Bologna, Italy

Bologna is one of Italy’s biggest cities with about a million people in its metropolitan area and as well as being an excellent tourist visit itself is a big rail hub which makes it possible to do day trips to many well known Italian destinations including Florence and Verona.

It proved to be a good choice for this strange Covid summer as there was no quarantine required, Italy was over the worst of the spring pandemic and seemed to have some of the best numbers in Europe. Also restrictions were similar to England in the summer so it was almost home from home.

I wasn’t able to get a flight from my local airport, Gatwick, and ended up flying with Ryanair from Luton, where I parked my car for £55.96 for eight nights.

I stayed in a terrific accommodation just a few minutes walk south of the city centre. Situated in a classic old apartment building with ancient elevator to the third floor it was as much as you could expect for just over £50 per night, large, spotlessly clean with a big ensuite bathroom and walk in shower, stamped with Italian style. You accessed the building by punching in a code on the pad by the main door, and used the same code to access the relevant lobby area upstairs with its reception desk and the door to one’s own relevant room.

Splendid accommodation

On my first night on arrival at the building I couldn’t access the email on my phone with the relevant entry code, so was forced to find wifi in the city centre to get said access. That meant ending up in McDonalds and killing two birds with one stone with a welcome meal. Getting into the apartment and following the email instructions still took a while, amusement being provided by a large insect of the cricket variety sitting squarely on the elevator button and refusing to move.

Bologna is the city of porticos, a wonderful architectural inclusion in this very well-preserved medieval city. These covered walkways or pavements are all over the centre of the city and mean that you can avoid the beating sun or the pounding rain on your shopping expedition. No doubt you can cross the city north south or east west with hardly a break in the snaking porticos. And Bologna has the daddy of all porticos, the longest portico in the world snaking out of the city and up the hill beyond the Bologna football stadium to the the Santuario di Madonna di San Luca church at the top of the hill. There are so many locals in sports gear running up to the top that it’s more of a marathon workout than religious pilgrimage. It was hard work just walking up! Well worth it however as you get marvellous views from the top over the verdant, green hills above the city.

Longest portico in the world

View from the top of the hill

Santuario di Madonna di San Luca church

The centre of the city is the expansive Piazza Maggiore, flanked by the cathedral or duomo, civic buildings and porticoed shops and restaurants. In this L shaped space we also have the Fountain of Neptune statue, an excellent photo op. The Basilica di San Petronio dominates the square as all self -respecting cathedrals should, and it’s a whopper inside as well with typically Italian embellishment and a full set of side chapels, as well as housing the largest sundial in the world. One of the chapels sports a huge frieze/painting of Mohammad in hell. No wonder that there have been a couple of Islamic terrorist incidences aimed at this building. Indeed while I wandered past outside one day, a large policeman had turned up to quiz a couple of middle easterners outside the main entrance. I heard the word ’Iran’ from one of the students, the next thing I knew the two students were walking off. The square outside is decked with open air seating and at night time in the summer they show classic films on a massive screen in the square, a great way to end your day.

Mohammad in hell

Neptune statue

Alongside the Basilica is the Archeological museum, and also the Teatro Anatomico, a wonderful wood decorated medical lecture theatre where anatomy lessons were once held.

Anatomical theatre

No trip to Bologna would be complete without ascending the Torre degli Asinelli, a skyscraper standard ancient tower (97.2m) dominating the centre of Bologna. It is one of the ‘Two Towers,’ which is the iconic symbol of Bologna. These two sisters are left over from an amazing surfeit of towers, over 200, from the 12^th century. It’ll test you though, getting to the top, only 498 steps but it helps to be quite fit. And just a reminder, it leans a noticeable 1.3 degrees off centre! They did plan to install lifts on three occasions going back to 1887 but it never happened. Pilots placed bets in the Second World War to see who would be the first to topple the tower. Fortunately they never succeeded. The view is terrific, a sea of red, terracotta tiled roofs and beautifully delineated streets in all directions, the city pushed up against verdant green hills along one side, stretching out into the plain on the other.

View from tower

Another view

Other city highlights are the underground waterways that were open canals until two centuries ago. Now it looks like Little Venice. Get there from Via Zamboni going towards Via Independenza. There’s also the former Jewish ghetto quite nearby to wander through. Just off Via Independenza and before reaching the railway station is the park of Montagnola, a nineteenth century circumference of tree lined parkland with statues, a fountain and cafes, a great spot to escape the heat. Back towards Piazza Maggiore is another daddy of a church, the cathedral of San Pietro.

