How to Spend 3 days in Bologna - A Jam-Packed Itinerary
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Bologna is one of Europe’s best preserved medieval cities, a fascinating jumble of red brick, terracotta, and streets full of palaces, churches, and fascinating museums. What’s not to like about this beautiful place?
It’s lively, energetic, youthful, and wholeheartedly devoted to good food - the best in Italy. And unlike in many other cities, daily life for locals still plays out in the charming historic center (Centro Storico), which is where you’ll be spending most o fyour time as you follow this itinerary.
Before we get into the plan, here are a few practicalities to consider: Bologna is fairly compact, so you can follow all of this itinerary on foot. Of course, that means you’ll want to wear a good pari of walking shoes, because the cobblestones can be hard on your feet.
And as you’ll soon notice, most of the sidewalks are covered by porticoes - they’re a remnant from the Middle Ages when the city allowed residents to expand their houses over the street - , 25 miles of which wind through the city. So even if it rains during your trip, you’ll be able to stay dry.
When you don’t want to walk, buses are readily available, and I’ve indicated some handy routes at relevant points in the itinerary.
What else can I prep you with? You’ll definitely save some euros if you equip yourself with the Bologna Welcome Card, which costs €25 and admits you for free or at a discount to many of the sights I’ve planned for you to visit.
You can purchase the card online at www.bolognawelcome.com or at the Bologna Welcome tourist office on Piazza Maggiore. The card also includes a free city walking tour, a nice accessory to the route I’ve planned here.
Table of Contents
Itinerary overview
Day 1: Central Bologna’s main sights
Begin your explorations in Piazza Maggiore, the huge square that’s been the center of city life since the Middle Ages. You’ll venture from there into the Quadrilatero, the center of medieval trade where the main business is now food. Moving on, you’ll see some more medieval landmarks, the Piazza della Mercanzia, the Due Torre, and the basilica of Santo Stefano.
You’ll end the afternoon with a breath of fresh air in the beautiful Giardini Margherita, just outside the city gates, and will then return to the Quadrilatero and Piazza Maggiore for cocktails and dinner.
Day 2: Santuario della Madonna di San Luca, markets, museums, and neighborhood wandering
On your second day here, the morning is the perfect time to head out for an excursion close to the heart of all Bolognese: a climb up the monumental Portico di San Luca to the Santuario della Madonna di San Luca.
Afterwards, head back to the city for lunch in the covered market, followed by visits to an intriguing museum of medieval life and a magnificent collection of musical instruments. In the evening, prepare for a wander through two of the city’s most atmospheric neighborhoods, the former Jewish Ghetto and the University District.
Day 3: Modern art, off the beaten path in Bolognina, more museums/monuments, and a bit of shopping
Having already seen most of the city’s big sights, today you’ll go a bit more off the beaten path, first to the northwest corner of the historic center to view modern art and the works of local artist Giorgio Morandi. From there you’ll walk over to the Bolognina neighborhood to see two moving art installations, the Museo per la Memoria di Ustica and the Holocaust Memorial.
Afterwards, make your way back into the center along busy and shop-filled Via Indipendenza, perhaps doing a bit of shopping to pick up some Italian threads or other goods. In the center, pay a visit to the basilica of San Domenico and then end the day on Via del Pratello, another lively street that’s filled with restaurants and bars and stays busy until quite late.
Day 1: The main sights of the historic center
Morning
Piazza Maggiore
There’s only one place to begin your visit to Bologna: in Piazza Maggiore, the center of the city since the Middle Ages. You’ll probably enter this sprawling space from the north, into an extension of the square known as Piazza del Nettuno, named for a statue of the trident-wielding sea god who rises from a fountain fed by sirens sprouting water from their breasts.
Made by the sculptor Giambologna upon request from the papal legate who ruled Bologna at the time, he sculpted Poseidon’s left hand in such a way that, when the statue is viewed from certain positions, the god’s thumb suggests an obvious state of arousal. Stand on the black paving stone to the left of the statue to get the full effect.
The papal legate was allegedly so angered by the gleeful reactions of the tittering crowds who came to see the statue that he threatened to have Giambologna’s arms cut off, so the sculptor fled the city.
