Bologna

So with my first weekend day in Italy I decided to go on the grand walking tour of Bologna to see all of the sights. I figure I should become acquainted with the place I will be living in for the next nine months. So myself and two other students here set off throughout the medieval streets to experience the city.

Arguably one of the most famous sites associated with Bologna are the two towers in the city center, Torre degli Garisenda & Torre degli Asinelli. Towers like these two use to line the skyline of Bologna, but now these are the only major towers left. The tower on the left, in the picture below, has a sizable lean to it and people are not allowed inside. Luckily the tower on the right is still straight and one can proceed up 498 precarious looking wooden steps to the top of the tower to get an arial view of Bologna and the surrounding areas. So of course we ascended the tower.

The Two Towers

Looking down from the top at the shorter leaning tower.

View of the city from the tower.

After descending from the towers we later were told by other students that the local legend is that students who climb to the top of the tower will never graduate...but we feel strongly that we can disprove this legend. After the towers we moved on to the main square of Piazza Maggiore. The Piazza is surrounded by huge medieval buildings on all sides. Most impressively is the Basilica di San Petronio. Original planning and funding for the Basilica called for it to be even larger then St. Peter! But then mysteriously the Vatican decided to divert funding away from the Basilica to a nearby Piazza causing the Basilica to be made smaller and made of cheaper materials. We were unable to go inside, one of my friends was wearing shorts, which are not acceptable, so we will have to go see the inside some other time, from what I have heard it is really cool on the inside.

The Basilica (notice the change from Marble to Brick, from when the lost part of their funding from the vatican)

After visiting the square and Basilica we simply wandered throughout the many streets of Bologna and worked our way outside the city walls. There are nice hiking trails in the nearby hills, but despite walking a long ways and finding the hills we never found the trails. Lukily we still have another nine months to explore the city!

Hills surrounding Bologna (view from the tower)