ITALY - Europe by Eurail 2015: Touring Europe by Train - page 345

Day Excursion to
Bologna
Italy's Gastronomic Capital
Depart Milano Centrale Station
Distance by Train: 136 miles (219 km)
Average Train Time: 1 hour, 42 minutes
City Dialing Code: 51
Tourist Information Office: No. 6, west side of Piazza Maggiore
Tel: [phone]; Fax: [phone]
Hours: 0900-1900 Monday-Saturday;1000-1700 Sunday
www.bolognawelcome.com
E-mail: [e-mail]
Notes: To reach this tourist office, turn left when exiting the rail station, and walk 2
blocks to Via Dell'Independenza, one of Bologna's main avenues. Turn right onto
the avenue, and a delightful 15-minute walk will bring you to Neptune's Fountain.
Then continue your walk in the same direction a short distance into Piazza Mag-
giore.
Bologna specializes in two areas—thinking and eating. When you think about it,
you'll probably conclude, as we did, that it is not too bad a lifestyle to follow.
Bologna stands out historically and architecturally. Tourists can walk under the
porticoes of the city while visiting the many monuments. If lined up, the porticoes
would cover 40 kilometers!
Bologna's university, the oldest in Europe, was founded in 1088. By the 13th cen-
tury, its student body numbered 10,000. One of its more recent students, Guglielmo
Marconi (1874-1937), studied wireless telegraphy there. The university was noted
for employing women professors. One professor, Novella d'Andrea, was said to be
so beautiful in face and body that she had to give her lectures from behind a screen
to avoid distracting her students.
Bologna is the capital of Emilia-Romagna, a northwest-to-southeast slice of the
Italian peninsula just below its juncture with the European Continent. It is here that
the “cultura villanoviana,” better known as the Iron Age, began more than 4,000
years ago. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the city did not flourish again until