For the eagle-eyed, I can assure you the title contains no typos. The inside joke comes from a dear Apulian friend of mine. I was telling some people about Budapest, how it is divided into two parts by the Danube; Buda, the hilly upland towering over Pest, the flatland. When I said Pest, she exclaimed “Pesto!”, and this has stayed with me ever since. For historical context, Budapest was founded as such in 1873 by uniting Buda, Pest, and Óbuda (“Old Buda”), the latter also known as Aquincum, the capital of Pannonia, a province of the Roman Empire.
About three years ago I was probably the happiest person to be leaving Budapest, my hometown. Then Ilaria Salis beat me on this scale, but who can blame her given that while the city’s imprisoning feeling was just a perception for me, for her it was the crude reality. Don’t get me wrong, growing up in Budapest was a blessing, but a slight sense of confinement took over me after 18+ years. I was eager to make a radical change in my environment. Driving away from home and seeing my family waving at me in the rearview mirror meant that I was finally free to explore a whole different world on my own. It also meant that I could finally immerse myself in the other culture I considered to make up half of my heritage. Now, Milan might not be the most Italian of all places, but I wasn’t setting off to a three-year vacation, even if in the beginning it definitely felt like that.
I was tired of walking the same streets, getting stuck in the usual traffic jams, hearing the same voice announcing the stops on the tram, listening to the local radios again and again. There are some sights though, that take my breath away even after the hundredth time admiring them, like the Parliament building or the Danube. And as the months and then the years passed, with the distance I grew closer to the places that I once couldn’t stand seeing another time. I started looking forward to when I would be returning to my “original” home again, even if some things felt bittersweet, like the certainty that I would never spend more than a few weeks consecutively in Budapest in the foreseeable future. I was reassured in this by the WizzAir notification telling me to “Prepare for your upcoming trip to Budapest!” for the hundredth time, accompanied by a list of all the recommended places to visit and all the best hotels to book in the city. It’s my hometown, I don’t need a bot to give me directions on what to do there! However, I do feel qualified to give you, the reader, some perceptions and directions. So prepare for a very subjective guide to Budapest, filled with love and memories inherently connected to wonderful places and people.
First of all, let’s clear a surprisingly (some would say disturbingly) common misconception. Budapest is not the same as Bucharest. If somebody could please forward this to the Italian flight attendant who wished me a pleasant stay in Bucharest the last time I landed there. There’s historical beef between the two countries, but either way it would be difficult for me to remain impartial in this matter. This is not to say Bucharest is not worth a visit, tourists will find some similarities between the two cities, but if you have to choose, of course I would definitely recommend the Hungarian capital.
I wasn’t always this proud of my hometown. Somewhat sadly I only learned to truly appreciate it once it (or rather I) was gone. Not only appreciate it, I slowly developed an unexpected anti-distancing patriotism towards my Hungarian roots. I was surprised to hear that so many people in Milan were not only aware of the existence of the city, but some of them had even visited it, and almost all of them had overwhelmingly positive memories from the trip. You have no idea of the relief brought by knowing that your country is known for something much more positive than Viktor Orbán’s persona. But more on this later.
Budapest – among else – is known as a party city. As I’m writing this, hundreds of thousands of people are partying on one of the islands of Budapest, where the Sziget Festival is being held for the 31st time since its beginning in 1993 (in case you’re questioning the math, two years were skipped due to Covid-19). Since then, a lot has changed in both the city and the festival it hosts, kind of in a parallel manner. The festival went from being a local low-profile event to one of the most sought-after summer programmes in Europe. The initial lineups were made up of Hungarian alt rock, folk, and punk bands, to then feature internationally known and celebrated artists like Green Day, Rammstein, Sean Paul, Pink, Avicii, and Rihanna, while slowly starting to attract the current mainstream pop stars. In the last couple of years world-class songwriters and performers have set foot on the dusty piece of land the festival got its name from (‘sziget’ means ‘island’in Hungarian). We’ve seen Dua Lipa, Martin Garrix, the Arctic Monkeys and Imagine Dragons multiple times, and also have been honoured by visits from Kendrick Lamar, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, and Billie Eilish. And this list is only a taste of it all.