Little Venice!

Bologna is a well-known hotbed of left wing politics and was under a communist mayorality from 1945 to 1993. Bologna ‘The Fat’ is one of its titles and no surprise there with its abundance of café and restaurant culture and reputation as the birthplace of Bolognese, although the ragu sauce is different from the variety found worldwide. The Quadrilatero area near Piazza Maggiore is the place for foodies with its narrow streets of the old city markets and food stalls.8

Santuario di Madonna di San Luca church

Watch yourself in Bologna, especially out in public keep your wallet well hidden and be very aware of Africans continually begging for food or money. I was pestered by one guy whilst at a restaurant who wanted me to help him get to England. I tried to dissuade him from this and ended up buying him a fresh chicken for less than 5 euro, a new one for me. Normally it’s a sandwich!

Bologna railway station is a major rail hub with lines splaying out in all directions to many delightful destinations of Italian culture, and the great thing is you can travel there and back in a day. You can even do Sienna but that’s a 3 and a half hour trip each way. It was a 20/25 minute walk from my accommodation, porticos most of the way via Via del’Independenza, the main shopping street. It’s well known also for a terrorist attack at the station on the 2^nd August 1980 which left a huge death toll of 85 with 200 wounded. You can’t stay for long in the city without coming across the memory of this atrocity.

Destinations from Bologna include Verona for which I bought the fast train ticket setting me back 26.50 euro one way (10.30 the other way on the slow train). Rimini was 9.85 euro, Modena 3.85euro and Parma (of ham fame) 7.35 one way prices. Don’t forget to validate your tickets by inserting them into the punch machines which can be found in station concourses or on the platform. I forgot to punch mine on one occasion, or rather punched the wrong ticket, an old one, but survived the journey without any checks. You have to watch it though as fines can be issued for unvalidated tickets.

Verona centre 

I’d never visited Verona before but was suitably impressed by this elegant medieval town. It’s a bit of a walk from the railway station to the centre, so factor this in to make sure you catch your train in the evening. The first sight you see opposite the tourist information, is the Arena, the Roman amphitheatre, a truly spectacular and incredibly well preserved stadium which is still used for entertainment (entry 7.50 euro including senior discount). You can wander freely up and down the bleachers, right to the top for some skyline views, and also do the oval underneath the stands where there are presentations on the history of the arena. Then there’s the Shakespeare connection on Via Cappello. I actually had to queue up for the Romeo and Juliette balcony, even in these Covid times, a constant stream of snap happy tourists filing into the yard to take pictures of the famous spot. There’s a shop and museum that you can rip round pretty quickly giving you the opportunity to pop out onto the balcony, which I briefly did with mask on, but not the romantic type of mask. There seemed to be plenty of snappers below but I wasn’t the one they were waiting for! Once you leave the Romeo and Juliette experience you can wander through the deliciously evocative main town square, the Piazza Erbe, medieval Italy in a nutshell, and then head for the river a bit of a walk away. On the way you can visit the Basilica of St Anastasia (entrance fee euro 3), the largest church in Verona.

Various arena views

You can take the bridge over the river (Fiume Adige) and then get the funicular (1 euro) up to the top of the hill where I found a cool bar to admire the views over Verona. There’s also a nice promenade viewpoint over the skyline where you can take a romantic stroll or just go snap happy with your smart phone.

Verona across the river

Modena proved to be far more than its connections to the Ferrari and Maserati brands. The town centre is an easy walk from the rail station and can be reached by the arresting and expansive Piazza Roma fronted by the Palazzo Ducale. As with all these visits, the town centre was beautiful, with an elegant square, the Piazza Grande, cathedral with its Torre Ghirlandina bell tower that can be ascended for a small fee of euro 3 giving great views over the area. I ended up at a balsamic vinegar talk which I booked at the town tourist office in the Palazzo Comunale, only trouble was it was all in Italian! The only meaningful part was a couple of small samples which were truly delicious, but I understand the real mccoy is very expensive, like liquid gold, not your average supermarket bottle. Fortunately there was a young Italian couple there who I had met earlier at the tower and the guy provided a translation for me at the end. I wound my way back to the station in the evening via the Palazzina dei giardina, a town park with a welcome open air café where I enjoyed ice cream and a beer.

