The ultimate city guide to Bologna, Italy
Some, especially young people, say that Bologna is the Berlin of Italy. From a certain point of view, this is perhaps true. The vibrant cultural life, the students, the parties and some other aspects of a city that tries to stay alive despite everything are reminiscent of the German capital.
Berlin is bigger, more nonconformist, more international, more visited, colder in winter and many more other things. Only on one aspect, without a shadow of a doubt, the capital of Emilia-Romagna wins hands down. Bologna is more beautiful. Much more beautiful.
Founded at least a millennium before Christ, Bologna has played a fundamental role in the area and has seen different populations alternate within its borders: the Etruscans called it Felsina. For the Celts, it was Bona and for the Romans Bononia.
Over the centuries, the city has been enriched with extraordinary architectural and cultural testimonies, as evidenced by its fascinating historic center, once enclosed by medieval walls. Only a few short sections and ten access gates remain today.
The University of Bologna
This phrase is somewhat the city’s emblem, and those who have spent at least some time there can only confirm it. The learned because here is the seat of the oldest university in the Western world, the Alma Mater Studiorum, founded in the distant A.D. 1088.
The University of Bologna has been attracting students from all over Europe for almost a thousand years and is one of the best known and most appreciated in the world. It is true, for some time, he has lived above all on his fame and the income from the increasingly expensive university fees, but still, for many, the idea of going to study in Bologna is an irresistible attraction.
The red, contrary to popular belief, is due to the color of its roofs. Seen from above, the Bologna tiles give it a warm chromatic effect that has earned it this nickname. Then, of course, after World War II, the local hegemony of the PCI meant that the red of the roofs also recalled a specific political connotation.
Bologna the fat one. Too easy. Tortellini, mortadella, tagliatelle with Bolognese meat sauce, lasagne, friggione, crescentine, and so on. It’s true, all over Italy the food is good, but Bolognese cuisine is the best!
The beauty of Bologna lies in its 43 km of arcades, so much so that it could soon become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In this regard, the portico of San Luca, which connects via Saragozza to the sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca on Colle Della Guardia, is the longest in the world (666 arches for a total of 3796 meters).
However, UNESCO has already recognized it in 2006 as the Creative City of Music. The title derives from its great tradition. Think of people like Rossini, who lived here, Mozart, who spent a few months in Bologna, or places like the Teatro Comunale in Piazza Verdi, the Conservatory, the International Museum and library of music, the DAMS, the Accademia Filarmonica. But also for the present, where the clubs, the festivals and the many musicians born or resident here (Lucio Dalla, Samuele Bersani, Francesco Guccini, Andrea Mingardi, Luca Carboni, the Stadio or the Skantos) keep the flame of artistic creativity alive.
Bologna goes to bed late and wakes up early in the morning
Again: the Bolognese cultural life never stops and there is always something to do somewhere. The advantage of having arcades throughout the center allows you to stay outdoors even in winter when it rains or snows. Residents and mayors don’t like this very much, but in Bologna, social life begins at aperitif time and ends … when it ends.
In the morning, the center comes alive with students, many of whom commuters from all over Emilia-Romagna, and people who go shopping in the shops of the so-called Quadrilatero, which includes the area between the streets Castiglione, Farini, dell’ Archiginnasio, Piazza Galvani, piazza Della Mercanzia and Piazza Maggiore.
Piazza Maggiore is the heart of Bologna, connected to the station by the very long and very busy via Indipendenza.
Designed for the first time in the 13th century and subsequently modified several times, some of the most significant buildings of the city overlook the square: the Basilica of San Petronio, the Palazzo del Podestà, Palazzo d’Accursio (now the Town Hall), Palazzo Re Enzo, the Pavaglione, the library of the Sala Borsa and the Neptune fountain.
A short distance away, at the end of via Rizzoli, the Two Towers (respectively the Torre Degli Asinelli and the Garisenda) are the symbol par excellence of the city. Although crooked as only in Italy we know how to build them, these medieval towers are the testimony of a period in which Bologna was called “la turrita” because of the more than one hundred towers that dotted its historic center.
Today it is possible to find some more or less hidden ones, perhaps with the help of our article on the walking itinerary among the towers of Bologna.
Practically behind the two towers is what for many is the most beautiful square in the city: we are talking about the elegant Piazza Santo Stefano (or Piazza Delle Sette Chiese), where there is the homonymous basilica and some historic buildings (Palazzo Isolani and the Tacconi Houses). Crossing the passage of the Corte Isolani, which leads from the square to Strada Maggiore, once you reach the portico overlooking the street, at street number 19, you can try to see three arrows with a bit of difficulty embedded in the wooden beams.
There are several legends about it: one speaks of a man’s jealous gesture towards his cheating wife, another of a quarrel between two rather poorly aimed nobles. It is one of the secrets, or if you want one of the curiosities, of Bologna. Another is the window in via Piella. There is nothing to point to it, so keep your eyes peeled if you pass this way and try to look through it. No, you are not in Venice. It is the Canale delle Moline, but the image is so unexpected that it will leave you speechless. Among other things, it is also possible to visit the underground channels of Bologna by contacting the association that deals with them directly.
