Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
DON'T MISS
THE CHURCH ON THE HILL
About 3.5km southwest of the city centre, the hilltop
Basilica Santuario della Madonna di San
Luca
(Via di San Luca 36; 7am-12.30pm & 2.30-7pm Apr-Sep, to 6pm Mar, to 5pm Oct-Feb) oc-
cupies a powerful and appropriately celestial position overlooking the teeming red-hued city below.
The church houses a representation of the Virgin Mary, supposedly painted by St Luke and transported
from the Middle East to Bologna in the 12th century. The 18th-century sanctuary is connected to the
city walls by the world's longest portico, held aloft by 666 arches, beginning at Piazza di Porta Sar-
agozza. Take bus 20 from the city centre to Villa Spada, from where you can continue by minibus to
the sanctuary. Alternatively, continue one more stop on bus 20 to the Meloncello arch and walk the re-
maining 2km under the arches.
1
University Quarter
Bolshie graffiti, communist newspaper-sellers and the whiff of last night's beer (and ur-
ine) characterise the scruffy but strangely contagious streets of the university quarter, the
site of Bologna's former Jewish ghetto.
Le Due Torri
TOWER
(Piazza di Porta Ravegnana)
Standing sentinel over Piazza di Porta Ravegnana, Bologna's two
leaning towers are the city's main symbol. The taller of the two, the 97.6m-high
Torre degli
public, although it's not advisable for vertigo-sufferers or owners of arthritic knees (there
are 498 steps up a semiexposed wooden staircase).
Superstitious students also boycott it: local lore says if you climb the tower you'll never
graduate. Built by the Asinelli family between 1109 and 1119, today the tower leans 1.3m
off vertical. The neighbouring 48m
Torre Garisenda
is sensibly out of bounds given its
drunken 3.2m tilt.
Abbazia di Santo Stefano
(
www.abbaziasantostefano.it
; Via Santo Stefano 24; 10am-12.30pm & 3.30-6.45pm)
Not
just
another
church, the Santo Stefano is a rather unique (and atmospheric) medieval religious com-
CHURCH