Looking out over the Piazza Maggiore
Biblioteca Salaborsa
Next, step into the adjacent Bibliotecca Salaborsa, the city’s main library. And no, you’re not here to read, but rather to admire an incredible space that has had many purposes over the centuries: in the Middle Ages this was the site of a garden that flourished until the end of the 19th century, when the present building was constructed to house the city’s first telegraph office.
A grand hall was added for the region’s agricultural exchange and that in turn became a basketball court, and later, a puppet theater.
This huge space is now the library’s main reading room. Look up to admire the gorgeous glass roof supported by elegant iron ribbing, then look down through the glass floor into the ruins of the Roman city, Bolonia. For a closer look, go downstairs where a small exhibit explains a bit about Roman Bologna and includes a helpful timeline of the city’s long history. A neat elevated walkway also puts you eye to eye with ancient houses and streets.
The entrance to the Salaborsa library. Photo: Pietro Luca Cassarino, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Palazzo d’Accursio & Torre dell’Orologio
Right next door is the Palazzo d’Accursio, also known as the Palazzo Comunale, another storied building that is now the city hall. The 13th century residence of a prominent jurist, it eventually became the seat of medieval government, and its heavily frescoed salons have since housed law courts, the residences of papal legates, and more recently, a small gallery of municipal art (worth a short visit to seek out some standout works by Signorelli, Tintoretto, and Brunelleschi).
Within the Palazzo d’Accursio is the Torre dell’Orologio, the city’s iconic clocktower. Also built in the 13th century, it’s the best lookout in town, providing views in all directions from its panoramic terraces. Be forewarned though: there’s no elevator, so you’ll have to earn the views, climbing step by step to the top.
Palazzo d’Accursio with the clocktower on the left. Photo: Paul Hermans, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Palazzo Re Enzo
From the tower you’ll be looking straight down on another palace on Piazza del Nettuno, the Palazzo Re Enzo. Once you’re back on terra firma, cross the piazza and step into the palazzo’s courtyard for a quick look at the beautiful medieval assemblage of arched loggias and its open staircase.
Built in 1245, the palace is most famous for having been the place where Enzo, the King of Sardinia, was “imprisoned” during the city’s ongoing wars with the Holy Roman Empire. Enzo lived here under house arrest in luxury for 27 years, throwing lavish banquets, writing poetry, practicing falconry, and hosting a long line of mistresses with whom he had several children.
Basilica di San Petronio
The massive, unfinished-looking building on the south side of Piazza Maggiore is the Basilica di San Petronio, Bologna’s largest church. When construction began in 1390, the church was intended to be much larger, one of the largest in Christendom. That plan fell by the wayside over the years, and the upper section of the façade was never sheathed in marble as intended, and the hoped-for vast wings were never built.
So, to either side of the church you’ll see truncated vaults and arches where apses and side chapels would have stood had the construction happened.
Once inside, take a few minutes to admire the figures above the main portal rendered in marble by Jacopo della Quercia of Siena, the leading sculptor of the early 15th century. The church’s namesake, Saint Petronio, a fifth century bishop, stands next to the Virgin Mary (you’ll recognize him because he’s holding a model of the city) and around the doorway are scenes from the Old and New testaments, intended to give the faithful a quick Bible lesson.
Among those who have admired the scenes was a young Michelangelo, who took inspiration from them for his depiction of the creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel.
The Basilica di San Petronio, on the Piazza Maggiore
Capella di San Petronio
The remains of Saint Petronio, for whom the church is named, are enshrined in the Capella di San Petronio, and his life is depicted in a fresco cycle in the Cappella dei Rei Magi (also known as Cappella Bolognini, the fourth on the left as you enter). Among the scenes is a terrifying depiction of Hell in which the prophet Mohammed is tortured and devoured by devils, for which Islamic terrorists have plotted to destroy the church.
Less controversial is the extraordinary meridian line, aka sundial, which runs for 220 feet along the left aisle. Light emitted through a hole in the wall hits the line at noon every day (you may be here to see it), the location changing throughout the year. Aside from serving as a calendar, the line allowed early astronomers to calculate the earth’s orbit, determine equinoxes, and make other observations.
The Palazzo dell’Archiginnasio
As you emerge from the church into the piazza, turn right and head onto Via dell’Archiginnasio, making your way to the the Palazzo dell’Archiginnasio. Completed in 1563 and built under the orders of Pope Pius IV, this was the headquarters of the University of Bologna.
