Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Bologna Itinerary
If you have only 1 day in Bologna
Start in the heart of the action—the lovely
Piazza Maggiore
—with an
early (around 8:30am) peek inside the
Basilica di San Petronio.
Head east
on Via Orefici to plunge into the city's lively
morning street market
(see
“The Other Bologna” on p. 244), making your way back to Piazza Maggiore
and down Via dell'Archiginnasio to pop in and see the fascinatingly grue-
some
Teatro Anatomico.
Continue south to pay your respects to St. Dominic (and some early
Michelangelos) at
San Domenico,
and then make your way back north into
the university district. Lunch at Trattoria Anna Maria, and then work it off by
wandering the galleries of Old Masters at the
Pinacoteca Nazionale.
Next,
climb the
Torre degli Asinelli
before popping into the frescoed oratory of
Santa Cecilia
and its attached church of
San Giacomo Maggiore.
Finally,
spend some time at
San Stefano
making sense of the seven churchlets, built
willy-nilly against one another, from the 5th through 13th centuries.
Depending on how speedy you are, you may even have time to fit in
the medieval or archaeological museums before they close at 6:30pm. For
dinner and late-night gallivanting, head to hopping Via del Pratello.
great works of the Italian Renaissance: a marble doorway surrounded by bas-
reliefs depicting the Madonna and Child and other biblical scenes carved by
Jacopo della Quercia, which are now sadly weather-worn.
Several of the chapels in the cavernous interior, where Charles V was crowned
Holy Roman Emperor in 1530, are richly decorated with frescoes, the best of
which are in the chapels to the left as you enter. One contains Lorenzo Costa's
Madonna and Child with Saints,
and the other (fourth on the left) is enlivened
with colorful depictions of heaven and hell, the life of St. Petronius, and
Stories of
the Magi
by Giovanni da Modena (who also did the frescoes in and around the
left aisle's first chapel).
Embedded in the floor of the left aisle is an enchanting curiosity—
Italy's
largest sundial,
a 66m (216-ft.) astronomical clock installed by the astronomer
Cassini in 1655. The two-room
“museum” (free admission; Mon-Sat 9:30am-
12:30pm and 2:30-5:30pm, Sun 2:30-5:30pm)
at the end of the left aisle contains
drawings and wooden models of the church and various plans for its facade; some
fine illuminated choir books; and the usual gilt and silver reliquaries, robes, and
chalices.
THE LEANING TOWERS OF BOLGONA?
Only a few of the more than 200 towers that once rose above Bologna, built by
noble families as symbols of their wealth and prestige, are still standing—and just
barely. The two most famous lean alarmingly toward one another on Piazza di
Porta Ravegna, where the seven main streets of medieval Bologna converge. The
