Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cumulative Ticket
A cumulative ticket for all the city's civic museums—including the archaeological
and medieval ones—is available for 6 for 1 day or 8 for 3 days.
Madre, a portrait of his mother, hanging in a Reni room that also includes Samson
the Victorious. More striking, however, is the St. George and the Dragon, an early
work (1335) by one of Emilia-Romagna's first great masters, Vitale da Bologna.
The contorted figures and sense of movement evoked by George's fluttering cloak
and wind-whipped hair show an expressive side to early Gothic painting every bit
as impressive as that being practiced by the followers of Giotto south of the
Apennines.
The museum's most sought-out work is not by a native son but by Raphael,
whose Ecstasy of St. Cecilia is one of the great achievements of Renaissance
painting.
The Etruscan and Roman finds from the surrounding region and many
fine Egyptian antiquities make Bologna's Museo Civico Archeologico
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(Via dell'
Archiginnasio, 2; % 051-2757211; www.comune.bologna.it/museoarcheologico;
4; Tues-Sat 9am-6:30pm, Sun 10am-6:30pm), one of Italy's most well-rounded
collections of antiquities. The Egyptian holdings include a portion of the Book
of the Dead and bas-reliefs from the tomb of Horemheb, followed by replicas
of well-known Greek and Roman statues, plus a peaceful central courtyard lit-
tered with ancient milestones from Via Emilia. The next floor is filled with the
museum's impressive Etruscan collection (crowded into glass cases a la the 19th
c.), including remnants from Bologna's own beginnings as the Etruscan outpost
Felsina. Among the burial items and other artifacts is a bronze urn from the 5th
century B . C ., the Situla di Certosa, decorated with a depiction of a ceremonial
procession.
MORE CHURCHES
The remarkable assemblage of hallowed buildings known as Basilica di Santo
Stefano
(Via Santo Stefano, 24; % 051-223256; daily 9am-noon and
3:30-6pm) actually incorporates seven separate churches and chapels dating vari-
ously from the 5th to the 13th centuries. A walk through the complex provides a
remarkable overview of the history of Bologna. The first church you enter is the
Crocifisso, begun in the 11th century (as you enter, notice the pulpit built into
the facade). San Petronio, Bologna's patron saint, lies in the church to the
left--the most charming in the group--the 12th-century San Sepolcro, a poly-
gon modeled after the church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. According to
legend, the basin in the courtyard is the one in which Pontius Pilate absolved him-
self after condemning Christ to death (in truth, it's an 8th-c. Lombard piece). The
oldest church is the 5th-century Santi Vitale e Agricola, incorporating fragments
of a Roman temple to Isis; Charlemagne allegedly worshiped here in the 8th cen-
tury. Just beyond is the 13th-century Trinità and the complex's 11th-century
cloisters, where plaques honor Bologna's war dead. A small museum/gift shop
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