Shadowy porticoed streets that conceal buzzing and experimental cafés, bars, canteens by day and fine restaurants and underground clubs by night, mostly designed to suit the student pocket. Heralded by the city's famous Due Torri (two towers) at its head, the main artery of university life is via Zamboni, along which are to be found the university's faculty buildings and the bars in which the students spend their time 'revising'. Halfway along, piazza Verdi is the veritable heart of studentland, and also theatreland, while at the other end at the confluence with via delle Belle Arti is the famous Pinacoteca art museum. Heading instead due north from via Rizzoli the atmosphere changes from the mystery of the winding medina-like alleys of the old ghetto Ebraico (Jewish ghetto), to the refined air of the boutiques of via Oberdan and beyond them the less-visited working-class back streets that conceal Bologna's ancient system of waterways on via delle Moline and via Piella. To the west, just off the via dell'Indipendenza is the city's cathedral of San Pietro while further north the streets open out into piazza VIII Agosto, stage of the city's bustling weekend market. Returning to the two towers and heading directly east the more sedate and tranquil via San Vitale is home to old noble residences and an abundance of antique and craft shops. SightsLa Torre degli Asinelli and La Torre Garisenda La Torre degli Asinelli 0900-1900, €3. Known colloquially as Le Due Torri, Bologna's twin towers have become the city's most immediately recognizable icon, its Leaning Tower of Pisa. Yet despite their apparent solitude on the city's skyline there used to be many more towers. In the 12th and 13th centuries any self-respecting Bolognese noble family had a tower and so intense was this practice of keeping up with the Joneses, or not wanting to be vertically challenged by your neighbour, that at the peak of their construction Bologna's cityscape boasted over a hundred towers. In this time the city was known affectionately as la turrita (the towered one) and must have looked, as observed the English traveler, H V Morton, “like a bed of asparagus.” It was in the urban regeneration program of 1889 that the engineer Giuseppe Ceri campaigned vociferously for Bologna's “old and useless” towers to be pulled down. The aberration was approved, proving that the 20th century did not have a monopoly on bad architectural taste, and the Due Torri are two of only a few towers of any significant height that survive. These early skyscrapers served as watch-towers to warn against an attack on the city and as a place of refuge should such an attack penetrate the city. In the 14th century they also had a brief role as a prison. Nowadays, beyond being a tourist attraction, the due torri serve as reception masts, a use of which Marconi, the Bolognese inventor of radio, would surely have approved. At a height of nearly 98 m, La Torre degli Asinelli is the taller of the two, commissioned in the early 12th century by the powerful Asinelli family from which it takes its name. There are 498 sturdy oak steps leading to the top, twisting like an Escher fantasy around the inside wall which is otherwise hollow and providing for many cosy trysts on the way up and down. Smog permitting, the reward at the top is a stunning view over the city's rooftops and Bologna's guardian angel, the Basilica di San Luca to the southwest, and which on a clear day can stretch as far as the Adriatic to the east and the Alps to the north. Built almost simultaneously, the leaning Torre Garisenda (closed to the public), was originally much higher than its current 47.5 m. It started to lurch through subsidence in the mid 1300s and was truncated from its original 77 m for fear that it might topple. One urban myth has it that the tower was built at an angle as an alternative in the tower-vanity stakes. Romantic legend has it that one of the young Garisenda noblemen was in love with a fair Asinelli maiden and asked that the tower be built like this so that he could touch his beloved's hair. Taking a leaf out of his own book, the hedonistic French poet Theophile Gauthier, likened the two towers to two mates stumbling home and leaning on each other, drunk. At the foot of the Garisenda tower you can see an inscription quoting the reference made to the tower in Canto XXXI of the Inferno of Dante's Divina Commedia, where the poet uses it as a simile for the looming giant, Antaeus. Chiesa di San Bartolomeo piazza di Porta Ravegnana. 