Photo: Bologna sits where the Po plain meets the first hills of the Apennines, a city of red brick and covered arcades, the porticoes, that run for kilometers through the center. Italians call it la dotta, la grassa, la rossa: the learned, for a university founded in 1088; the fat, for its cooking; and the red, for its roofs and walls. It is a working city more than a showpiece, busy with students and markets, and you can eat very well here on a modest budget.
This guide covers when to go, where to stay, what to see, what to eat, and the history, art and customs that make the city make sense.
What Bologna is good for
Friends' trips
Share boards of mortadella and crescentine at an osteria, take an aperitivo in the old market lanes, then join the students around Piazza Verdi. Everything is a short walk, and Florence is under 40 minutes away by train.
Bachelorette and bachelor weekends
A student city with long nights: a pasta-making class or a food tour by day, aperitivo in the Quadrilatero, then the bars of Via del Pratello and the university quarter, open late.
Weddings and honeymoons
Bologna makes an easy honeymoon stop between Venice and Florence: long lunches under the porticoes, sunset at San Luca, and day trips to Modena and Parma for balsamic vinegar and Parmigiano.
Couples
Climb to San Luca for the view, look through the little window on Via Piella at the canal, and have dinner under the porticoes around Santo Stefano.
Families
Whisper across the corners of the Voltone del Podestà, look down through the glass floor of Salaborsa at Roman ruins, climb the clock tower on Piazza Maggiore and run in the Giardini Margherita.
Solo travel
A safe, walkable student city, with market counters and osterie where eating alone is normal. A cooking class is an easy way to meet people.
Food lovers
Tagliatelle al ragù, tortellini in broth, mortadella, the delis of the Quadrilatero, and Modena and Parma, with their vinegar, ham and cheese, an hour or less by train.
History and art
The oldest university in the Western world, a skyline of medieval towers, the Seven Churches of Santo Stefano, and Raphael, the Carracci and Guido Reni in the Pinacoteca.
Plan your trip
When to go
Spring (April to June) and autumn (September and October) are mild and best for walking. Summers are hot and humid, often above 30°C, and in August many shops and family restaurants close for the holidays. Winter is cold and often foggy, with few visitors, and the porticoes keep you dry.
How long to stay
Two days covers Piazza Maggiore, the towers, the Archiginnasio, Santo Stefano and the walk up to San Luca. Three days leaves time for the Pinacoteca and the university quarter, or a day trip to Modena, Ferrara, Parma or Ravenna, each under an hour and a half by train.
Getting there
Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ) is about 6 km from the center. The Marconi Express monorail reaches Bologna Centrale station in about eight minutes, and a taxi takes 15 to 20. The station is one of Italy’s main rail junctions: fast trains reach Florence in under 40 minutes, Milan in about an hour, Venice in about an hour and a half and Rome in about two and a quarter hours.
Getting around
Walk. The center is flat and compact, and the porticoes keep off the sun and the rain. On weekends and holidays, Via Rizzoli, Via Ugo Bassi and Via Indipendenza close to cars, the T-days. City buses cover the rest, and you can tap a bank card on the validator; the center is a restricted traffic zone, so leave any car outside.
Tickets
Much of the best is free: San Petronio, Santo Stefano, San Domenico and the portico up to San Luca. Small fees cover the Anatomical Theatre in the Archiginnasio, the Bolognini Chapel in San Petronio and the clock tower on Piazza Maggiore, and the Pinacoteca is free on the first Sunday of the month. The Two Towers cannot be climbed for now.
Money and tipping
Tipping is not expected: rounding up for good service is plenty. Restaurants often add a small cover charge (coperto) per person, and coffee at the bar costs less than at a table. Hotels add a city tax per person per night, set by the room price, for the first four nights.
Weather, month by month
Spring
March to May
Mild and changeable, with rain in April and warm, bright days by May.
Summer
June to August
Hot and humid on the plain, often above 30°C in July and August, with warm nights. See sights in the morning and walk in the shade of the porticoes.
Autumn
September to November
Warm into September and mild in October, then wetter and foggy by November, when mushrooms and truffles from the hills come onto the menus.
