Photograph by AmUnivers

Piadina is the fast food of choice for local Bolognese. Piadina is a delicious thin flat bread sandwich cooked in an iron grill and served warm. Our personal favorite combination is rucolo, proscuitto crudo, and and a soft italian cheese called squaquarone. Other top picks include spicy chili or the classic tomato and mozzarella combo.

The north and south of the Emilia-Romagna region have been in all-out competition over cuisine since they united in 1946 as a singular region. While the best piadinas hail from the southern Romagna section, a tiny shop called Bagno 29, located in the center of Bologna, really gives southern Romagna a run for its money.

It’s always packed between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays, when university students cram in between classes. The special cannot be beat. It includes piadina, soda or beer, and espresso for €5. Bagno 29 is located just a few steps off Via Mizzini on Via Petrine.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Photograph by i.langsdson1

April is just around the corner. We’re thinking of the world’s best April Fool’s joke, warmer weather, and student riots. Ok, we know that riots don’t quite fit with Easter egg pastels, matzo ball soup, and cherry blossoms, but we just read Love in the Days of Rage by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, a chronicle of the student riots that took place in Paris in the spring of 1968.

Always the poet, Ferlinghetti presents the riots, and the political ideas they incite, through the romance of poetry and lovers. The book focuses on Annie (an American painter) and her lover Julian (a Portuguese banker and anarchist) as they experience their love affair in the midst of political chaos. The affair takes the foreground, but it inevitably encompasses their political present, making the novel at once tender and thought-provoking, two things we love and don’t often find together.

Still not sold? Even if you don’t love a political uprisings or a love stories, you will love the writing itself. Ferlinghetti’s poetic style translates to a lyric prose that begs to be read aloud. It’s as though he created a watercolor painting in words, and it embodies all that we think of spring, and of Paris itself.

Besides, who doesn’t love a good student riot?

Popularity: 4% [?]

Photograph by MSH*

London has chosen the beginning of spring for its first ever Festival of Europe. March 2007 marks the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, the document sealing Europe’s commitment to creating a unified economic landscape.

Panels, lectures and screenings, most of them free to the public, will explore Europe’s role in mass media, its response to Mr. Gore’s inconvenient truth, and pose some big questions. For example, what about Turkey’s membership application?

“Europe’s Borders and Values”, the keynote event, takes place this Sunday.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Photograph by Kaymaria Daskarolis

Athens is a very walkable city. It is also an easy place for a visitor unfamiliar with local walking and driving customs to get run over by a car. No joke.

When you are crossing the street, do not assume that because you have the green pedestrian walk signal you have the right-of-way. Drivers who are in a hurry may decide that right of way is theirs and barrel past you as you leap out of the way.

Also, for some reason—perhaps in an attempt to increase employment—police officers are regularly stationed in the midst of congested areas to direct traffic, even when the street lights are working well. Whenever you see a police officer directing traffic, disregard the street lights and pedestrian walk signals completely and walk only when the police officer grants you permission to do so.

Possibly the most important action you can take to prepare yourself for the experience of walking safely in Athens is, paradoxically, to learn to move as if you are invisible. Walk as if no one can see you and you should live to tell the tale of your magical adventures.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Photograph by Miranda Siegel

We don’t want to give Salzburg a bad rap, and we especially don’t want to give Salzburg’s incredible bakeries a bad rap, but we couldn’t help cringing after discovering the above-pictured cupcakes in a cafe display case in Mozart’s hometown.

The display case started out cute. Men in top hats formed with cones, soldiers and clowns comprised the majority of the cupcakes’ characters. While our first instinct when glancing at their smiling faces was “awwwww,” it wasn’t long before we felt pits in our stomachs.

We wonder if images like these are seen as overtly racist; it’s unclear whether this type of imagery is considered unhealthy or offensive in Austrian culture.

Still…Salzburg! The last place we want to see signs of potential racial ignorance is in our treasured baked goods.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Photograph by Sean Kirkham

Down Nádor Utca they stride, business men in tailored suits mixing with dapper Hungarian hipsters. It is 7 p.m., still early enough for tourists to stroll about and city buses to zoom by, though too early for the dinner set to head out for their standard night of debauchery.

Lukács Pálfalvi sips a café macchiato as he stares out at the goulash society crowd frequenting Terv Presszo, in the trendy financial district of Budapest. At the top of his game, Pálfalvi awaits his next potential client. The 31-year old is a part of Hungary’s new generation of young entrepreneurs. A graphic designer by trade, he is the owner of a small but successful web-related company, Ultramarin. Originally from the countryside, Pálfalvi has lived in Budapest for the past 13 years.

