Bologna is a large and ancient city in the southern Po Valley of Italy. As you can see from the map above, it is North of Florence. It takes about 1 hour train ride via a Eurostar train.
It has a long history dating from Etruscan times. Today, it is a thriving cith with a large population of university students. Bologna has a very different feel than many of the cities I have been to in Italy. It felt bigger and more spacious. If you want to walk through small alleyways and have that romantic intimate feeling, then this is not the place you want to go. Most of the streets are wide. The sidewalks are wide and have arched ceilings. I really liked the way I could walk along the sidwalks and not feel like I was going to be hit by a maniac driving a car (like many other cities in Italy).
From the train station, you can walk 10 minutes and be in the heart of the city.
This is a composite photo of Piazza Maggiore. I walked into a courtyard and up a bunch of
stairs and looked out a window and took these pictures.
Right next to piazza maggiore is a giant bronze sculpure of "Neptune". I think the
guy did a pretty good job on this sculpture. It has a lot of movement to it, especially
as you view it from different angles. It's definitely not a static looking sculpture. I
don't know who the artist was who made this.
The most ominous building in Bologna is the Basilica di San Petronio. It is unbelievable
big. It's not very "fancy" looking from the outside, but is has it's beauty.
As I walked away from piazza maggiore, I went westward towards Piazza di Porta.
I had no idea I would find another leaning tower that would rival the one in Pisa, but
sure enough I did. You can't really tell from this picture, but the tower on the left
has a serious tilt to it. So much in fact, that I definitely wouldn't want to stand next to
it.
As I came upon Piazza di Porta, I took this picture. It was a very busy intersection
of cars and people. There was a marble statue of some pope.
This is a good time to point out again that the sidewalks in Bologna are very unique in
the fact that they are not only spacious, but covered above by vaulted ceilings. I don't
know what the outskirsts of this city are like, but the city center has predominantley
covered sidewalks. They are so wide, that many cafes and restaurants have tables set out
for you to sit around. Here you can see a cammeriera (waitress) policing up some dishes.
Look at the vaulted ceiling of the sidewalk. When I looked closely, I could actually see
remants of paintings on the ceilings of the sidewalks. Time has almost completely erased
the original images, but they are still barely visible to the naked eye. These people
had pride in their architecture.
Sculptures in Bologna are not overly done, to say the least. But the sculptures you see, are usually well done
and meaningful. My favorite sculptures were of two burly looking guys holding up pillars.
I have no idea what the building was or who these guys were suppose to be, but I took
a picture of one of the guys that had the least deterioration on his anatomy. Yes, he
is overly muscularized, but he is pleasing to look at and worthy of artistic study.
While in Bologna, I met one of the residents. She took me to a place called the 7 churches.
This place has extremely ancient origins. Apparent, it is 7 churches from different time
periods, that are all built in the same complex (almost one on top of each other). It was
very bizzare for me to see an old shrine to the egyption god of fertility as part of this
complex. Next to it was a tomb for a christian saint. There were so many symbologies
and religious iconography in close proximity, that I didn't really know what to think.
It would be worthwhile to read up on the history of this place. Amalia, told me that
this place is called the Jerusalem of italy.
Here is my tour guide "Amalia" reading one of the passages on the walls of this building
complex. She is a sicilian woman living in Bologna. This is a good time to note a
correlation between Bologna and Sicilia. I have been told that many people in Sicilia have
blonde hair and blue eyes. I have also been told this of Bologna. I did notice a fair
number of blonde blue eyed people in Bologna. As you progress northwards in Italy towards
the alps, the
dark hair dark skinned types of people diminish slightly in numbers. This kind of makes
sense, as we typically think of people from Switzerland as being blonde blue eyed.
Obviously some genetic mingling has taken place.
But, why are there a significant number of blonde blue eyed people in Sicilia? I think it may have been from the time the normandy invasion took place. This is a chapter in history that I will not cover right now. When I again visit Sicily in the future, I will write a bit more on this subject.
One more thing I noticed about Bologna is that I couldn't really identify what a person from Bologna really looks like. There doesn't seem to be a specific genotype (skin & hair color). Because this town has such a big college and it's such a melting pot of different people.