Winter
December to February
Cold and often foggy, around 5 to 8°C by day and below freezing on some nights, with the odd snowfall.
Top sights
01Piazza Maggiore and San Petronio
The main square, framed by the town hall, the medieval Palazzo del Podestà and San Petronio, with Giambologna’s Neptune Fountain next door. The basilica was begun in 1390 on a plan so large it was never finished: the marble facing stops partway up, and the brick above it was never covered. Inside, a meridian line laid out by Giovanni Domenico Cassini in 1655 runs across the floor, and a ray of sun falls on it at noon.
Free and open every day; the Bolognini Chapel, with its painted Heaven and Hell, has a small fee. Hats off inside, and cover up.
Photo: Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0
02The Two Towers
In the 1100s and 1200s, rich families raised tower houses all over the city; about 20 still stand. The Asinelli, built in the early 1100s, rises about 97 meters, and the shorter Garisenda beside it leans so far that Dante used it, in the Inferno, to picture a giant stooping over him.
Neither tower can be climbed while the Garisenda is made safe, work planned to last until at least 2028. For a view over the roofs, climb the clock tower of Palazzo d’Accursio on Piazza Maggiore instead.
Photo: Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0
03The Quadrilatero
The tight grid of lanes east of Piazza Maggiore has been the city’s market since the Middle Ages, and the street names still say who worked there: the fishmongers of Via Pescherie Vecchie, the drapers of Via Drapperie, the goldsmiths of Via Orefici. Delis hang mortadella and prosciutto over their counters, and in the evening the same lanes fill with wine bars.
Come in the morning for the stalls, or from 6pm for a glass of wine and a board of salumi.
Photo: Andrzej Otrębski, CC BY-SA 4.0
04The Archiginnasio
Built in 1562 and 1563 to bring the university’s schools under one roof, it was the university’s main seat until 1803. Its arcades, stairs and halls are covered with thousands of painted coats of arms of students and teachers. Upstairs, the Anatomical Theatre of 1637, all carved spruce, has a marble dissecting table in the middle and a lecturer’s chair under a canopy held up by two flayed figures; bombed in 1944, it was rebuilt from its own pieces.
Closed on Sundays. The Anatomical Theatre has a small fee, and on Saturdays you need to book ahead.
Photo: Zairon, CC BY-SA 4.0
05Santo Stefano
A cluster of churches, known as the Seven Churches, built and rebuilt over some eight centuries around a courtyard and a cloister. The round church of the Holy Sepulchre was modeled on the one in Jerusalem, and the triangular square in front, lined with porticoes, is one of the calmest in the city.
Free to enter. In the courtyard, look for the great stone basin, carved in the 700s.
Photo: Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0
06San Domenico
Saint Dominic, founder of the Dominican order, died in Bologna in 1221 and lies here in a marble tomb, the Arca, that was added to over nearly three centuries. Nicola Pisano’s workshop carved the first reliefs in the 1260s, Niccolò dell’Arca took his name from the work he added in the 1470s, and in 1494 a 19-year-old Michelangelo carved three small statues for it, among them a kneeling angel with a candlestick.
Free to enter. The statues are small: go close and look for Michelangelo’s angel on the right.
Photo: Zairon, CC BY-SA 4.0
07The portico of San Luca
The longest portico in the world, almost 4 km and 666 arches, climbs from Porta Saragozza to the sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca on the hill above the city. It was built from 1674 to 1721, paid for by the townspeople, and in 2021 it and the city’s other porticoes became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The church at the top, rebuilt in the 1700s, keeps an icon of the Virgin said to have been painted by Saint Luke.
From Porta Saragozza the walk takes about an hour, steeply uphill for the second half. Bus 20 runs out along Via Saragozza past the Arco del Meloncello, where the climb begins, and the infrequent bus 58 goes up to the church.
Photo: Davide Delorenzi, CC BY-SA 4.0
08The Pinacoteca Nazionale
The city’s picture gallery, in the university quarter, follows Bolognese painting from frescoes of the 1300s to Raphael’s Ecstasy of Saint Cecilia, painted for a Bologna church around 1515, and the Carracci, Guido Reni and Guercino, who made the city one of the capitals of painting around 1600.