0700-1300, 1500-1630. Just behind the two towers this small church, whose recon- struction in the 16th century was left unfinished, contains some lovely frescoes, particularly the San Carlo al sepolcro di Varallo by Ludovico Carracci in the second right-hand chapel and Guido Reni's Vergine col Putto in the eighth. Ghetto Ebraico Diving just behind the contemporary via Rizzoli the atmosphere changes and the alleyways take on a mysterious, secretive and labyrinthine aspect more resonant of an Arabian medina. Hemmed in by via Goito and full of evocatively named streets such as via dell'Inferno (Hell Street) this was formely Bologna's Jewish Ghetto. Although it is thought that the Jewish community was allowed to contribute much to Bologna's cultural beginnings in the 12th century, in the 1500s they were, as in many cities, ghettoized, and forced to live in this confined area in constant fear of persecution. To guard against attack they built spy-holes into their doors, which are still visible, for example at via Inferno 3 and via Valdonica 14. Nowadays the ghetto is still attractively dark and mysterious but long-since secularized and home to a number of good restaurants. The ghetto and surrounding areas also contain many curious buildings such as la Chiesa di San Giobbe, a former church subsequently used as a hospital for sufferers of mal francese (literally 'French evil' or syphilis) and now subsumed within a pleasant shopping mall called the Galleria Acquaderni whose shops still bear the church's frescoes on some of their walls. Here are also to be found a number of the city's other surviving towers: the Torre degli Uguzzoni in vicolo Tubertini, the 11th-century Torre Prendiparte (59 m) in via Sant'Alo, also known as la coronata (crowned one) on account of its crenellations, the Ctasa-orre Guidozagni, near via Albriroli which was lowered in 1487 to its current height, and the Torre degli Azzoguidi, also known as l'Altabella, reputedly after a tall and fair Bolognese lady of the quarter, on via Caduti di Cefalonia. Palazzo Malvezzi and Palazzo Magnani Palazzo Malvezzi, via Zamboni 13; Palazzo Magnani, via Zamboni 20. At the top of via Zamboni are a clutch of fine noble houses now variously the seat of banks and local government. The Palazzo Malvezzi is known for its grandiose staircase by Francesco Bibiena and the fine statue of Hercules, complete with club and lion at its entrance. Palazzo Magnani contains in its first floor drawing room arguably one of Bologna's finest art treasures, a cycle of 14 hectic and wonderfully animated and fantastical frescoes by Annibale Carracci, completed between 1588-91, depicting the foundation of Rome, complete with satyrs, hermaphrodites and masks. Chiesa di San Giacomo Maggiore via Zamboni/piazza Rossini, T 051-225970. Mon-Sun 0600-1200, 1530-1800. As with many of Bologna's churches, San Giacomo has undergone several additions and restructures over the centuries so that little is left of its Venetian-Gothic origins and it appears as a bit of a mish-mash of styles. Originally built in the mid-13th century the church was appropriated in the 15th century by the Bentivoglio family who made this area of the city their power base and whose wish most of the revisions were. Perhaps the most striking of these is the beautiful pink side arcade. The recurring motif on the capitals is the seashell, symbol of the traveller and pilgrim San Giacomo (St James). The apse of the church still supports remains of the second circle of the old city wall. Within San Giacomo's Renaissance interior the church houses many artistic treasures, most notable of which are Saint Roch by Ludovico Carracci, the tomb of Galeazzo Bentivoglio by Jacopo della Quercia and the Bentivoglio's own private chapel, the altar of which has some striking artwork by Lorenzo Costa depicting family victories over other Bolognese dynasties. The Madonna Enthroned, Thanked by Giovanni II and his Wife Ginevra Sforza and their Children is the eloquent and literal title of a painting by Lorenzo Costa specially commissioned by Giovanni II, the family Godfather, as a votive offering to thank the Almighty for their escape from an attempted massacre by the Malvezzi family. Other than by building towers, it was also fashionable to show your power by buying and decorating your own chapel. Costa's two paintings to the left of the above were the painter's ironic way of showing how hollow earthly fame becomes in death. Oratorio di Santa Cecilia via Zamboni 15 (entrance through portico Bentivolgio next to San Giacomo Maggiore). 1000-1300, 1500-1900 daily, free. A great patron of the arts, the Bentivoglio Lord, Giovanni II, ruling Bologna at the beginning of the 16th century, commissioned a large number of projects to embellish his city. Among them were the frescoes depicting the life of Santa Cecilia in this little oratory through the archway of San Giacomo which were painted by some of the greatest artists living in the city at that time: Francesco Francia, Lorenzo Costa and Amico Aspertini. Recently restored and opened to the public with new lighting, this is one of Bologna's real art treasures. Above the arch leading into via del Carro beyond San Giacomo Maggiore is a mask from which wine flowed onto the crowd below on festive occasions. Teatro Comunale via Zamboni 30/Large Respighi 1, T 051-529011/529999, http://www.comunalebologna.it Bologna's city theatre was built in the 18th century on the site of part (the stables) of the magnificent palace of the Bentivoglio family which was razed to the ground when that dynasty was overthrown in 1507. It was designed by Antonio Bibiena, a member of the renowned Galli family of Italian theatre designers. The colosseum-like 'boxes' and the u-shaped arena were a favoured form at the time. The theatre opened in 1763 with a performance of Gluck's Triumph of Clelia. Guided tours in Italian and English take place on Sundays at 1000 and Mondays at 1100. Tours last around one hour and cost €7 per person. T 0347-3335791. Conservatorio di Musica G B Martini and Museo Bibliografico Musicale piazza Rossini 2, T 051-222997/221117. 