Ryanair's Inflight Magazine Two Minute Guide to Bologna - information update

The age-old issue with travel guides, features and magazines is the waiting, waiting and more waiting between editions, until there's an opportunity to update an annoying snippet of outdated information.

Printed words, especially about cities, run the risk of being riddled with inaccuracy literally the day after they've been written. Pubs close and are replaced by restaurants, banks close and are replaced by pubs, museums that were last week's top freebie tip start to charge an entrance fee, bakeries become nail bars and hotels go bad, bankrupt or up in flames. That's just the urban life cycle, it happens and it's exactly why guidebooks include disclaimers about the accuracy of their content. But disclaimers don't make an editor feel any better about the travellers who, armed with their material, will certainly experience disappointment.

This is where the digital age does indeed rule. Long live the net and the instantaneous edit button. Horrah.

I'm posted now to help the editorial team of Ryanair's inflight magazine and any travellers to Bologna who fancy some jazz with their after-dinner espresso.

Ryanair's Two-Minute Guide to Bologna, on page 115 of the current inflight magazine, lists Cantina Bentivoglio as the 'top jazz venue in town with shows nightly from 10pm'.

I headed there on Sunday to find that the management were currently re-evaluating the 'nightly' jazz rule. After I'd peeled off scarf, gloves, coat and jumper, the waitress shared the news with me; 'tonight is their (jazz bands') night off'. It was a real shame, but we settled for drowning our sorrows in a bottle of red wine and good conversation.

We didn't try the food at Cantina Bentivoglio but it certainly was popular with the exclusively Italian diners. The ample dishes that arrived to nearby tables made me wonder if we'd missed out on more than the jazz that evening.

Sandwagon's tip: contact Cantina Bentivoglio before you head there for jazz, just to make sure that there's a show. Use the contact details on their own site.

I've emailed the Cantina for updates and I'll keep you posted when I hear from them.
Posts in a similar vein are:
Paris' Mona Lisa Museum Pass Turns 20
Sarajevo: City of briefcases not bayonets, backpacks not berets
101 Weekends in Europe. Interview with author Robin Barton
Quality Copenhagen. Monocle Magazine, me and thee