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 SIGHTSEEING
IN BOLOGNA
Bologna’s Villanovan origins, Etruscan mysteries,
Celtic past, and rich prehistoric legacy go hand
in hand with the ruins of its Roman aqueduct, its
impressive ancient churches, its Medieval buildings,
and its university, the oldest in Europe. Downtown
Bologna is indeed imbued in a Medieval atmosphere
with its many majestic churches and chapels, imposing
towers, fine historical monuments and noble palaces,
ancient narrow streets and lanes, time-mellowed
shops with an olde-worlde magic touch about them,
and lively and festive taverns. It’s the ideal
destination after visiting the fair for sight-seeing
or an exciting shopping tour along its colonnaded
sidewalks. These arcades, a precious legacy of the
town's urban development in the late Middle Ages,
are the longest of their kind in the world. Thanks
to the cover they afford, the Bolognese are free
to take a comfortable and dry stroll whenever they
feel like it, even in bad weather, walking in festive
pilgrimage as far up as the Sanctuary of the Blessed
Virgin of Saint Luke on the Monte della Guardia,
one of the higher hills overlooking the town. |
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 HISTORICAL
OUTLINES
Bologna is one of the most welcoming and visited
Italian cities, and owes its cultural and artistic
richness to 2,500 years of history.
The Etruscans founded the city in the 6th century
BC, and two centuries later its rule passed to the
Gauls, who gave it the name “Bononia”
(meaning good land), from which comes the name Bologna.
Following the Roman conquest in 189 BC, it became
the main inhabited centre in the province, thanks
to the abundant communications network whose main
artery was the via Emilia, a road network that still
crosses Bologna today, and facilitated then links
with other important municipalities in the area.
Following the fall of the Roman Empire, Bologna
was known as the Longobard Dominium, which coincided
with the city’s most splendid period: the
birth of its very famous University in 1088, which
makes it the oldest in Europe, lays testimony to
this.
The “Studio” (as the university was
known) attracted students, intellectuals and men
of culture from throughout Europe, and in so doing
increased the centrality and the artistic profile
of the city. Thanks to the value given by intellectuals
and artists who have taught there, the University
has retained its prestige up to our days.
It was in fact during this first municipal period
that the Two Towers Asinelli and Garisenda were
built, henceforth becoming the symbol of the city.
In the same period the huge complex that makes up
the Piazza Maggiore was built, a charming historic
group of buildings made up of the Palazzo del Podestà
and the Palazzo Re Enzo, the Basilica di San Petronio
and the Palazzo Comunale.
In the late medieval period Bologna affirmed itself
once and for all as a significant artistic centre:
its fame throughout Europe was increased by both
the importance of the university and the continued
enrichment of its urban architecture.
The city passed under the rule of the Pepoli, and
then under the Bentivoglio dynasty, rich families
that gave the city a further artistic impetus: they
ordered the construction of palaces and summoned
great maestri from Florence, Venice and Ferrara,
whose works can be admired in the wonderfully fitted
out Pinacoteca. During the centuries of the Renaissance
and Baroque, the artistic prestige of the city will
spread abroad in the courts of Europe, thanks to
the fame of painters from Bologna, like Guido Reni,
the Carraccis and Guercino. In the same era a notable
musical movement flourished and the importance of
this art is still noteworthy today.
In 1506 Bologna became annexed by the Papal States,
and there followed a period of inactivity in the
construction of great buildings. Despite the decline
of its political role, the city continued to excel
as a seat of learning.
During the following two centuries, Bologna grew
considerably, the surrounding city-walls were enlarged
and the distinctive porticato di San Luca was built,
which connects the city to the top of the Colle
della Guardia (the ‘Sentinel Hill’)
upon which rises the Basilica della Beata Vergine
di San Luca, to which the Bolognese are much devoted.
Occupied by the French in 1797, Bologna came under
Napoleonic rule, and then was once again annexed
by the Papacy, before becoming independent and the
capital of the Government of the United Provinces.
It was annexed by the House of Savoy and in the
last years of the 19th Century the face of the city
began to transform, both in the creation of a wide
suburbia and the restoration of many monuments and
areas of the historic centre.
The 20th Century has been tumultuous for the city
and full of changes: Bologna was one of the politically
most active cities both during the World Wars and
thereafter.