Closed on Mondays, and free on the first Sunday of the month.
Photo: Monica_Rondoni, CC BY-SA 4.0
Three hidden gems
Under the arches to San Luca
From a city gate to a hilltop sanctuary, almost four kilometers under one unbroken portico, usually called the longest in the world. Rain or sun, you stay under cover all the way.
Start at Porta Saragozza, one of the old city gates, about 20 minutes on foot from Piazza Maggiore. The portico of San Luca begins beside it and runs flat along Via Saragozza for about a kilometer and a half. Work began in 1674, paid for by donations from Bolognese of every class, and plaques along the walls still remember the givers. In 2021 it joined UNESCO’s World Heritage list together with other porticoes of the city.
At the Arco del Meloncello the portico crosses the road on a bridge and turns uphill. Carlo Francesco Dotti won the commission for the arch in a competition and built it between 1721 and 1732. From here the climb runs for more than two kilometers up the Colle della Guardia, by ramps and flights of steps.
Fifteen chapels stand along the way, one for each Mystery of the Rosary, and by the usual count there are 666 arches in all. By tradition the number is the devil’s, and the long, winding portico is the serpent that the Virgin crushes at the top. Through the openings on the valley side, the city drops away below you as you climb.
At the top stands the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca, built from 1723 to a design by the same Dotti. Its icon of the Virgin and Child, kept at the high altar, is said by legend to have been painted by Saint Luke and brought from Constantinople. The portico was built to shelter a procession: every year in Ascension week the icon comes down to spend about a week in the cathedral of San Pietro, a custom that began in 1433, when it was carried into the city to stop months of rain.
Walk around the church for the view, the city and the plain on one side and the first ridges of the Apennines on the other. For a small donation, 110 steps of an old spiral staircase lead to a terrace at the foot of the dome, open since 2017. Going back, the same portico takes you down, and faster.
Where to stay
Pick the neighborhood first, then the hotel. Each link opens a map of places to stay around it.
Piazza Maggiore and the Quadrilatero
First visitThe heart of the city: the main square, the old market lanes and the Two Towers, all a few minutes apart. Lively day and night, with the priciest rooms.
See hotels in Piazza Maggiore and the QuadrilateroUniversity quarter
NightlifeThe streets around Via Zamboni and Piazza Verdi, full of students, cheap eats and bars, with the Pinacoteca and the university museums on the doorstep. Noisy at night.
See hotels in University quarterSanto Stefano
CouplesQuiet streets of palaces and long porticoes around the Seven Churches, with good restaurants and the Giardini Margherita a short walk away.
See hotels in Santo StefanoPratello and Saragozza
Local lifeWest of the center: the osterie and bars of Via del Pratello, and the residential streets of Saragozza, where the portico to San Luca begins.
See hotels in Pratello and SaragozzaVia Indipendenza and the station
Short staysThe wide shopping street that runs from the station to the center: an easy arrival, plenty of hotels and a ten-minute walk to Piazza Maggiore.
See hotels in Via Indipendenza and the stationBolognina
BudgetAcross the tracks north of the station, a mixed, workaday neighborhood with good-value hotels and quick links to the trade fair district.
See hotels in BologninaThe 10 best budget hotels
Well-reviewed hotels at the lower end of Bologna’s prices, best-reviewed first. On a weeknight in November 2026 they cost about €80 to €135 for two; prices change daily, so check your own dates.
01Casa Alessandrini
9.3514 reviewsVia Indipendenza and the station
9 min walk to the Two Towers
See prices
02
03
04Bibliò Rooms Guesthouse
9.1532 reviewsVia Indipendenza and the station
8 min walk to Piazza Maggiore
See prices
05
06Appartamenti Borghetto San Donato 105
9.01,086 reviews1.0 km southeast of the Fiera district
2.4 km from Bologna Centrale station
See prices
07Mitodea - Residenza d'Epoca
8.91,299 reviewsPiazza Maggiore and the Quadrilatero
5 min walk to Piazza Maggiore
See prices
08Affittacamere Le Camere di Porta San Felice - Self Check in
8.9390 reviewsPorta San Felice
15 min walk to Porta Saragozza
See prices
09
10Combo Bologna
8.810,326 reviews0.9 km west of Bolognina
12 min walk to Bologna Centrale station
See prices
Hotel links go to Stay22. If you book, we may earn a commission, at no cost to you.