Not far away, immediately north of Piazza di Porta Ravegnana where the two Towers are located, the alleys of the Jewish ghetto wind up and via Zamboni, the main street of the university area, begins. This is a city within the city, which has the mythical Piazza Verdi as its fulcrum, where students and a diverse humanity pass day and night. Chattering, demonstrations, initiatives, clashes with the police and barricades against tanks in ’77: Piazza Verdi has always been the home of university students. About 2/3 of via Zamboni, in the direction of Porta S. Donato, you will find Piazza Vittorio Puntoni on the left. Under the arcade of Via delle Belle Arti, there is a rich collection of works of art at the National Art Gallery of Bologna.
In the western part of the center, Piazza San Francesco and the nearby Via del Pratello are famous for bars and pubs. Here too, the residents’ complaints have led to the Mayor approving some laws that limit the opening hours and the possibility to drink freely outdoors. Still, it remains one of the main evening meeting places in Bologna.
A few blocks to the north, not far from the sports hall in Piazza Azzarita (the Pala Dozza), there are some essential places of Bolognese cultural life: the famous Cineteca in via Riva di Reno 72, one of the most important in Europe, the cinema Lumière (the cinema hall of the Cineteca) in via Azzo Gardino 65 and the nearby Cassero Lgbt center, home of the Bolognese Arcigay. A few steps from the Cassero, the MAMbo (Museum of Modern Art of Bologna) opened its doors in 2007 and quickly became a reference point on the city’s cultural agenda.
Finally, perhaps not everyone knows that there is a thermal establishment in the center of Bologna: the Terme di San Petronio that exploits the healing waters of the Alexander spring.
Off the boulevards
Still on the subject of museums. Off the avenues that delimit the center, we also want to remember the fascinating G. Pelagalli Museum of Communication (via Col di Lana, outside Porta San Felice). And, above all, one of the most evocative for what it hosts and represents: the Museum for the Memory of Ustica (via di Saliceto 3/22), inside which is the wreck of the Itavia DC9 shot down in the skies of Ustica on 27 June 1980.
The museum is located a short distance from the station, where 36 days later – on 2 August 1980 – a bomb exploded in the waiting room, causing 85 victims and over 200 injured, in what is today the most atrocious Italian terrorist massacre.
More carefree can be a walk in the Margherita Gardens, the green lung of Bologna. Especially in spring and summer, this large city park is literally besieged by people who want to stretch out on a lawn, walk, play Frisbee or whatever.
Events
The initiatives in Bologna are so numerous that it is impossible to name them all.
Among the most important events, there are certainly those related to the exhibition center (including the Children’s Book Fair, the Motor Show, which has experienced various ups and downs in recent years, the BilBOlBul – International Festival of Comics).
Summer festivals such as Botanique (between June and July, in the Gardens of via Filippo Re), the review of bé bolognaestate events (music, art, cinema, theater, shows and much more) or the concerts of the Bio Park (Parco del Cavaticcio, next to MAMbo). But also the film festivals of the Cineteca, the Terra di Tutti Film Festival (documentaries and social cinema from the south of the world at the Cinema Lumière).
The Bologna Jazz Festival and the many organized initiatives from the clubs and social centers scattered around the city throughout the year.
The historic weekly market in Bologna – the Piazzola – has existed since 1219 and takes place on Fridays and Saturdays (from 6:30 to 20) in Piazza VIII Agosto and the adjacent Montagnola Park.
If chocolate is celebrated in autumn with the Cioccoshow Fair, in winter, Bologna also participates in the tradition of Christmas markets with the Santa Lucia Fair at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (and not only).
Climate
Before embarking on a trip to discover Bologna, it is good to understand the typically continental Bolognese climate, characterized by cold winters and scorching and sultry summers, particularly humid. In July and August, the average values are between a minimum of 19 ° C and a maximum of 30 ° C with practically no rainfall. Also, for this reason, the city empties in the summer. In winter, average temperatures are generally between a minimum of -1 ° C and a maximum of 5 ° C. Better to walk around town in spring, when temperatures are milder. But, of course, Bologna has arcades that make things easier in every season.
How to get to Bologna
“Bologna is an old lady / with slightly soft hips / with breasts on the Po plain / and her ass on the hills,” sang Guccini. More prosaically, lying on the Po Valley and protected by the Apennine hills, between the mouth of the Reno Valley and that of the Savena, Bologna is perhaps the most easily accessible city in all of Italy because the main motorway and railway junctions of the country pass through here.
The A14 Bologna-Taranto motorway, the A13 Bologna-Padua, the A1 towards Milan or Florence-Rome-Naples guarantee convenient connections from/to any region, as does the A22 Verona-Brenner that reaches nearby Modena. or the E45 that arrives in Cesena.
Those who prefer the train can use the Bologna Centrale station, an important railway junction that connects northern Italy with central and southern Italy, also through the High Speed.
Those who decide to travel by plane can count on the Guglielmo Marconi Airport, connected to all the main Italian and European cities by low-cost airlines.
