Bologna is a city rich in culture and history. It has a vibrant food scene and its architecture is stunning. What you can visit in just one day….
At the end of August we decided to take another mini-vacation: destination Rimini-San Marino. After three days spent on the beach at RivaAzzura (Rimini) and admiring the sunsets from the fortress towers of the Republic of San Marino we decided, on our way back to Milan, to make a stop in Bologna.
Bologna is a city I’ve had on my list of places to visit in Italy for a long time. And lo and behold, at the end of August 2018, I manage to get to the Bologna I want to tell you about.
Bologna is one of the Italian cities that I dreamed of visiting since my student days. A city known internationally because of its history and culture, but especially because it is home to the oldest university in Europe, the University of Bologna.
The University of Bologna, also called UNIBO, was founded in 1088 as an academy, which in 1219 became a university, the most important source of knowledge throughout the centuries. Today the University of Bologna has about 86,000 students.
Bologna, located in northern Italy, about 210 km from Milan, is the capital of the Emilia Romagna region. Being a city-city, Bologna has preserved its medieval appearance with a special charm through its churches, palaces and squares. Bologna has an artistic charge not to be described, practically, it is the city most loved by many Italian artists.
Bologna – what you can visit in just one day
We arrived in Bologna around midnight, and checked into a hotel near the Central Station. The next morning, in order to organize what to do and what to visit, we found a guide on a website that gave us the most important touristic landmarks in Bologna and so we started our walk.
At one point you will see a small square window on a wall, and when you open it you will be confronted with a parallel world, a small Venice, a river underneath the neighbouring buildings nearby.
It’s a wonderful place, a pearl of Bologna and you’ve already figured it out, because it’s very similar to Venice it’s called “the little Venice of Bologna”.
As soon as you step inside you will be overwhelmed by the beauty and immensity of this place. For example, on the ground floor the glass floor allows you to observe underground excavations as well as archaeological finds of ancient civilisations dating back to the Villanovan civilisation, built in the 7th century BC.
The other figures at the feet of Neptune, which make up this fountain, are also to be admired, making it one of the most beautiful and elegant works of art. Neptune’s fountain is one of the most photographed places by tourists arriving in Bologna.
Also here, in front of you you can see the Basilica of San Petronino, the saint and patron saint of the city, and in front of the Basilica is the Podesta Palace, built in 1200.
According to history, in Bologna it was a tradition to build towers on top of houses, especially for wealthy families. The higher they built a tower, the more the prestige of the family increased. At one time there were about 180 towers in Bologna, but today only 23 remain,
The best known are the Asinelli Tower and the Garisenda Tower
It can be a special experience perfectly framed with the atmosphere of the city. It’s not every day we get to dine in the middle of a bookstore…right?
This was our walk through Bologna…
After reaching the two towers, we slowly made our way to the parking lot where we left the car to return to Milan.
What we managed to see in Bologna in one day is certainly very little, but this little was enough to lure us to come back again.
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