Bologna, the capital of the Emilia-Romagna province, is a wealthy city with a well-preserved medieval town centre full of monuments and places to visit. Known respectively as Bologna La Grassa, Bologna La Dotta, and Bologna La Rossa, or ‘the fat’ (for its reputation as the city with the best food in the whole of Italy), ‘the learned’ (Bologna is home to the world’s oldest continuously functioning University), and ‘The Red’ (because of either its politics – decidedly left-wing – or its red-brick architecture), the city has something for everyone.
Strange then that, until recently Bologna has had precious little tourism to boast of. This is in part due to the proximity of Firenze and Venezia, and also in part because the city has had no need of it, being rich itself from industry and the university. Times change, though, and with the expansion of its airport (Marconi), and high-speed train lines, the city is becoming a great tourist attraction for people who love Italian culture. We’ve gathered together our Bologna travel articles and tips here as a useful resource.
If you’re looking for a cheap flight to Bologna (or a cheap flight to Italy, for that matter), you have plenty of possibilities, as Bologna’s Marconi Airport has expanded greatly over the last ten years. This is in part because of the closer of smaller regional airports, and because Bologna is a strategic location, allowing […]
Looking for Bologna’s best airport hotels? There are various reasons why you may want to stay close to the airport – even though Bologna is a reasonably compact city, and the Marconi Airport is a short car ride from the city centre. Maybe you have business in the industrial hinterland around Bologna, or maybe you […]
Nightlife in Bologna is vibrant, but often underground (quite literally in the case of a number of clubs!). The best places to go are spread by word of mouth (and increasingly Social Media). Because it’s a university town, with a very young population you’re spoilt for choice – whether you want to go to a […]
There are loads of hotels in Bologna’s city centre – of differing quality, convenience and reputation. For years Bologna has, wrongly, been considered simply a travel hub rather than a place to visit in its own right, and because of its extensive road and railway network there are lots of top class hotels outside the […]
Bologna’s Sala Borsa, the old city stock exchange, is a must see, in part because of its art nouveau architecture, in part because of its roman ruins in the basement, and in part simply because it’s a buzzing cultural hotspot of the city, with exhibitions, the main library, coffee shop (and bathroom and baby-changing facilities) […]
Bologna’s Jewish Ghetto is small but a deeply moving place to the traveller visiting this medieval city. At its heart is the Jewish Museum (Museo Ebraico) in Via Valdonica, a small but well curated Museum that documents the history of Jewish life and culture in the region. The Ghetto Ebraico or Jewish Ghetto in Bologna […]
The small alleyways on the eastern-side of Piazza Maggiore, bounded roughly by via Rizzoli, via Castiglione, via Farini, piazza Galvani and via dell’Archiginnasio make up the area known locally as the Quadrilatro – a picture-postcard-pretty market area where you can buy all sorts of amazing local produce, from fish through to fruit, vegetables, and various […]
Bologna’s Shoah Memorial is a stark monument, placed prominently in a new square developed as part of the new high-speed train station, at the corner of Via Matteoti and Via Carracci. The project, a collaboration between the local institutions and the Jewish community of Bologna, was officially unvelied on the 27th of January 2016, International Holocaust […]
The Comune of Bologna has launched a special initiative, largely aimed at the health and well-being of local residents, but also very useful for tourists who want to walk around Bologna’s medieval city centre. MuoviBo is a 12km walking circular walking itinerary, that has as its official 1st station the Parco Montagnola. 11km of the […]