0900-1300. Closed Sun. Entry free. Bologna played host to many famous Italian composers such as Verdi, Rossini and Puccini and its music conservatory was a place of study and composition for many others, among them Bellini, Gluck, Wagner and, briefly, Mozart. Just off piazza Rossini, the building is a former Augustine convent confiscated, like many, by Napoleon and put to other use. It is easy to see how the cloistered setting might have provided inspiration. The magnificent concert hall has a huge organ and a gallery of portraits of great composers, musicians and divas of bygone days. More important is the collection of autographed scripts and rare scores from the 16th to 18th centuries, including the original of The Barber of Seville, kept in the Liceo Musicale. There are also hundreds of portraits of JC Bach by Gainsborough, a portrait of Farinelli (a famous castrato) by Giaquinto and a beautiful canvas entitled A Musical Library by Giuseppe Crespi. Musei di Palazzo Poggi via Zamboni 31-33, T 051-259021/2099360. Mon-Fri 0830-1730, Sat-Sun 0900-1830 for all museums. All free. The seat of Europe's oldest university was originally located in the Archiginnasio but was moved here in 1803 by Napoleon who wanted to bring all the city's proliferating faculties together in one place to create a kind of campus. This is the engine room of Bologna la dotta (Bologna the learned), the home of the university library and many of the university's main faculties and museums. The 16th-century building was the former home of the Poggi family who, although of humble origin, wished it to be built at the cost of almost the entire family wealth, to signify the family's social ascent with the making of one of their number a cardinal. The Palazzo Poggi houses a series of diverse museums reflecting the vast range of subjects that were pioneered at the university by its early pupils. L'Accademia della Scienza is the university's science institute, whose lower rooms are decorated in frescoes representing Ulysses by Pellgrino Tibaldi. The entrance at number 33 leads into a pleasant courtyard with a statue to Hercules in its centre by Angelo Pio. The Aula Carducci is the hall preserved in the state when Bologna's famous poet gave his lectures there between 1860 and 1904. Atop the Palazzo Poggi and accounting for its rather odd shape is La Specola dell'Osservatorio Astronomico and Museo di Astronomia, a tower which houses the university's observatory and museum of astronomy, full of all sorts of ancient instruments for the measuring and examination of the skies, evocative and fascinating for their rather Heath-Robinsonesque appearance. Although it may seem strange for a landlocked city the Museo delle Navi, Bologna's maritime museum, is considered to be one of the most important in the world for its rare models of 17th- and 18th-century warships which fascinated studying scientists for their technological innovation and advancement. The Museo di Architettura Militare places military developments in the context of scientific and technological advancements. Models of various forms of armament and toy soldiers are on display, plus early defence diagrams carved in beautiful marquetry. Finally and not necessarily uppermost in the average visitor's mind the Museo Ostretrico Giovanni Antonio Galli, the university's obstetrics museum, has a wide range of 18th-century instruments and incredible life-size models by Galli in wax and wood demonstrating the different phases of pregnancy in order to prepare 18th-century midwives for every eventuality. There are many other small museums of niche interest within Palazzo Poggi. Behind Palazzo Poggi, along the roads of largo Trombetti, via Belmeloro and via Selmi, which are all part of the university in that many faculties and lecture rooms are found here, are still more museums for real enthusiasts of other very specific subjects not necessarily on the shopping list of the general visitor: comparative anatomy, anatomy of pets, and anthropology. The zoology museum is worth a look if you're into dead fish, birds, sea-shells and want to see a stuffed rhinoceros. A complete list of these museums can be found in the museums listing. The poet Dante Alighieri was one of Bologna university's most illustrious students. He is known to have taken a keen interest in science and in particular in astronomy. It is thought that the structure and mechanics of his Divina Commedia are likely to have been inspired by his student years. Museo di Geologia e Paleontologia via Zamboni 63, T 