Food and drink
One of Bologna’s nicknames is la Grassa, the fat one, for its cooking: egg pasta, pork, butter and Parmigiano. Sfogline, the city’s pasta makers, still roll fresh egg pasta out by hand. Lunch runs from about 12:30 and dinner from 7:30 or 8pm.
Tagliatelle al ragù
Ribbons of fresh egg pasta with ragù: beef and pancetta cooked slowly with onion, carrot, celery, wine and a little tomato. Here ragù goes on tagliatelle, not spaghetti, and a gold tagliatella at the Chamber of Commerce shows the official width: 8 millimeters, cooked.
Photo: Alex Sirac, CC BY 4.0
Tortellini in brodo
Small rings of egg pasta filled with pork loin, prosciutto, mortadella, Parmigiano, egg and nutmeg, served in a broth of beef and capon. Legend says an innkeeper in nearby Castelfranco Emilia shaped them after a navel he saw through a keyhole. Families eat them at Christmas.
Photo: Nick.mon, CC0
Lasagne verdi
Bologna’s lasagne is green: egg pasta colored with spinach, layered with ragù, béchamel, butter and Parmigiano, then baked. There is no ricotta and no mozzarella.
Photo: Sambawamba, CC BY-SA 4.0
Passatelli
Breadcrumbs, Parmigiano, egg, lemon zest and nutmeg, pressed through a perforated iron into short, rough strands and cooked in broth. They come from Romagna, east of the city, and are now part of Bologna’s own cooking.
Photo: Popo le Chien, CC0
Mortadella
A large cooked sausage of finely ground pork, studded with cubes of hard fat from the neck and sometimes pistachios. Eat it sliced thin, or in cubes with a glass of wine. A decree of 1661 already forbade making it from any meat but pork.
Photo: Stefano Brush Parisi, CC BY-SA 4.0
Crescentine
Dough of flour, water and lard, fried in more lard until it puffs up, and eaten hot with mortadella, prosciutto and salame. Modena calls it gnocco fritto. Tigelle, small round breads from the Modena hills, are split and filled with lard chopped with garlic and rosemary, and Parmigiano.
Photo: Jessica Spengler from Brighton, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0
Cotoletta alla bolognese
A breaded veal cutlet fried in butter or lard, covered with prosciutto and Parmigiano, moistened with a little broth and heated until the cheese melts. In season it comes with shaved truffle. It is also called petroniana, after San Petronio, the city’s patron saint.
Photo: WILO-MA, CC0
Zuppa inglese
Sponge cake or ladyfingers soaked in alchermes, a bright red liqueur, layered with custard and chocolate custard and eaten with a spoon. The name means English soup, and one story traces it to English trifle, reworked at the court of the Este dukes in the 1500s.
Photo: Lungoleno, CC BY-SA 4.0Shop and graze in the Quadrilatero, the medieval market lanes just east of Piazza Maggiore, full of delis, bakeries, butchers and fruit stalls. The streets keep the names of old trades: Via Pescherie Vecchie for the fishmongers, Via Drapperie for the cloth merchants. The Mercato delle Erbe on Via Ugo Bassi sells produce, cheese and salumi from Monday to Saturday, and its counters serve lunch and dinner. Osteria del Sole, in a Quadrilatero alley since 1465, serves only drinks: bring your own bread and mortadella from the shops outside.
The students who hired their professors
By tradition, Europe’s oldest university began here in 1088, and in its first centuries the students were in charge. They chose their teachers, paid them and fined them, and later covered the walls of the Archiginnasio with their coats of arms.
