Bologna - the city, not the lunch meat

John and I traveled separately for a few days and I went to visit Bologna while he went to Slovenia.

I met up with a group of people Saturday night at a bar in central Bologna and had a glass of wine and free buffet. The “new” tradition in Italy of apperitivo with free food is great. You usually pay 4-7 Euros for a drink and get free food ranging from snacks to a full buffet.

There were about 15 of us, mostly Italian, but also one representative from Egypt, Ireland, Australia, Pakistan, England, and New Zealand. I didn’t have my camera with me so these photos are just to get you in the mood of Bologna.

From the bar we went to the center plaza for a concert that was in celebration of Bologna’s liberation from “Nazzifaccismo”. The concert turned out to be not very good so we went on a tour of the town by night and ended up at a bar called Transylvania – very gothic décor that fit in well with the medieval building in which it was housed. I had to catch a bus after that, but everyone else went back to the center plaza for a bit before drifting towards home around 2AM.

The next day, camera in hand, I headed out to picnic with the group. There were many more people than the night before, probably 35 at the high point in the day.




We ate and then played around and talked.

Tereza from New Zealand tried out the couch.

Then came the singing. What songs could all those people from all different countries know? Many songs by The Beetles, “Losing my Religion” and “Wonderwall” to start with.

Half of the group stayed in the park and the other half went on what was supposed to be a one hour tour of the waterway under Bologna. We were gone for three hours.

The entrance was through a steel plate in the street.



The tour included information about the Roman structures, medieval buildings built on top of that, and 1700s construction on top of that and…so on. The corner of the building seen over the waterway was a bathroom with, of course, a hole in the floor for the waste to drop into the stream. The tour was in Italian and I caught a lot of it, but the guide talked on and on and it seemed when others told me what she said that the points I understood were the important bits and then she just rambled on a bit.


On the way back from the underground, Matteeo showed us a few interesting sights in Bologna including the window to look at the river running through town.





The river.











Interesting phrase in this ceiling mural found on a covered walkway near the town center – “Canibus Protectio”




This guy was set up on the edge of the town square. He has all of this equipment built into his motorcycle. He rides to a new town, plays, and rides off again. Click on the picture to take a closer look.


Matteeo showed us an interesting perspective on Bologna’s famous statue – he looks happy to see you.



To be continued!