren't too much better either. I also found Bitrefill harder to use on this trip than previously. Their node has become hard and expensive to reach, and if you want to buy gift cards with large denominations you almost have to open your own channel, or pay onchain. I hope that inconvenience is only temporary.

⚜️The local community is quite active and easy to find. Italian Bitcoin Meetups usually call themselves "Satoshi Spritz" and are held on Fridays in one of the aperitivo bars of whatever city you are in. Here's a handy list. The local meetup is held weekly at a local bar specializing in craft beers that sadly does not take Bitcoin. I found the community to be welcoming and engaging. There I met the shop owner of a local ice cream shop that takes Bitcoin, but the shop is closed in winter. If it was warmer, there were also another bar taking Lightning payments just outside the old city perimeters. I also heard about Il Mulino Bruciato, a great restaurant a bit outside of town near the airport, which requires a car to reach.