051-2099360. Mon-Fri 0900-1230. The university's other main collection of faculties and museums is across the road from Palazzo Poggi further down towards the decaying 13th-century gate of Porta San Donato. The best of these museums is Italy's largest museum of paleontology, containing over 1000 pieces, of which the most appealing (especially to children) will be one of only four existing examples in Europe of the friendly but enormous diplodocus dinosaur, 26 m long and 4 m tall. Orto Botanico and l'Erbario via Irnerio 42, T 051-351299. Mon-Fri 0800-1500, l'Erbario, T 051-351304. Mon-Fri 8.30am-12.30pm, and Palazzina della Viola, via Filippo Re. After streets of constant and intensive museum-visiting the botanical gardens and herbarium make for a relaxing break. At two hectares this geometrically beautiful garden of soothing lawns is a favourite for lounging students hanging out between lectures. Founded in 1658, it is home to over 5000 species of local and exotic species of plant, while the Herbarium has specimens of over 110,000 dried plants. The adjoining Palazzina della Viola, named after the violets of Giovanni II Bentivoglio's gardens nearby is now the home of the university's faculty of agriculture. Museo di Anatomia Umana via Irnerio 48 T 051-276811. Mon-Sat 0900-1200, free. On a leafy boulevard the museum of anatomy is Bologna's answer to Madame Tussauds, the difference being that the waxworks here were created not in the name of vanity but in the pursuit of scientific knowledge and, specifically, the practice of dissection, the body being far easier to understand “with the eyes than with the ears” as its founder, Pope Benedict XIV said. It is not necessarily the place you thought you'd end up on a visit to the city but the models, all hand sculpted as opposed to moulded, are of an exquisite accuracy and beauty, important in their own right as objects of art but also in demonstrating the services of art to science. La Pinacoteca Nazionale Via delle Belle Arti 56, T 051-243222. Tue-Sun, 0900-1900, closed Mon. Entry €4, €3 with museum card, concessions €2. Free for under 18s and over 60s. Bologna's National Gallery is a must for art-lovers and historians of art but also provides an insight into the important role Bologna played in the cultural development of Italy which can sometimes be obscured by the allure of other more famous art treasures elsewhere in the country. The gallery contains the largest collection of canvasses by artists from the influential 17th-century Bolognese school of painting, among them Tibaldi, Reni, the Carracci brothers, and Guercino, some late Titian, and also some masterpieces from preceding centuries including a polyptych by Giotto and St George and the Dragon by Vitale di Bologna. The gallery was founded by Napoleon as part of his programme for cultural reform and the collection based on a set of donations to Pope Clement VII. To this Napoloeon added all the art he was able to confiscate from the various churches, convents and monasteries he suppressed during his occupation. In so doing his vision was to unify the canvasses (now located in a suppressed Jesuit convent) with the Accademia delle Belle Arti next door – a logical union of the practice of art and examples of its perfection. Napoleon's reforms did not stop many of the works of art ending up in the Louvre, some of which have been returned. Nuovo Palazzo Bentivoglio via delle Belle Arti 8. Closed to public except courtyard. Having destroyed the magnificent Bentivoglio palace in 1507 it seems the citizens of Bologna repented their hasty overthrow of the dynasty who had held such power in the 15th century and whose patronage had embellished so much of their city. This imposing structure built in swift homage in the mid-16th century by Tibaldi is a suggestive reminder of their former hegemony even if today it is home to a few less lordly residents and small businesses. The unfinished courtyard exudes an atmosphere of neglect but it is worth a look for its beautiful Romanesque double loggias. Chiesa di San Martino via Oberdan 25. 0700-1300, 1500-1830. Stranded between the university district and via dell'Indipendenza this little church with its tranquil piazza is often ignored in favour of the city's bigger attractions. The recent discovery of a fragment of a fresco by Paolo Uccello depicting the Nativity in the first left-hand chapel may change this, although other masterpieces have been found inside, notably the Adoration of the Magi in the Boncompagni family chapel by Aspertini. Begun in the early 13th century, in the face of much resistance by the Augustine monks of San Giacomo nearby, this is one of few examples in Bologna of a church that has not been tampered with through the ages and remains much as it was, save for the 19th-century façade. The church used to be accessed by crossing a small bridge over a weir, which has since been covered up. Palazzo Grassi via Marsala 12. Closed to the public. With its Tudor-like wooden porticoes and beams, this is a rare and beautifully intact vestige