In the late 11th century, teachers in Bologna began to lecture on Roman law again. The great law code of the emperor Justinian, compiled in the 6th century, was back in circulation, and a teacher called Irnerius read it aloud to his students, writing his explanations, the glosses, between the lines and in the margins. Later lawyers called him lucerna iuris, the lamp of the law. Nobody recorded the day the university began: the year 1088 was chosen in 1888 by a committee chaired by the poet Giosuè Carducci, so that the city could celebrate an eight hundredth birthday.
Students came from all over Europe, and in a city where outsiders had few rights, they banded together. They formed nations by place of birth, and the nations joined into two student guilds: the Citramontani, Italians from outside Bologna, and the Ultramontani, from beyond the Alps. Each elected a student as its rector. In the 1150s the emperor Frederick Barbarossa granted scholars the Authentica Habita, which let them travel safely for study and be tried by their teachers or the bishop rather than by the town’s courts.
Universitas was the Latin word for a guild, and in Bologna the guild was the students. They hired their teachers and paid them, and their statutes, the oldest surviving from 1252, set out the rules. Lectures had to keep to the church bells, and a professor could not skip a passage or save the hard parts of a text for the end. He paid a deposit against his fines before each year began, needed his students’ leave to spend even a few days out of town, and from 1317 was watched by student monitors who reported his lapses to the rector.
Teaching law could make a man rich and famous. Accursius gathered a century of glosses into one commentary, essentially complete by about 1230, that became the standard companion to Roman law across Europe. Odofredus, who taught from 1228, opened his lectures with “Or signori,” “Now, gentlemen,” and filled them with asides about the city and its lawyers. Both lie beside the church of San Francesco, in tombs raised on columns under green-tiled pyramids, out in the open by the street.
In medieval Bologna the professors worked for their students, and the students wrote the rule book.
Medicine and the arts soon had schools of their own. In 1315 Mondino de’ Liuzzi dissected a human body in public, and his Anathomia, written the next year, taught anatomy for more than two centuries. Nicolaus Copernicus enrolled in canon law in 1496, lodged with the astronomer Domenico Maria Novara, and on 9 March 1497 watched the Moon pass in front of the star Aldebaran. By tradition Bettisia Gozzadini lectured in law here in the 13th century, and in 1732 Laura Bassi took her doctorate at 20 and was given a paid post teaching natural philosophy, often called the first for a woman anywhere.
For almost five centuries the schools were scattered in teachers’ houses and rented halls. In 1562 and 1563 the papal government gathered them into one building beside San Petronio, the Archiginnasio, and students elected to the university’s offices had their coats of arms and names painted on its walls, vaults and stairways, where thousands survive. The university moved out in 1803 to Palazzo Poggi on Via Zamboni, still its main seat, and the Archiginnasio has been the city library since 1838. In 1988, for the nine hundredth birthday, rectors from across Europe met in Piazza Maggiore to sign the Magna Charta Universitatum, a statement of academic freedom.
Art
Raphael and the Carracci
The Pinacoteca Nazionale, in the university quarter, holds Raphael’s Ecstasy of Saint Cecilia, painted in Rome for a chapel in San Giovanni in Monte. Then come the painters who made Bologna’s name: Ludovico, Agostino and Annibale Carracci, who opened an academy here in the 1580s that taught drawing from life, and Guido Reni, whose Massacre of the Innocents hangs in the same museum. Closed on Mondays.
Niccolò dell’Arca’s Lamentation
In Santa Maria della Vita, a few steps from Piazza Maggiore, six life-size terracotta mourners gather around the dead Christ. Niccolò dell’Arca made them in the second half of the 15th century, and two of the women rush in with their mouths open in a scream and their robes blown back behind them.
The tomb of Saint Dominic
Saint Dominic died in Bologna in 1221, and his marble tomb in the Basilica of San Domenico took more than two centuries to finish. Nicola Pisano’s workshop carved the sarcophagus in the 1260s, Niccolò dell’Arca the crowning that gave him his name, and in 1494 and 1495 the young Michelangelo added an angel holding a candlestick and two small saints.