The pontiff commissioned this imposing, exquisitely ornamented palace to be built right in the path that builders would have followed to expand the Basilica di San Petronio, halting construction before Bologna’s church could surpass St. Peter’s in Rome.
Climb the grand staircase to the richly paneled Teatro Anatomico, where human dissections once took place, as you might surmise from the presence of the Gli Spellati, realistic-looking figures of splayed men. One of my favorite statues in the room is of Gaspare Tagliacozzi, holding a nose, as befits this pioneer of nasal reconstruction at a time when noses were vulnerable to the ravages of syphilis and dueling.
Bodies were laid out on the marble slab in front of the room and students looked on from the rows of wooden seats. A panel in the back wall slides back and once allowed a church inspector to look on to make sure the bodies were kept intact in readiness for Judgement Day.
A corridor of the Palazzo dell’Archiginnasio. Photo: Zairon, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Afternoon
The Quadrilatero and lunch
Once you finish touring the sights on/around Piazza Maggiore, it should be lunchtime, and for a good meal, you’re in the right place. Just a few steps away is the Quadrilatero district, the center of trade and crafts in the Middle Ages and now an area that’s almost entirely devoted to food.
As you look at the shop windows overflowing with pork haunches, huge rounds of parmigiano cheese, and other bounty of the region you’ll understand why Bologna is known as “la grossa,” the fat.
You won’t have any trouble finding a place to eat in the neighborhood, but it’s worth seeking out Tamburini on Via Caprarie or Simoni on Via Drapperie. Both are venerable old food shops that also have excellent dining rooms serving, among many other dishes, the city’s signature tortellini alla Bolognese, topped with a creamy sauce of ham and cheese, and tagliattelli al ragù, with a hearty meat sauce.
For dessert I like to stop at Atti, also on Via Drapperie, for one of their delicious pastries.
Via Pescherie Vecchie in the Quadrilatero. Photo: Andrzej Otrębski, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Santuario di Santa Maria della Vita
Before leaving the Quadrilatero, make your way back to Via Clavature and the Santuario di Santa Maria della Vita to see Nicolò d’Arca’s Lament for the Dead Christ. The seven life-size terracotta figures surrounding the body of Christ after its been removed from the cross create one of the most moving religious images you’re likely to encounter in Italy.
Their expressions of agony and horror are so realistic that the scene was once kept out of sight of patients in the infirmary adjoining the sanctuary, over concerns they’d be frightened to death in their weakened states.
Piazza della Mercanzia & the Due Torri
To the east, the Quadrilatero opens into the Piazza della Mercanzia, the city’s marketplace from Roman times until the late 19th century. Here, the imposing and Gothic Palazzo della Mercanzia was the headquarters of medieval trade, with a high loggia to accommodate vendors, who had good motivation to do a brisk business - those who fell into debt were lashed to the pillars and publicly humiliated.
Sit here a while and watch the comings and goings; the great 14th-century poet Dante wrote about passing his time in Bologna this way.
Two towers, the Due Torri, loom over the north side of the square. They are the most famous of the 180 medieval towers that once rose above the city, signaling the wealth of the families who built them. 22 towers remain but these are the two everybody talks about. They’re leaning precariously, and are under constant construction to try to stabilize them.
Piazza della Mercanzia. Photo: Alessandro Siani, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Due Torri
Museo della Storia di Bologna
By now you’ve seen a bit of Bologna’s ancient, medieval, and Renaissance history. So let’s put it all into perspective at the nearby Museo della Storia di Bologna, housed in the dramatically restored 14th-century Palazzo Pepoli. In the high-tech exhibits surrounding a grand inner courtyard, 3-D Etruscans come to life and water rushes through the waterways that once coursed through Bologna to power mills and provided transport for goods. It’s a pretty cool space.
Piazza Santo Stefano
A walk of just a few minutes along Via Pepoli brings you into the beautiful triangular Piazza Santo Stefano, lined with the palaces of Bologna’s most powerful Renaissance families.
The Basilica di Santo Stefano at the end of the square is one of Bologna’s most storied religious sites, a medieval compound of four churches and cloisters incorporating bits and pieces of a Roman temple to Isis. The complex once incorporated seven churches as is still widely known as “Sette Chiesi.”