Torre Ghirlandina bell tower 

View from the tower

Modena cathedral 

Z

Modena square

Parma is another town with some wonderful architecture that has far more to it than ham and cheese! The food is a sideshow to the impressive squares and churches crammed into this gem of a town which has been the elected Italian Capital of Culture 2020. On the edge of the centre is a colossal old brick edifice, the Pilotta Palace (1583 vintage), with a walkway through the middle at ground level which houses the rambling museum Archeologico, a fine old wooden theatre, the Teatro Farnese and the Galleria Nazionale. Meanwhile the tourist information office lies on the impressive Piazza Garibaldi which seemed to be the commercial hub of the town.  A quieter, more historic and no less impressive square is the Piazza Duomo with its unusual Battistero tower which looked like an upended Vienneta ice cream bar. I did partake of the local fare by lunching at a square side café. The cheese was tasty although the overblown sandwich was somewhat on the dry side.

Theatre at Parma

Battistero tower

Over the river, the Torrente Parma, lies the Parco Ducale, where everyone evidently goes for their evening stroll, promenade or outdoor coffee and ice cream. It’s big enough to get lost in, with an ornamental lake at the far end and plenty of benches for a nap or rest.

Rimini is a large Adriatic resort to the south east of Bologna reached by a dead straight rail route across what must be the coastal plain. It is described by Wikipedia as one of the most notable seaside resorts in Europe with 15km of beach and is quite a sizeable settlement of about 150,000,. having been established originally in 268 BC as Ariminum. It must be the go to resort for the Bolognese at the weekend being only about an hour away. Alighting at the rail station, it’s still quite a walk to the beach, which proves to be well busy and the equivalent of an Italian Bournemouth. Again give yourself plenty of time and don’t be caught out returning to the rail station in the evening. Also don’t just hit the beach with your swimmers as the town centre is a bit of a surprise with beautiful old architecture and well worth a wander. I meandered through the Piazza tre Martiri and ended up in a lovely square, the Piazza Cavour with a nice restaurant to while away an hour or two. A little further walk took me to an old castle, the Castel Sismondo sitting on the edge of the town centre.

Entrance to town hall

Another great visit is San Marino (Repubblica di San Marino), a microstate near the coast just to the south of Rimini, comprising elevated settlement near the Adriatic. How to get there, just get the train to Rimini, then the bus from just outside the station, an hour’s ride that takes you off the coastal plain and up to the mountainous rugged outcrop of Monte Titano on which San Marino sits. They’ll give you a timetable at the rail station tourist office, you can buy your bus ticket (5 euro each way) at the shop opposite the station, don’t miss the last bus back from San Marino leaving at 7 in the evening, otherwise I guess it would be an expensive taxi! There’s also a funicular that takes you up the last stage to the top. You can get your passport stamped inside the gate of the old town atop the rocky outcrop, then spend the afternoon wandering the streets, squares and alleys of this tiny state. On the very square I ate earlier in the day, with spectacular views over the surrounding countryside far below, a rock band set up for an evening event no doubt, the riffs and rhythms of their practice numbers pulsating through the vicinity, encouraging impromptu disco dancing or at least foot tapping. A very quick look at the advertising made it look like a Jamaroqui tribute band. Send your postcards from here as well with the local stamps.

Heights of San Marino

 

Council chamber

At the top of the town you can enter the compound of one of the three towers that magisterially dominate the rocky skyline, like basking cats atop a giant sofa back. One ticket for euro 10.50 gives you access to two towers (Rocca and Cesta), the Public Palace which includes the council chamber, the State museum, the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art (a bit of a disappointment!) and the St Francis art gallery. Being a local councillor myself, it was interesting to see the council chamber here, somewhat more Italianate and ornate than my south coast chamber, with a huge colourful painting dominating the scene.

San Marino tower

And again

Another grim addition to your visit is the Museo dela Tortura which exhibits torture instruments through the ages, a pretty ghastly testimony of man’s inhumanity to man. Makes you grateful that we live in our own time. Despite the Covid constraints impinging on our freedoms and livelihoods we really do have it easy compared with the bloodthirsty past of our ancestors.

 

 

Practicalities

Accommodation:

Attico di via D’Azeglio di Alessandro Bini & C. SAS

R.E.A.: Bologna n. 547194

Via D’Azeglio 51

40123Bologna BO

direzione@atticodiviadazeglio.it

P.IVA: 03797701202 C.F.: 03797701202

 

I caught a taxi from the airport to my accommodation. I think it cost about 20 euro. The airport is very close to the city, very much within the city limits. You can get an airport bus from the rail station on departure.