of 13th-century Bologna and one of the city's oldest buildings. The wooden porticoes also remain on the buildings opposite making this a very picturesque little back- corner of the city. Via delle Moline and Bologna's canals Unlike most big cities Bologna was not built on a river and thus had to divert water from elsewhere. In the 12th century a canal was built to divert water from the westerly river Reno to the city centre. The water served not only for sanitation and refreshment but also, through the watermills after which via delle Moline is named, for power to fuel the silk and hemp industries that were Bologna's main medieval commercial activities. Up until the early 20th century the canal also served as a transportation vehicle for the import of essential goods to the city. The Reno is connected to the Po in the north enabling the transport of Veronese marble and other materials for the construction and embellishment of the city. The canal lock at Casalecchio west of Bologna used to be one of the city's most picturesque spots until suburban sprawl and modern transportation methods dictated that the canals fell into disuse and were covered over by roads. Although it may seem unlikely, water still flows through the foundations of old Bologna but it is still visible in only a few places, most notably the bridge on via Piella opposite which is a peep-hole into the watery past, and between via Capo di Lucca and via Alessandrini. This area has been ambitiously referred to as Bologna's Little Venice. The comparison is odious as this poor working class quarter has a seedy, medieval quality all of its own. Piazza VIII Agosto Named after the battle in which the Bolognese repelled the attentions of the invading Austrians in the First War of Italian Independence in 1848, this square looks for five days a week like an ugly and anonymous car park at odds with the city's prevailing aesthetics. Also known as La Piazzola, on Fridays and Saturdays it turns into a huge and colourful market which draws locals and bargain hunters from the provinces in their droves. Wares on offer range from shoes, gloves and other leather goods to books, china and various household items. The simultaneous bric-a-brac market is up the steps in the Giardini della Montagnola. Giardini Pubblici della Montagnola Open all day, closed at night. Times vary according to season. For all its porticoes and cobbled streets Bologna can seem like a city of unrelenting stone, unsoothed by nature and open spaces. An aerial view shows that many of the city's green spaces are closed off from street-level view by the palazzi and courtyards which surround them. The public Montagnola Gardens represent the largest green space inside the Centro Storico. They were landscaped by Giambattista Martinetti in 1806 on the mound created by the excavations and ruins of the papal castle, Castello di Galliera, of which a ruin still remains at their northern end. A grand set of steps leads up into the gardens at the foot of which is a dramatic and sensuous statue to Venus and Neptune by Diego Sarti. On Fridays and Saturdays the gardens host a vast flea-market popular with dedicated peddlers and idle browsers. Via San Vitale With its preponderance of expensive antique shops and galleries, via San Vitale is more sedate nowadays than the bohemian university hangouts of via Zamboni and via delle Belle Arti. In Roman times it was known as the via Salaria as it led out towards the salt mines at Cervia, beyond Ravenna. Consisting of one almost continuous portico on both sides, the road is lined with many fine palazzi open to the public, notably the Palazzo Orsi at number 28 which is full of interesting and dramatic Baroque statues and painted ceilings, and fortress-like Palazzo Fantuzzi with elephant motifs in its façade at number 23, which has a beautiful staircase lined with statues. At number 56 is the Palazzo Scagliarini-Rossi, 19th-century home of Cornelia Rossi, the beautiful wife of the landscape architect Martinetti who is said to have 'surrounded' herself with the intelligentsia and artists of the time, including Byron, and held legendary parties. The atmospheric road of via Broccaindosso was one of the homes of the poet Carducci at number 20. Torresotto At the midway point of via San Vitale. This tower is a rare survivor of the 16 tower gates that were built in the late 12th century as Bologna's second ring of defence against Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa). The crenellated wall ran for 4 km around the city with an average height of 8 m. Chiesa di Santi Vitale e Agricola via San Vitale 48. 0700-1300, 1500-1830. This is a Romanesque church to Bologna's first martyrs, the return of whose relics from the occupying Franks coincided closely with the foundation of the post-Roman city. It is most notable for the paintings in its chapel and a beautiful crypt. Vitale and Agricola are said to have been killed on this spot by the Emperor Diocletian during the Christian persecutions.
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