A fleeting visit to Bologna (6-9 September 2011)

I was fortunate enough to have a 2-day conference scheduled in Bologna, making this the 10^th trip of the calendar year for me. Having never been to Italy before, and armed with only the barest minimum of Italian phrases committed to memory (“I don’t speak Italian”, “please”, “thank you”, “hello” and “goodbye”), I was an interesting mix of excited and nervous to embark on this trip solo.

Ordinarily a brief 1h40m flight, my plans were foiled at the last minute by a transport strike in Italy, which meant that my direct Paris-Bologna flight became a 5-hour Paris – Lyon – Bologna trek. The pain of the transit time was somewhat mitigated by the flight path over the Alps. My inner wide-eyed Zimbabwean was absolutely delighted, and rolling thoughts of “I’m flying over the Alps. The ACTUAL Alps! You know, the ones you read about in books and see on the TV – those Alps. And they’re so pretty! The ALPS!!! Woooo!” persisted for the duration of the transit.

  

The cab ride to my hotel was… ummm… an experience. You know that reputation Italians have for being crazy drivers? Well… I’ve been in a car with my ex—a somewhat incautious driver, by my standards—in central Paris around insane roundabouts with no rules and lots of traffic; I’ve caught a New York City cab from a blues club downtown in the middle of the night; I grew up in Zimbabwe, where people buy their driver’s licenses: all child’s play compared to the weaving and accelerating and heavy-footed braking and near-brushes with buses and gesticulating and incomprehensible swearing that characterised my cab ride into the city. I spent the entire trip frantically stamping down on the imaginary break pedal on the floor in front of me, but I somehow made it to the hotel in one piece.

The city itself took all of five minutes to have me completely charmed. The streets abound with a sense of warmth and friendliness, and an underlying air of calmness. Unlike Paris, and many other French cities I’ve visited, there was no feeling of artifice, no sense that the city had a standard of appearance that it was trying to live up to, no perfectly coiffed women in perfectly coordinated clothing and accessories. Relaxed. It struck me as a normal city where normal people live normal lives, without any of the arrogance or need to impress felt in so many other cities. (Not that I’m saying that the artifice or sense of keeping-up-appearances in Paris is necessarily a bad thing; just that Bologna was a welcome break from Parisian city life.) There also appears to be an attractiveness requirement imposed on all restaurant wait staff: most pleasant on the eyes for a single girl wandering around!

My hotel (the hotel Accademia) is located in the University district of the city, which is very convenient for exploring. Bologna is home to Europe’s oldest university, which was founded in 1088, and the campus is fairly stunning. In the central Piazza Ravegnana are located the Two Towers (Garisenda: the shorter at 48m, and Asinelli: the taller at 97.2m), the symbol of the city of Bologna.

 

 

While it may appear that only the Garisenda Tower is skew, Wikipedia assures me that both of these 12^th century constructions are not quite straight. Apparently, scientists used the Asinelli tower, in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, to study the motion of heavy bodies and the rotation of the earth, and the slant in the Garisenda tower is a result of yielding of the ground surrounding its foundation. It is for this reason that the height of the tower was decreased from 60m to 48m in the 14^th century.

I have to say that sightseeing around the city is made somewhat difficult by the porticoes lining most of the streets. Given that the roads are narrow and the buildings tall, constantly having a roof over your head results in many sights being obscured from view. The porticoes themselves, though, are lovely, changing in style throughout the city from Gothic to Romanesque to modern.

 

The city is filled with cafés, restaurants and bars, and there is (unsurprisingly) no shortage of pizzerias and gelato shops. If shopping is your thing, the main Via dell’Independenza is a good place to start, and many of the Piazzas play host to markets during the day (I stopped by the Piazza dell’Otto Agosto, just off Via dell’Independenza, briefly on my last day – it’s huge and chock full of reasonably priced Italian goodies and lots of shoe vendors!)

I was particularly taken by Piazza Maggiore (pictured below), 

and the Cattedrale di San Pietro is definitely worth a visit. It is rather small, but its Romanesque design was a welcome break from the series of Gothic churches I’ve seen this year. I found the décor inside to be quite tasteful, and a bit understated when compared to other churches of the time. It’s beautiful, light and airy, and one of my favourites visited this year.

Bologna is not an overly touristy city, which is particularly nice coming from one of the most tourist-rich cities in Europe, and I found the people to be very friendly, and very willing to be accommodating if you don’t speak Italian (you’ll find many English-speakers around). One big concern I’d had before going was that Italian men are reputed to be more forward and, well, leery than French men. Now, I seem to have a special talent for attracting leery, lecherous men, and when you’re wandering the streets as a lone (and rather little) female, it tends to make you a more obvious target. Thankfully, my fears proved unjustified, as I was approached a sum total of once during my trip, and swiftly left alone when I proclaimed that I spoke neither Italian nor English, only French!

In all, a lovely little break from Paris, though I’m not sure I’ll be rushing to go back for a holiday, since I’m not sure there’s all that much to do there. The brief séjour has, however, piqued my interest in Italy, and I hope to visit some of the more prominent touristy destinations in the near future!