The Best Bologna Food Tours, Compared

The best Bologna food tour for most people is the Walking Food Tour with a Local Expert: three hours, from $88, rated 4.8 from 2,057 reviews, with a Bolognese guide who explains what you are eating. If you are watching the budget, the two-hour street food tour costs from $64. For the market streets with wine, a full sit-down meal, an evening dinner tour or a sommelier-led wine walk, the six tours below are ranked by who they suit.

Prices are in US dollars as GetYourGuide listed them on 14 October 2026. Several tours were showing a discount that day, so the live price may differ.

Bologna food tours compared

How we picked

We compared every Bologna food and wine walk in our GetYourGuide data, refreshed on 14 October 2026, on four things from the listings: number of reviews, average rating, price and what the itinerary says it covers. “Most booked” is the tour with the most reviews. “Best on a budget” is the cheapest food walk. “Highest rated” is the best average among tours with more than 400 reviews. The other three fill a specific need: a full meal, an evening slot and wine. We have not taken these tours ourselves. We earn a commission if you book through our links; see our affiliate disclosure.

What a Bologna food tour covers

Several of these tours start a few minutes from Piazza Maggiore. The most-booked walk meets at the Neptune Fountain on Piazza del Nettuno, and the street food tour meets at Palazzo della Mercanzia. Neither listing names Piazza Maggiore itself as a stop.

The center of gravity is the Quadrilatero, the old market streets behind Palazzo dei Banchi: Via Pescherie Vecchie, Via Drapperie, Via Clavature and Via Caprarie. It is still the densest run of delis, pasta shops and market stalls in the center. Tamburini on Via Caprarie has been run by the same family since 1932. Paolo Atti & Figli on Via Drapperie has made fresh tortellini and bread since the nineteenth century. Salumeria Simoni on Via Drapperie sells cured meats, cheese and fresh pasta. Tours vary, and their listings do not all name their stops, but these are the streets they walk.

Expect four things on almost any tour:

• Mortadella. The large pink pork cold cut with cubes of fat, and the source of the word baloney. Our page on why Americans call mortadella bologna has the story.
• Parmigiano Reggiano. The aged cheese the Quadrilatero delis sell beside the mortadella, and part of the tortellini filling.
• Tortellini. Small hand-folded parcels of pork loin, prosciutto, mortadella, Parmigiano and nutmeg, served in broth. The Dotta Confraternita del Tortellino registered the official filling with Bologna’s Chamber of Commerce on 7 December 1974.
• Tagliatelle al ragù. Egg pasta with the slow-cooked meat sauce the rest of the world calls Bolognese.

The longer tours add crescentine, the small grilled breads split and filled with cured meat and soft cheese, and a glass of Lambrusco or Pignoletto, the two local wines.

How to choose a Bologna food tour

Tastings or a meal. The most-booked walk, the street food tour and the Quadrilatero tour are built on many small tastings. The Ultimate Food Tour is built around one full traditional meal, which suits people who would rather sit down than stand at counters.

Day or evening. The dinner tour runs as an evening out: wine bars, charcuterie and a seated pasta course, with short stops at the Due Torri and Santo Stefano between glasses. If you only have an evening free, that is the one.

Wine or no wine. The wine walk is mostly about the glass, with three or four wines from the hills just outside the city in central enotecas and osterias. If you do not drink, read the inclusions before you book, since several tours pour wine.

Time. Two hours is enough for a taste of the city. Three hours, which most of these run, is a meal. The Quadrilatero tour lets you choose a short express version or a longer feast.

Budget. The street food tour is the cheapest at $64. The others sit between $85 and $91.

Food tour, cooking class or on your own

A food tour shows you the shops and the dishes. A Bologna cooking class teaches you to make the pasta, which travels home better. If you have the time, do one of each: the tour on the first day to learn the city, the class later in the trip.

You can also walk the Quadrilatero on your own. Our guide to where to eat near Piazza Maggiore names the shops and osterie within a few minutes of the square, and what to buy in Bologna covers what to carry home.

To see where Parmigiano and balsamic vinegar are made, you need a day out of town on a Food Valley tour, which visits producers rather than shops. Our day trips from Bologna guide covers the options.