Giambologna’s Neptune
Giambologna’s bronze Neptune has stood over his fountain beside Piazza Maggiore since the 1560s, when the city was ruled by the popes. The Bolognese call him il Gigante, the Giant, and a restoration of the statue and fountain was finished in December 2017.
Giorgio Morandi
Morandi (1890 to 1964) spent nearly all his life in Bologna, painting bottles, jars and boxes on a tabletop, over and over, in quiet, chalky colors. His paintings, watercolors and etchings are shown in the Museo Morandi inside MAMbo, the city’s museum of modern art, though a museum of his own has been planned, so check before you go. His house and studio in Via Fondazza opens to visitors at weekends.
Bologna, between the lines
Dante put its leaning tower in the Inferno, Petrarch studied law here, Carducci taught here for more than forty years, and Pasolini was born here.
Dante Alighieri
1265 to 1321
Whether Dante studied in Bologna is not recorded, but he knew the city. The oldest surviving copy of any poem of his is here: in 1287 a notary, Enrichetto delle Querce, copied Dante’s sonnet about the Garisenda tower into the Memoriali, the city’s registers of contracts, where notaries filled blank space with verse, probably so that nothing could be added later. In the Inferno, Dante compares the giant Antaeus bending down over him to the Garisenda seen from below as a cloud passes over it.
Petrarch
1304 to 1374
Francesco Petrarca came to Bologna in 1320, at 16, to study law, as his father wished. He stayed, with breaks, until his father died in 1326, then gave up the law for good. In letters written in old age he looked back on those years with affection, remembering how he roamed the city with friends his own age and walked out into the hills.
Giosuè Carducci
1835 to 1907
Carducci came to Bologna in 1860 to teach Italian literature at the university and held the chair until 1904. He wrote much of his poetry here, including the Odi barbare, and in 1906 he became the first Italian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. His house, where he lived from 1890, is now Casa Carducci, with his library of some 40,000 books and papers and its rooms furnished as he left them.
Pier Paolo Pasolini
1922 to 1975
Pasolini was born in Bologna, in Via Borgonuovo, and came back at 15 to go to school at the Liceo Galvani. He studied literature at the university from 1939 and graduated in 1945 with a thesis on the poet Giovanni Pascoli. His first book, Poesie a Casarsa (1942), poems in the Friulian of his mother’s town, was printed at his own expense by a bookshop on Piazza San Domenico. The Cineteca di Bologna keeps an archive devoted to him.
As seems the Carisenda, to behold
Beneath the leaning side, when goes a cloud
Above it so that opposite it hangs;
Such did Antaeus seem to me, who stood
Watching to see him stoop, and then it was
I could have wished to go some other way.
Dante Alighieri, Inferno, Canto XXXI, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1867)
Culture
La dotta, la grassa, la rossa
The learned, the fat and the red: the city’s old nicknames, for the university, for its rich cooking, and for the color of its roofs and brick.
Cinema in the square
From mid-June to mid-August, Piazza Maggiore becomes a free open-air cinema, and in late June the Cineteca di Bologna’s festival of restored films, Il Cinema Ritrovato, screens classics there every night.
Books and art fairs
The Bologna Children’s Book Fair, every spring, is the main international trade fair for children’s publishing, and Arte Fiera, Italy’s oldest fair of contemporary art, is held each winter.
The Madonna di San Luca
Every May, the icon of the Virgin is carried down from San Luca to the cathedral for a week, a custom kept since 1433.
Motor Valley
Ducati builds its motorcycles in Borgo Panigale, on the edge of the city, with a museum beside the factory, and Lamborghini and Ferrari have museums within an hour’s drive.
Christmas
The Fiera di Santa Lucia sets up its Christmas stalls under the portico of Santa Maria dei Servi, on Strada Maggiore.
Music and nights out
A city of music
UNESCO named Bologna a Creative City of Music in 2006. The Museo della Musica, in Palazzo Sanguinetti on Strada Maggiore, shows the collection of Padre Martini, the scholar who taught the young Mozart.
Mozart and Rossini
In October 1770, Mozart, aged 14, passed the entrance test of the Accademia Filarmonica under Padre Martini’s eye. Rossini studied at the city’s music school from 1806 and later made his home here for years.