You’ll probably be so smitten with the atmospheric surroundings that you’ll be ready to believe the malarkey that a basin in the Cortile di Pilato is the very one in which Pontius Pilate washed his hands after condemning Christ (it’s actually an impressive Lombard relic from the 8th century).
The Santo Stefano complex is a great favorite of Bolognese, and it’s not unusual to see mothers praying before a fresco in the Church of the Trinity that depicts a very pregnant Madonna stroking her belly.
Piazza Santo Stefano
The three arrows at Palazzo Isolani
A shop-lined corridor, Corte Isolani, burrows through the ground floor of one of the most impressive palaces on Piazza Santo Stefano, Palazzo Isolani. The Corte emerges on Strada Maggiore into a magnificent medieval portico. As you admire the supporting timbers try to spot the three arrows embedded in one of them.
Legend has it that they’ve been there since a medieval count hired assassins to kill his beautiful but unfaithful young wife. Seeing the marksman beneath her window, the lady disrobed and so dazzled the men with her nude, voluptuous body that they missed their mark entirely.
Palazzo Isolani
Giardini Margherita
Now, to see a different side of Bologna, follow Via Santo Stefano south for about 15 minutes through quiet, centuries-old blocks to one of the 12 remaining city gates, Porta Santo Stefano. Just beyond is the Colli neighborhood, sometimes called the Beverley Hills of Bologna, for the villas hidden behind walls on the hilly, tree-shaded streets.
You’re here to enjoy the Giardini Margherita, a public park at the base of the hills. The city’s largest park, this is a green oasis with a pond, lawns, and many nice shady spots beneath oaks and plane trees. It’s a soothing place to get some respite from Bologna’s sea of red brick, stone, and terracotta, and the cooling shade is especially welcome in summer.
The pond in the Giardini Margherita park in Colli
Evening
Aperitivo in the Mercato di Mezzo
It's time for an aperitivo, a ritual that Bolognese take seriously. Re-enter the old town through another gate across from the park, the Porta Castiglione, and from there follow the Via Castiglione north back to the Quadrilatero.
The neighborhood’s old covered market, the Mercato di Mezzo, is now a food hall, and around this time some of the vendors accompany wine and cocktails with cicchetti, small plates and snacks, offered for free or at a small fee.
The mercato di Mezzo. Photo: Luigi1012, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Modified
A passegiata along Via Indipendenza and dinner
Now, for dinner. That’s always something to look forward to in Bologna. You’ll be surrounded by restaurants in the Quadrilatero, but I suggest nearby Ristorante da Nello al Montegrappa, a Bologna institution since 1948.
To get there walk, stroll along Via Indipendenza, Bologna’s main street. The piazza and shop-lined street is busy late into the night and it’s a favorite locale for a passeggiata, or evening walk, another Italian ritual to which Bologna, with its protective porticoes, is especially well suited.
You’ll notice a McDonald’s at the southern end of Via Indipendenza. Many Bolognese consider the presence of the fast-food outlet in such a prominent spot in a city renowned for food to be a disgrace.
In fact the opening of the chain here and elsewhere in Italy created a huge backlash against the Americanization of Italian food culture and is credited with launching the Slow Food Movement, promoting locally sourced foods and traditional cooking. The place is usually crowded with young people, but that’s mostly because here in Italy the chain serves cheap beer.
Da Nello is a block north of Piazza Maggiore, in Via Monte Grappa. The tortellini Montegrappa, served in a cream-and-meat sauce, is a standout among their many Bolognese classics.
Via Indipendenza. Photo: GennaroBologna, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Day 2: Santuario della Madonna di San Luca, Old Jewish Ghetto, University District
Morning
A climb to Santuario della Madonna di San Luca
The monumental Portico di San Luca, the longest covered arcade in the world, stretches from the Porta Saragozza up a green hillside to the Santuario della Madonna di San Luca. It’s a walk of about 15 minutes to the gate from Piazza Maggiore, along Via Urbana and Via Saragozza.
The baroque Madonna di San Luca church was built in 1723 to house an icon of the Black Madonna that was allegedly painted by Luke the Evangelist and brought to Bologna in the 12th century. The icon was first housed in a chapel on the site of the present-day church and pilgrims would make the climb to ask the icon for divine intervention in times of plague, famine, and war.
