#kuwtp: Italia... Bologna

Bologna was our next stop in Italy. It is a much bigger town than Verona and Venice. It is well known for its porticos and many of the buildings in the city have porticos attached to the street side of the buildings. I am not sure why there are so many porticos, but the town boast anywhere from 24 to 33 miles of them depending on if you count those just in the city center or count those beyond.

I loved all the bicycles parked at the end of the portico.

Our Airbnb in Bologna was amazing!! The location was fantastic and they really thought of everything in regards to what a host could provide! We definitely were not disappointed. We stayed steps away from Piazza Maggiore, the main area of Bologna, and getting from place to place on foot was easy. We parked our rental car at a local garage, who handled the ZTL restrictions for us. Most cities that we are visiting have ZTL zones. These are restricted driving zones and unless you are resident, you can't drive through them without hefty fines! Even though our Airbnb was in the ZTL, since we parked in the garage, they took care of getting us permission to drive through it.

View from our balcony down one end of the street.

View from our balcony toward Piazza Maggiore

Stairway in our building

After finding our place and unloading our stuff, we headed for a walk around the area and to grab a snack. Later in the evening, we found a great restaurant and we were both eager for more pasta. Bologna is known as the food capitol of Italy. Even though we didn't have a reservation (which apparently is a must for dinner in Italy) they found us a small table for two and the waiter was super helpful and gracious and even entertained us with great conversation! For a first course, Chris opted for the traditional Tagliatelle al Ragu and I had the Tortellini with a Parmesan cream sauce instead of the broth because it's a kazillion degrees here! Both were delicious. For a second course, Chris had a dish that he loved - it was a pork cutlet with ham and melted cheese on top. I had a Caesar salad (not like ours in the US) with chicken.

Yum!!

Piazza Maggiore

The parmesan cheese is wonderful!!

The next morning we mapped out our sightseeing route and headed out to explore. It was a little disappointing that two of our stops were closed. The first was a very small local pasta making shop where you can watch the ladies make the handmade tortellinis. The other was a shoe shop that makes all handmade shoes. We did find one of the seven secrets of Bologna though, it's a little window to Venice. It's not really Venice, of course, but apparently, there used to be multiple canals in Bologna as well. This one remains and visitors can look through a small opening in a wall and what appears is what one might see in Venice. There are 6 other "secrets" that can be found as well, but we didn't look for them. We did find some other interesting sites along the way as we headed back to the room for a break from the heat - one being the Two Towers of Bologna. Yes, they don't stand up straight and tall, they are leaning.

Antique children's barber chair.

I love how they keep the old and just add to it.

Old wooden portico changes to brick then stucco.

Garisenda and Asinelli Towers

Chris opted to stay out of the heat for the afternoon because he woke up not feeling his best. And since it was our anniversary, he wanted to make sure he was good for dinner. I went out to explore on my own and headed to Piazza Maggiore. It is the center of Bologna and home to the Fountain of Neptune which has been in place since the mid 1500s. I decided to go into the Basilica di San Petronio. Construction began on this basilica in 1390. There are so many basilicas in Italy. They have built them to honor so many saints. The chapels of this basilica are what stood out the most to me. The chapels are not what we in the US think of chapels. Chapels in these basilicas are small individual areas along the sides of the main larger area. They seem to have been created by families to honor individuals. Each is unique in style and in how elaborately ornate they are.

The facade of the basilica was never completed.

The floor has this section of marble named Lineo Meridiana and then a line going straight out from it with numbers 1-24 in increments engraved in the stone. Above it in the ceiling was a painted sun with a hole in the middle. I am assuming this was some sore of engineered clock feature.

Outside of basilica

Our waiter from the previous night shared with us that Bologna is home to the oldest university in the world. Sure enough, after some quick research, The University of Bologna was founded in 1088 and is the oldest university in continuous operation and has over 90,000 students today! Who knew?? My next stop was the original location of the university. (It is since located in another area of Bologna.) The building used originally suffered significant damage during the WWII bombing of Bologna in January 1944 but as much as possible was salvaged, reused, and rebuilt. The building is now a working library and the original room called Teatro Anatomico (yes, Anatomy Theater) can be toured. This theater was used to teach anatomy to medical students. The marble table in the center is where the cadavers would be with instruction going on there and from the lecturn, the area up high with the two wooden columns shaped like skinned bodies showing muscle structure. The woman above the lecturn is considered the allegory of Anatomy and the cherub is handing her femur bone instead of the normal flowers. The statues in the walls around the room are of famous and well respected doctors. The ceiling was intricately carved - just so much thought and detail put into one room. I was also greatly intrigued by this room because it reminded me of a fictional book that I had read called Anatomy. The book is set in England but is about a young girl who wants to be a doctor so she disguises herself as a man so she can attend these anatomy lectures. In doing so, she uncovers a big scheme by the "master lecturer/doctor" who is paying indigent boys to dig up recently buried bodies for him to use during his lectures!

Monument marking the area of original university location

Teatro Anatomico

Lecturn

Anatomy books

Another room I toured in the building was used originally by law students and professors to hold a law library and to give lectures. It is still used for presentations from time to time. And it contains an opening into the Biblioteca which is still used today. Other than this glimpse into the library, no sightseeing was allowed. The porticos, corridors and main area of the building were covered in crests. The information I read said that the crests were the family crests of students and professors. They covered walls, ceilings, stairways...

Aren't these book beautiful?

A glimpse into the working library - stunning.

So many crests...

I headed back to the room to cool down and get ready for the evening. Chris made reservations for our anniversary dinner so we headed out around 8 - people eat late dinners here - we were a bit early for the dinner crowd - haha! For dinner we opted for a shared Starter and then each a First Course. Most restaurants here offer Starters, First Course, Second Course, Dessert. You can have one or all of them. Our starter was a plate of meats and cheeses. Chris' first course was Lasagna Verde and I went with the traditional Tagliatelle Ragu. Delicious!! This restaurant gave us little pieces of sweet bread after dinner. Another tasty pasta experience!!! Afterward, in Piazza Maggiore, there was a summer film festival going on every night and the showings were a wide array of international and American films. We sat in the piazza for a while watching the night's selection - Rheingold - before calling it a night.

30th Anniversary pic - :-)

The next morning, we packed up our stuff and checked out of the room. We picked up the car and drove to the Sanctuary of San Luca. It sits high on a hill just outside Bologna and is popular for several reasons. One, obviously, is the fact that the building is beautiful. Another is the beautiful views it has overlooking the city center of Bologna. It is also very famous because of the portico from the bottom of the hill to the sanctuary. The portico is almost 4 continuous kilometers! Many people walk it - and I would have considered it in April or October, but in the terrible heat, it was a big NO! It did seem to also be a popular climb for cyclist. Many bicycles making their way to the top of the hill!