In addition to Terv—which provides an incredibly affordable cup for those on a budget—he also frequents Kultiplex for loud music and dancing.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Photograph of Aire de Sevilla courtesy of Aire de Sevilla

After a long day spent checking out Seville’s Cathedral and Alcázar and wandering through the Barrio de Santa Cruz tangle, I treated my weary muscles to a soak at Aire de Sevilla, a stunning hamman, or Arab bathhouse.

I recommend taking the thermal circuit after check-in, with soaks in the tepidarium (warm bath), caldarium (hot bath) and frigidarium (cold bath; at 16 C / 60F I only saw one brave older woman spend more than a few seconds in this bath.) We only made it to our ankles before squealing and bolting out.

The hamman also has a jacuzzi bath, steam room, and café. For an extra fee, various spa treatments are available, including massages, facials, manicures, and pedicures.

The baths are especially popular with young Sevillano couples smooching openly and giving one another backrubs. For this envious single traveler, such sights counted as too much foreplay.

A 90-minute session costs €19, with a discounted rate of €15 offered from Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. until noon and again from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m. Reservations are recommended. Some English is spoken. Aire de Sevilla is located at Calle Aire, 15. Tel: +34 95 501 00 24.

Wandering Cheapo Diane Schutz is a television producer, writer, and budget traveler based in New York City. She has worked recently as a producer for the Travel Channel’s “Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations.”

Popularity: 7% [?]

Photograph by padesig

The slum-ridden Casilino-Mandrione neighborhood was once home to a bedraggled collection of gypsies, prostitutes, and violent criminals. It was such a zone of desperation that Pasolini turned to Madrione when he wanted to capture utter squalor. These days, the ‘hood is on the upswing. While (gratefully) far from any sort of SoHo makover, Mandrione has developed into a vibrant working-class area. It’s solidly Roman—dialect included—with the Felice Acqueduct (see above) running straight down its middle for extra authenticity.

At local restaurant Betto e Mary (Via dei Savorgnan, 99. Tel. 0645421780) you’ll find it next to impossible to spend over €15. No ties are allowed; in fact, all ties are confiscated at the door. The friendly waiters have a penchant for cows, and jokingly alert customers to the use of Mucca Pazza (mad cow) meat on the premises. Enjoy heaping piles of grilled meat of all kinds, pasta trios, and classic Roman cuisine at prices you’ll swear they’ve miscalculated.

Betto e Mary is definitely worth the trek. Booking is essential.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Photograph by Mr.Y

The Cite de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine opened in Paris this week with an inaugural exhibition called “Avant-Apres” or “Before-After: the awareness of time.” Claiming to be the biggest museum in Europe devoted to architecture, it is housed in a massive 23,000 square meters space in the Palais de Chaillot, in the 16th arrondissement.

Two central halls earmarked for temporary exhibitions opened yesterday. Additional elements are slated to open in September 2007. These include an architecture library with 45,000 books and 450 magazines.

“Before-After,” (admission just €5) runs until September 16. It consists of a long darkened corridor mounted with huge screens showing 150 short films illustrating the theme of time in architecture, with subjects ranging from a beach house on France’s Atlantic coast to the transformation of Tokyo’s Shinjuku district over three decades.

The impact of architecture on public and private spaces is portrayed in a mostly positive light, although there is something undeniably frightening about seeing 30 years of change compressed into a few minutes. You can pull up a chair and settle in for the show. Some of the footage is cut with extracts from classic movies like Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” and “The Wizard of Oz.”

In a nearby annex there is another exhibition, free of charge, called “Génération Europan.” The series highlights futuristic visions of 21st century urban development as envisioned by prize-winning young European architects.

Palais de Chaillot is located at 1 place du Trocadéro et du 11 Novembre. Metro: Trocadéro or Iena. Hours: Monday through Friday from noon until 8 p.m., Thursday evenings until 10 p.m., and weekends from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Photograph by Elen Farkas

Vienna is subdivided into 23 districts. On Sunday, March 25, 2007 for the first time, Vienna will hold the Tag der Wiener Bezirksmuseen, or the day of district museums. Starting at 10 a.m., all district museums in Vienna will be open to those interested in finding out more about each district’s culture, history, and significant residents.

Aside from exhibitions, there will also be press conferences, seminars, and matinee concerts. In the inner First District, discussions of its famous citizens (Ludwig van Beethoven, the playwright Johann Nestroy, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, among others) are scheduled. In the Eighth District (Josefstadt) a special exhibit, “Hollywood in der Josefstadt” is in planned. Noted Viennese luminaries such as Billy Wilder (who became a popular director in Tinseltown with “Sabrina” and “The Seven Year Itch,”) Oskar Werner, and Fritz Lang will surely be hot topics.

For more information, summary of events and the addresses of the museums, visit the City of Vienna’s Web site or call +43 (0)1 403 6415. Admission is free.

Popularity: 4% [?]