The spring of 1433 was especially calamitous as torrential rains threated to destroy crops and cause a famine. So the faithful carried the icon down the hillside to the Cattedrale di San Pietro, where citizens could gather to beseech the Black Madonna to end the rains.
Soon the downpour came to an end, and ever since the icon has been carried down the hillside once a year (these days on the first Sunday in July), put on display in the cathedral for a week, then carried back up.
Santuario della Madonna di San Luca. Photo: Maurizio Moro5153, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Walk your way up along the Portico di San Luca
The Portico di San Luca was built in the 1670s to replace a rough pathway up the hillside and meanders upward for 3.8kms (2 ½ miles), passing little chapels where pilgrims can stop to pray. The arches that support the roofed arcades number 666, the sign of the devil.
The reward for your climb are the views over green hillsides and the domes and towers of the city below; they’re even better from the panoramic terrace atop the roof of the church. As an added incentive for a climb, local legend has it that a wish you make while ascending the steps will come true.
If the walk seems like too much, you can hop aboard the San Luca Express, a tourist train that chugs through the city and up the hill from Piazza Maggiore. Round trip is €13.
A stretch along the Portico di San Luca. Photo: Giorgio Minguzzi, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Afternoon
Lunch in the Mercato delle Erbe
You’ll probably be back on level ground in three hours or so, and a good lunch is in order. So re-enter the historic center through Porta Saragozza and continue on until you reach the Mercato delle Erbe, the city’s main food market.
Vendors here peddle fish, fruits and vegetables, along with the hams and cheeses for which the city is famous. In the adjacent food court, restaurants and street-food outlets do a brisk lunch business.
Stalls in the Mercato delle Erbe. Photo: Iacopobastia, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped
Museo Civico Medievale
The next stop is one of my favorite places in Bologna, the Museo Civico Medievale, in the beautiful Palazzo Ghisilardi. I know this sounds dark but the standouts here are the funerary monuments that honor medieval professors from the university. The scenes of students showing off the fashions of the time and engaging in earnest discourse or dozing off during lectures are fascinating and bring the Middle Ages vividly to life.
San Colombano Church
Another utterly charming museum is just around the corner on Via Parigi, where the beautifully restored former church of San Colombano houses the Collezione Tagliavini, a collection of harpsichords, pianos, and other early instruments from as early as the 16th century.
The instruments sometimes hauntingly spring to life at the whims of the knowledgeable curators, who also organize concerts. It’s a very neat little museum.
The former Jewish Ghetto
You’re going to spend the rest of the afternoon in my favorite corner of Bologna, the northeast of the historic center where you’ll find the former Jewish Ghetto and the adjacent University District.
Start with the Jewish Ghetto, making your way to Via Oberdan, from where you can wind your way through small, alley-like lanes and compact squares to Via dell’Inferno, the Ghetto’s main street.
Incredibly tranquil, the neighborhood seems to be a world removed from the busy center, as it has been since the 16th century, when this center of the Jewish community was shut off from the rest of the city by walls and gates.
The Museo Ebracio di Bologna (Jewish Museum) on Via Valdonica tells the story of the neighborhood and Jewish life in Bologna.
A street in the Jewish Ghetto. Photo: Daniel Ventura, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped
The University District
From the eastern border of the Ghetto, Via Zamboni leads into the seat of Bologna’s university, the oldest in Europe, founded in 1088. This august institution does not have a campus per se but instead occupies historic palaces and other buildings along Via Zamboni and the surrounding streets and squares.
With more than 90,000 students attending the university, this attractive and historic neighborhood is overwhelmingly youth-oriented, and coffeeshops, bars, inexpensive eateries, and some of the city’s most popular late-night spots are always busy serving their young clientele.
The heart of the district is Piazza Verdi, at the entrance to the Teatro Comunale, opened in 1763 as the city’s main venue for classical music and opera. The 15th-century Palazzo Poggi, the seat of the university, is just up the street.
Piazza Giuseppe Verdi on a busy evening
The Pinacoteca Nazionale
The Pinacoteca Nazionale (National Gallery) is also just a few steps away, and while this excellent collection isn’t on par with the Uffizi in Florence or Italy’s other great art galleries, it’s well worth poking around for an hour or so. If you visit, you should come across one masterpiece after another, by Titian, Tintoretto, and the other great painters of the Renaissance and Baroque.
