Bologna

Bologna has around forty kilometres of porticoes in the historic centre, a UNESCO-listed system of covered arcades built from the twelfth century onward when the university drew more students than the city could house and upper floors were extended over the street. You can cross the city in rain without an umbrella. The university was founded in 1088 and is the oldest continuously operating one in the world; its anatomical theatre in the Archiginnasio is carved entirely in wood with two skinned figures holding up the canopy. Two medieval towers lean over the centre, survivors of dozens. The food is the other reason people come.

History

People lived here from the 3rd millennium BC, with significant Villanovan settlement from about the 9th century BC; the Etruscan city of Felsina stood on the site by the end of the 6th century BC, the Gaulish Boii held it by the 4th, and in 196 BC it became the Roman colony of Bononia. Sacked repeatedly by the Goths in the last years of the Western Empire, it was rebuilt, as old chronicles tell, by Bishop Petronius, still its patron saint; the Lombards took it in 727-728, and Frankish troops occupied it for the papacy in 774. It became a centre of the revived study of law, with the scholar Irnerius and the Four Doctors, and its university, established in 1088, is the oldest in continuous operation; up to 180 defensive towers went up in the 12th and 13th centuries, of which no more than twenty remain. After the rule of the Bentivoglio family, Pope Julius II deposed Giovanni II Bentivoglio in 1506, and the papal period that followed, to 1796, is generally judged one of decline; the Congress of Vienna returned the city to the Papal States in 1815. A conservation policy from the late 1970s kept the historic centre whole, and in 2021 UNESCO listed its porticoes as a World Heritage Site (Wikipedia, Bologna).

The main sights

• The porticoes - forty kilometres of them, listed in their own right.
• The anatomical theatre - carved wood, with the skinned figures.
• The two towers - Asinelli and Garisenda, leaning over the centre.
• The Quadrilatero - the market lanes behind Piazza Maggiore.

When to go

April to June and September to October. August is hot and much of the city closes. The portico to San Luca, nearly four kilometres uphill with six hundred and sixty-six arches, is best walked early. Term time gives the city its student character.

What to expect

The Garisenda tower has been closed and fenced since 2023 over stability concerns, and the Asinelli has been closed alongside it, so climbing them is not currently possible; check the position. Bologna is hot and humid in summer. It is a working city rather than a museum and parts of the centre are scruffy.

Nearby

Modena and Parma are along the same line; Ravenna is an hour east.

Key facts