The Basics of Beautiful Bologna, Italy

Which trip started my alliteration of adjectives and names? Who knows? When it came to write about Bologna, Italy I was stuck.

Bountiful Bologna was an option, but it didn’t quite fit. I went back to the basics, so to speak. If you begin there, you’ll enhance your visit to this elegant place.

We had two days in Bologna, Italy and it wasn’t enough to see the history that lives there every day. I’d go for a week the next time.

Bologna is a simple city. Although 400,000 people live in the city proper and the seventh most populated city in Italy, everything about the old city center feels like a small town. Bologna is cozy. It’s flat, which made the walking easy. Don’t be deceived! When you step outside the city walls, you’ll find many hills.

 

Your First Stop in Bologna, Italy

Pop into one of the tourist centers for a free map and advice on where to start. The one in Piazza Maggiore had super helpful staff. If you’re staying for more than a day and like museums, invest in the Bologna Welcome Card. It’s E20 and you get admission to multiple museums and discounts—for 48 hours!

Take this link if you’re carrying a smartphone or print the pdf to take along. Bologna Welcome is a well-organized city app. The guide helps you pick restaurants (Trattoria Leonida and Ristorante Victoria are excellent), find museums, and take you shopping.

Twenty bell towers will captivate you, both silent and ringing. I would have liked to have traipsed around each of them, if not up the hundreds of steps. There’s even one with a bed & breakfast in the top of it. Too many steps for someone carting luggage!

Bologna Italy is a City of Porticos

Rainy weather? No matter, you walk for blocks under the most beautiful of coverings. Wide sidewalks, the occasional fresco…who doesn’t want to stroll about? Door knockers of multiple sizes and shapes.

We spent some time in the Basilica of St. Stefano, also known as the seven churches. It was built, in one theory, to represent seven stations of the cross. What I know is that walking on the ancient stones was captivating. I’m glad we paid E5 for the guide because it made strolling through the grounds more interesting. The site’s 2,000 year old history is winding, confusing and always, somehow, religious.

The Piazza Santo Stefano was one of the quietest we’ve seen. Was it because it was mid-day? I don’t know, but it was peaceful and nice.

The Welcome Center has a Bologna Canals Brochure

Some of these canals date to the 12^th Century. A local told us Bologna’s canals are known as the Little Venice. We found a few of them, but not all ten. I didn’t notice any gondolas, probably because by the beginning of the twentieth century many canals were covered. Progress?

Bologna has an unexpectedly massive train station. We descended multiple levels to catch our train to Siena. Allow additional time for navigating it.

Like the Athena Hotel in Siena, we picked an upgraded room with a city view at the Aemilia Hotel. It’s a deceptive place, looking small and compact on the outside, but actually boasting multiple meeting rooms and an expansive restaurant (with a great breakfast and professional staff). You’re a ten to fifteen-minute walk from the city center.

Bologna is not a place to pass through on your way to a tourist-destination city. It is a place to walk, look up, look around, experience every street with purpose and intent. Take your time and let me know what you love the most.

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Read: Italian Places