A painting of The Ecstasy Santa Cecilia by Raphael was once infamous for inducing fainting spells among viewers with its depiction of a heavenly choir transporting the saint into a transcendent state.
A hall in the Pinacoteca Nazionale. Photo: AnetaMalinowskaART, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Modified
Evening
Dinner a la Bolognese
After this morning’s workout and an afternoon of museum hopping and neighborhood wandering, you’re probably ready to sit down and enjoy a drink. For ambience it’s hard to beat Le Stanza, a cocktail bar and restaurant in the frescoed chapel and salons of an old palazzo, on Via dal Borgo di San Pietro.
For dinner, I suggest walking a few minutes west to Trattoria del Bissanot, on Via Piella; the house’s Tris Bologna dish is a memorable sampling of three signature Bolognese pastas. Bissanot is deservedly popular, so make a reservation a day or two in advance.
See Bologna’s canal from La Finistrella
After dinner, step next door to look through the Finestrella, a shuttered window that looks onto a remnant of the 12th century network of canals that once flowed through Bologna and were used to transport materials and goods for the flourishing silk and tobacco trades.
Looking out at the canal from the finistrella. Photo: Twice25 & Rinina25, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped
Day 3: Modern art, Bolognina, Churches, shopping, and a night on the town
Morning
MAMBo and Museo Morandi
Begin the morning at MAMbo, or Museo d’Arte Moderna, in a former bakery in the northwest corner of the Centro Storico. If you begin in Piazza Maggiore, the walk will take about 15 minutes.
The museum focuses on Italian art after World War II, and pride of place belongs to Renato Guttuso’s I Funerali di Togliatti (1972), depicting the funeral of a leader of the communist party, awash in red flags. The painting is a tribute to Bologna’s left-wing leanings, for which the city is known as “La Rossa,” or “The Red.”
I actually spend most of my time here in the adjacent Museo Morandi though, a museum within a museum that is a showcase for the works of Bolognese painter/printmaker Giorgio Morandi (1890–1964). His stunning but straightforward still lifes seem almost abstract in their minimalism.
If you’re intrigued by Morandi’s work, ask about visiting his apartment and studio on Via Fondazza, filled with his sketches and personal effects along with the vases and other utilitarian objects he painted; it’s open by appointment only and admission is free.
The famous “I Funerali di Togliatti”
Bolognina
From the museums, it's about a ten-minute walk to the Bologna Centrale train station, which is more or less the border between the Centro Storico and Bolognina neighborhood.
Before crossing under the station, make a stop in front of the Piazza Medaglia d’Oro and look for the large-clock, which is is permanently stopped at 10:25am, the precise time on August 2, 1980, when a bomb planted by a neo-fascist terrorist group ripped through the station’s packed waiting room, killing 85 people and injuring more than 200.
Once you cross the station, you’ll be in Bolognina, a working-class enclave with blocks of red-brick apartment houses of fairly recent build.
Looking out toward Bolognina from Parco della Montagnola
Museo per la Memoria di Ustica
From there, make your way over to the Museo per la Memoria di Ustica, a large-scale art installation by French artist Christian Boltanski that commemorates the crash of a Bologna–Palermo flight off the Sicilian island of Ustica in 1980. The museum contains the wreckage of the plane (allegedly shot down in error by an Italian military missile) and there are haunting sound and light effects.
From here, spend some time wandering around the neighborhood, eventually weaving your way back toward the Centro Storico. As you explore, you’ll pass kebab shops, Asian markets, and other global stores/shops that reflect the neighborhood’s multiethnic character - very different from the historic center.
At the north end of Ponte Matteotti, on which the street crosses above the railway tracks back into the city center, is the striking Memoriale della Shoah (Holocaust Memorial), with two 30-foot-tall steel blocks that face each other to form a dark chasm.
The wreckage of the plane at the Museo per la Memoria di Ustica. Photo: Fabio Di Francesco, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A stroll down Via Indipendenza
Once across the tracks you’ll be on Via Indipendenza, the city’s main north–south thoroughfare, which will take you all the way back to Piazza Maggiore (about 1 mile).