Opera
The Teatro Comunale, opened in 1763, gave Italy its first Wagner, Lohengrin, in 1871. It is closed for restoration and plans to reopen in February 2027; until then its season plays in a temporary hall in the trade fair district.
Lucio Dalla
The singer-songwriter, born here in 1943, is the city’s own: his bronze statue sits on a bench in Piazza Cavour, facing the house where he was born, and his last home, near Piazza Maggiore, opens for guided visits.
Nights out
Aperitivo in the Quadrilatero, then the osterie and bars of Via del Pratello, or the student squares around Piazza Verdi, where the night goes on late.
Nature and day trips
Giardini Margherita
The city’s largest park, opened in 1879 just outside the old walls, with a lake, shady paths and bars in summer.
The hills
The Apennine foothills start at the southern edge of the center. Paths climb from the old gates to the park of Villa Ghigi, to San Michele in Bosco and its view over the rooftops, and to San Luca.
The canals
For centuries, canals turned the wheels of Bologna’s silk mills. Most now run underground, but the Canale delle Moline still shows between the houses from Via Piella and Via Oberdan.
The Montagnola
A park on a raised mound just north of the center, near the station, with the Piazzola market alongside on Fridays and Saturdays.
Gypsum caves
Southeast of the city, the Parco dei Gessi Bolognesi protects caves and gorges in gypsum rock; the Grotta della Spipola can be visited with a guide.
Day trips
Modena, for its Romanesque cathedral and balsamic vinegar, and Ferrara, with its castle and walls you can cycle around, are each about half an hour by train; Parma and Ravenna, with its mosaics and Dante’s tomb, are about an hour.
A day in Ravenna
About an hour from Bologna by regional train, Ravenna was a capital of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, then of the Gothic king Theodoric and of Byzantine Italy. Eight of its early Christian monuments are on the UNESCO list, most of them for their mosaics. A combined ticket covers several of them; book entry times on the official site.
People and customs
No spaghetti bolognese
The city’s meat sauce, ragù, goes on fresh egg tagliatelle, never on spaghetti. Order tagliatelle al ragù and you will eat as the Bolognesi do.
Meal times
Lunch runs from about 12:30 and dinner from about 8pm. Aperitivo starts around 6pm and often comes with something to eat.
Bikes everywhere
Students cycle everywhere, often fast. Look both ways before you step out from under a portico.
Dress for churches
Cover shoulders and knees in churches, and take your hat off in San Petronio.
August
Many family restaurants and small shops close for two or three weeks in August, when the city empties for the holidays.
A few words
Buongiorno, grazie and per favore go a long way, and it is polite to greet the owner when you walk into a shop.
Questions
How many days do you need in Bologna?
Two days covers the center: Piazza Maggiore, the towers, the Archiginnasio, Santo Stefano and the walk up to San Luca. Three leaves time for the Pinacoteca and a day trip to Modena, Parma or Ravenna.
Where should I stay in Bologna?
Around Piazza Maggiore and the Quadrilatero for a first visit, near Santo Stefano for quiet streets, the university quarter for nightlife, and Via Indipendenza or near the station for an easy arrival.
When is the best time to visit Bologna?
April to June and September to October. Summers are hot and humid, August is quiet with many places closed, and winters are cold and foggy.
How do I get from Bologna Airport to the city center?
The Marconi Express monorail runs to Bologna Centrale station in about eight minutes, a short walk or bus ride from the center. A taxi takes 15 to 20 minutes.
Can you climb the Two Towers?
Not for now. The Asinelli tower is closed while the leaning Garisenda is made safe, work planned to last until at least 2028. The clock tower of Palazzo d’Accursio, on Piazza Maggiore, is open for a view over the roofs.
Is Bologna good for a bachelorette or a group trip?
Yes: it is a student city with long nights. Plan a pasta class or a food tour, aperitivo in the Quadrilatero, and the bars of Via del Pratello and the university quarter.
Plan Bologna with your group
Everyone swipes on the sights they want. SwipeSights builds the days around the picks, in walking order.
