l'avventura grande: Five Cities, Five Distinct Personalities: Bologna

27-30 settembre

We arrived in Bologna with great expectations. Many years ago we had spent part of one day in the city, mostly at the cathedral square. One of our parents’ friends, also the father of one of Carol’s high school chums, had gone to medical school in Bologna as the Nazi racial laws prevented him from completing his education in Germany. He had many fond memories of the city and had told me about it before we came here the first time. Bologna is the home to the first university in the western world, founded in 1088.

Unlike the university in Padua, these students are both serious leftists and a scruffy crew. There were lots of facial piercings, died hair, and generally a UW '60's look about them. There is graffiti everywhere outside of the prime tourist route in the historic center of the city. We have no idea what happened to the photos of some of it.

The city is great to get around in during the rainy season, as many of the sidewalks are covered with poritcos. They started as an illegal method of extending the first floor over the street. (Ground floor, then first floor in Italy.) You’ll see them in most of the photos.

This is the building where our apartment is located.

Our apt building

We’re on the top floor with a really sweet terrace for chatting, breakfast, and drying laundry. It was our first air bnb experience and was wonderful. We shared the apartment with a young couple, about our kids’ ages. By quirk, they are both book people: He was a university librarian until the economic downturn and she works in a bookstore. Francesco is very nice. Cristina loves English literature and kids books. We had a great time talking about books, Italian and American authors, adult and kids’ books, in both English and italian, although her English is better than my italian by miles. We caught them without warning in the kitchen, preparing breakfast.

Cristina e Francesco in the kitchen

We hope they come to visit us in Pienza, as Cristina is starting a new job at Eataly in Firenze Nov 1. We are about an hour by train from there. In their apartment we had a bedroom and private bath, they have a loft bedroom and bath. I fondly remember their living room and dining area, as they are about 3 times the size of ours. Tasha and Nathaniel, you have to move fast, as they may have more books in their shelves than you have!

A little about Bologna’s sights:

The old synagogue no longer exists.

The ghetto is fairly well marked, with several maps posted at strategic locations. It was easily blocked off by its narrow streets and a canal. More about canals later.

The old synagogue has no sign, but it’s address was on one of the permanent maps, which we could not photograph as they were covered with graffiti.

This is what the Pope thought of the Jewish population

Bolgona was founded on a site with three rivers. Over time, the city grew over them. Now, they can be viewed briefly flowing in open air at several locations throughout Bologna. We found two of them. One is considered a romantic

Near the ghetto, the canal comes to the surface.

viewpoint, although we didn’t get that, unless you want a photo of yourselves with a canal in the background, going through a historic neighborhood...not pretty, but it is water flowing in a city.

Roman wall with canal visible through grating

The other viewpoint for one of the rivers is through Roman ruins at the edge of the historic center, actually, almost across the street from the train station. It was only drizzling when we got there. More about rain to follow.

Another view of the Roman wall

Speaking of Roman ruins, there is a typical type, although amazing find, in the very center of the city. Like the guy digging out for a garage in Ravenna, The Salaborsa is a cultural treasure open to the public. Descending a broad stariway, you are transported back to the 11th century BCE (BC). Walking on raised platforms, visitors view wells, sewers and building foundations from early citizens of the area. By the roman times there is a basilica foundation and road pavements. There are 13th century residential foundations, and a 14th century brick well. By the 16th century there are cisterns and structures which appear to be hydrophonic tanks. All of this is under what had been a palazzo, but is now administrative offices and a few high end shops including a coffee shop where you can sip you espresso while thinking about the 2200 year old town under your walking shoes.

Folks above us can look through glass strategically placed inm the floors and see these archeological wonders

A little more on the cultural theme. One evening as we sipped our spritz aperol and nibbled potato chips and olives, a group of actors in full costume - it was hot that day - came by advertising Rigoletto which would be done later in the week, after we left Bologna, by a local opera company. We chatted for a few mintues, which was fun.

At the same time, the streets in central Bologna were closed that day to motorized vehicles and while it was not a formal festa or sagra, there were a lot of performers and food going on. There were demonstrations of cheerleading!!!!, America football!!!!!, judo, tai chi, ultimate frisbee (the freestyle frisbee tournament was the next weekend, darn) and dancers dong tangos, flamenco, and other types of dancing that I can’t describe. Performance groups set up street coverings - you would not want to dance on cobbled streets) and individual and pairs performers simply found a space to do their thing. The woman below

Half of a two person band/puppet show

was incredible, as part of a two person band/puppet show. We couldn’t get close enough to get multiple or better photos, so use your imagination. The main square, Piazza Maggiore, was packed with people all day and night.

Crowds, troppo gente (too many people)

We all know about the leaning tower of Pisa, and perhaps are aware that there are two famous towers in Bologna. Here they are. They are the Asineelli and Garisenda Towers. The story is that due to a family feud, two young lovers were denied marriage. The woman jumped to her death from one tower following the death of her beloved. Sound familiar? Towers were built for defense. Rarely was there an entrance at street level, but rather an entrance would be 20 feet or so up the tower. To get there, one had be invited into the home of the owner, be escorted upstairs and then cross by a temporary wooden bridge that could be pulled into the tower in times of defense, or into the house during more peaceful episodes. Each family built its tower higher than the others. At the base of another tower in the neighborhood there is a shop that has been in operation since the 1700s, although with a variety of owners and goods.

Giacomo Leopardi, a wonderful 19th century poet whose collection Canti we read in class a year ago, lived here. When I think about how the city must have looked then, and the surrounding area, I can understand why his verses are based on roman references and look back to the perfection of the past. It is flat here, no hills to climb, vistas to view, or sunsets floating over the mountains. You can see what appears to be a never ending field ahead and behind, a continuity of time and place.

After 18 days of nonstop sightseeing, eating and occasional riding, we were to take a hike with Francesco, Cristina and some friends/relatives on our last day in Bologna. Instead, we woke up at 6:45am to a horrendous rain storm. Great day, on a number of levels, to hunker down and read. Our hosts went out mid-morning to visit family. The only reason we didn’t stay in our jammies all day was that we had none. We did curl up and read, venturing out to an osteria a block away for lunch and across the street for dinner. The rest day was truly a treat.

A few more photos.