Bologna, with its distinctive historic centre, has
represented and continues to represent one of the
best preserved artistic heritages in Italy. It is
an open-air museum that shows the different historic
phases the city has passed through, without ever
losing its prestige and its identity. |
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 BOLOGNA
THE LEARNED
Bologna’s Alma Mater is one of the oldest
and most prestigious universities in the world.
Its fame was initially due to its law school established
here in the far-off eleventh century and a continuator
of the legacy of Roman law. Thanks to this school’s
prestige, the university was soon a beacon of learning
attracting students from all over Europe. Other
important city jewels with university associations
worth visiting are the historical astronomical observatory,
the oldest in Italy, the Arch-gymnasium Palace,
that hosts the rich town library with its over 700,000
written works, codes, autographed writings, incunabula,
rare and first editions, precious original documents,
prints, drawings, and a remarkable Anatomy Theatre,
where lessons in medicine were once held. An “erudite”
walk about this world-famous capital of learning
mustn’t leave out the National Art Gallery
that hosts an outstanding collection of works of
the Bolognese School of painting from the thirteenth
to the eighteenth century, including paintings by
Vitale, Giotto, Cossa, Raphael, the Carraccis, Guido
Reni, and many others. |
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 MUSEUMS
The whole city is an open-air museum: just by walking
through the streets of the centre, or taking a trip
into the surrounding hills, you will be able to appreciate
the rich detail of the architecture, or admire the
suggestively beautiful views.
For lovers of history, art, science and curiosity,
the city offers a range of thematic museums for
which combined tickets are also available.
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 SHOPPING
IN BOLOGNA
Bologna is a city of a thousand temptations …
and they’re all mostly irresistible! From
its exclusive downtown designer boutiques to its
small shops tucked away in some secret corner, from
the stalls of its typical street markets like that
of the Montagnola where the shopper’s always
guaranteed a bargain to its antiques shops where
a browse can always turn up an exciting find, with
perhaps a stopover in one of its rich and tempting
speciality food stores where the typical Bologna
sausage is a treat not to be missed by any fine-food
lover, going out on a spending spree in Bologna
is easy and fun! Within the boundaries of its renowned
quadrilateral, the area bordered by the four streets
of Via Rizzoli, Via D'Azeglio, Via Farini, and Via
Castiglione, Bologna discloses to the visitor its
refined and fun-loving life-style. The alluring
lights of shop windows with their eye-catching displays
amidst the many multi-coloured vegetable and fruit
vendors’ and fishmongers’ stalls all
contrive to turn the quadrilateral into a veritable
shopper’s paradise. It’s definitely
the place to go to find the best Italian designer
fashion- and foot-wear, jewellery, highly original
interior decoration items and objets d’art,
as well as fine kitchenware. |
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 HOTELS
AND RESTAURANTS IN BOLOGNA
Bologna “the fat” is another appellation
by which the city is known worldwide thanks to its
excellent and rich cuisine. Cooking here is a veritable
fine art and the kitchen and dinner table are the
realm of such exquisite dishes as the small egg-pasta
dumplings with meat and cheese filling called tortellini,
traditionally served in a meat broth, of passatelli,
of a great variety of egg-pasta, of which the long
ribbon-shaped tagliatelle are the most renowned,
giving out their best when dressed in a traditional
luscious meat sauce topped with lashings of freshly
grated Parmesan cheese, and of the oven baked sheets
of egg-pasta in layers with meat and white sauce
filling in between called green lasagne. And these
are all only the starters! When it comes to the
main dish, the king is without a doubt pork, be
it in the cooked sausage meat version of cotechino
and zampone, or in the more straightforward version
of ribs or cutlets. It’s the cold cuts though
that take the pride of first place with the pink
Bologna sausage, the finely cured ham, the salamis,
and other cured cuts of excellence. Jam-filled pastries
called raviole and rice cakes sweeten the taste
buds, while a glass of a good white wine such as
Trebbiano, Albana, or Pignoletto, or of a red one,
such as Lambrusco or Sangiovese make merry the spirit
and festive the company. |
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GENERAL INFO
Bologna City Hall: Tel. 051.203040
Information and Tourist Office: Tel. 051.246541
Road Police Station: Tel. 051.266626
Police Station: Tel. 113
Carabinieri: Tel. 112
First-aid Station: Tel. 118
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