Many of the stores along the wide porticos lining the street are now low-cost clothing and shoe outlets, but a few specialty shops remain. Droggheria della Pioggia, just west of Via Indipendenza on Via de' Falegnami, is a wonderful, old-fashioned grocery store that sells olive oil, vinegar and other local pantry essentials alongside soaps and household products.
La Corincina, farther down Via Indipendenza, is another throwback: a sundries store where you can pick up a pair of scissors, a notebook, or a box of chocolates, the shop was founded here at the base of the Torre degli Scappi in 1694 by Capuchin friars, who limited the stock to sacred objects.
The Cattedrale Metropolitana di San Pietro is also near the south end of Via Indipendenza. Founded in the 11th century, the church was almost entirely rebuilt in the 17th century with, as you’ll see when you step in for a quick look, a grandiose Baroque interior. The cathedral has its big moment in early July, when the Black Madonna icon is carried here from the hilltop Santuario della Madonna di San Luca and put on display for a week.
The Baroque interior of the Cattedrale Metropolitana di San Pietro. Photo: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Afternoon
A late lunch in the Quadrilatero
Continue a few steps south and you’ll be back in familiar territory on Piazza Maggiore. For an unusual lunch experience, cross the piazza, enter the Quadrilatero, and grab a sandwich and other provisions at one of the many shops.
Then find your way to Osteria del Sole, a wine shop that follows a BYOF (bring your own food) policy - you bring the food, they supple the wine. The place seems a bit worn out, as it should, sinc ehtye’ve been in operation since 1465.
Basilica di San Domenico
The Basilica di San Domenico, another renowned Bologna landmark, is just south of the Quadrilatero, on Piazza San Domenico. The Spanish born St. Dominic, founder of the Dominican order, spent the end of his life in Bologna, dying here of malnourishment and exhaustion on a rough bed of sackcloth in 1221.
The saint, who preached poverty and humility, now rests in an elaborate shrine, the Arca, designed by the 13th century’s greatest sculptor, Nicola Pisano. The soaring, elaborate work is richly decorated with carvings depicting Dominic’s life and set beneath a fresco of the saint ascending into heaven.
Among the many artists who worked on the shrine was Michelangelo, who added figures of Bologna’s patron, St. Petronius and St. Procolo.
The Arca and shrine to Saint Dominic. Photo: Jean-Christophe BENOIST, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A bit of shopping in the Galleria Cavour
It’s now time to put Dominic’s rejection of earthly goods aside and retrace your steps to Via Farini for some window shopping in the Galleria Cavour. Filled with outlets of Italy’s most prestigious luxury brands, my favorite shop here is a bit less showy and more affordable, but no less prestigious: Majani, on Via de’ Carbonesi, is Italy’s oldest sweets shop, making delicious chocolates since 1796.
Be sure to look up while strolling, as the artwork on the ceiling of the porticoes is lovely.
The gorgeous porticoes of the Galleria Cavour. Photo: AnetaMalinowska, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Chiesa della Santa
If your head is still spinning from the price tags in the Galleria, step off Via de’ Carbonesi into Via Tagliapietre for a look at one of the city’s quirkier oddities and a grisly reminder of what awaits us all, no matter how much we spend on the latest fashions.
The Chiesa della Santa, also known as Corpus Domini, seems like just another beautiful Bologna church until you step into a side chapel, where the mummified remains of St. Catherine of Bologna, a 15th-century nun, repose in full view on a golden throne. The saint was a musician and painter, and she is accordingly the patron saint of artists.
Evening
Dinner on Via del Pratello
Now, for some more earthly diversion, head west to Via del Pratello, where the porticos are lined with bars and inexpensive trattorias. You can have a moveable feast here, picking up excellent takeaway pastas at Pasta Fresca Naldi or Capra e Cavoli and enjoying them with a drink at one of the many bars.
Or, for a sit down meal that’s a cut above what you’ll find at many of the other places in the neighborhood, I recommend Il Rovescio, just off Via del Pratello on Via Pietralata.
Spend the night bar hopping in the neighborhood, which stays lively until quite late.
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A busy night on Via del Pratello
More Italy and Emilia Romagna Travel Guides
For more advice on planning your trip to Bologna and Italy more broadly, have a look at some of our other guides and itineraries!
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