In a way, Budapest – as well as the whole country – has followed a very similar path since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989. Initially fragile in the aftermath of decades of oppression, the city slowly began to open up and gain its well-deserved status as one of the top destinations in Europe. You might have come across one of those maps which show Hungary among the countries where people’s reaction to a stranger trying to speak their language would be something like: „Well done! But why are you torturing yourself?“ In fact, Hungarian is one of the hardest languages in the world, but another cultural phenomenon hidden in this reaction is a general pessimism that Hungarians have been carrying for at least a century. Sarcasm is our second language, followed by a particularly rich vocabulary for swearing (some would say the order is reversed), and a common answer to anything that goes wrong (as most things do) in life: „It’s shit, but it’s ours.“ (Substitute ‘shit’ with any negative adjective describing the thing you’re looking at.) In this case pessimism acts as a shield; if you prepare for the worst, no outcome can disappoint you. Hungarians have learned to prepare for the worst. My grandmother still exclaims from time to time: „If only those French bastards hadn’t took away two thirds of our beloved country!“ The historical context in short is the Treaty of Trianon from 1920, a consequence of the country losing the First World War, and an indelible punch for the nation that it still has not recovered from. Mind you, my grandma wasn’t even born yet when this happened.
Pessimism and the fear people want to conceal with it has been heavily exploited by all regimes, including the current government of the country. Politics is quite bad anywhere you go in the world, but some have the privilege of it being somewhat separated from everyday life. Not Hungarians. Propaganda finds you everywhere, be it the puppet-faced version of the latest target of the government looking at you menacingly from not one but five billboards placed next to each other, or the brainwashy ad popping up to disrupt your peace when you just wanted to chill with a nice YouTube video. You wouldn’t believe the stories they make up to convince people about their right, all while shitting on their faces and stealing their money. But sadly, even if you would, you wouldn’t be alone.
Luckily, not all of us are oblivious to what’s happening, and just like Budapest has regained its charm in these past decades, people are recognising their value and speaking up against being mistreated by a bunch of hooligans who hold far too much power. The hit of this summer became the chant „Mocskos Fidesz!“ where Fidesz is the governing party (to be precise, one of the two, but after 15 years of coalition they became one, and the other is almost invisible), and translated this would be „Filthy Fidesz!“. This chant is resurfacing at every festival in the country this season. Now, far from being in the Disney universe, we are all aware that chanting/singing together will not solve our problems. But this is just one of the many manifestations against the regime. You might have heard about an even more emblematic one, the Budapest Pride March of June 2025. The base given by demonstrating for and celebrating the freedom of the LGBTQ+ community became a show for the liberation of everyone in Hungary. A lot will happen until the elections next year, but people finally have hope, and that is the first spark for everything else to come.
I’m proud of my city, and this country. If you ever pay us a visit please make sure to go beyond the Parliament building, a flashy river cruise on the Danube, the Buda Castle, and the soothing thermal baths. Otherwise you miss half the fun, just like when at a festival you ignore all performances and activities other than the headliners. Make sure to explore the architecture of the inner city, the markets of Pest, the hills of Buda, and the Roman remains of Óbuda. Find a Hungarian grandma who can introduce you to our culinary perks in their purest form. Explore our literary cafés, which have much more to offer beyond the Instagrammable pictures you can take at New York Café. Walk the bridges over the Danube, there are fifteen of them in the whole city. If someone from Budapest tells you they don’t have a favourite, they’re lying. And yes, don’t skip the ruin bars to cool down after a long day of exploration. Of course, there’s much more to Hungary beyond Budapest, but I will stop here for now.
In the end, whatever Hungary-related thing you choose to do, don’t forget to enjoy it, much like a Hungarian enjoys pálinka. Be it in Budapest — the city with an evergreen taste just like pesto —, or anywhere else in the world. Indeed, however strange it may sound for a nation with a total population of 14 million, Hungarians can be found in every corner of the globe (I promise this is not a threat).
I’m a third-year BAI student from Budapest. Being Italo-Hungarian I always found it challenging to define where I belong, in all the places I’ve been to I found a piece of home. Travelling and learning languages are my favourite hobbies, beside reading and writing. I have a deep passion for science and research.
