Ask most people to name
the first Italian city that comes into their head and few will pick
out Bologna. That suits Bologna just fine. While
the tourist hordes clog up Florence, Rome and Venice, Bologna remains
relatively tourist free, letting the locals enjoy one of the highest
standards of living in Italy .
Founded by the Etruscans as Felsina, on the Po Plains in 600BC,
the northeast Italian city and was renamed Bononia
by the Gauls, and whose French overtones still can be heard in the
local dialect. Bologna came to worldwide attention
with the founding of the university in 1088, when two thousand students
from all over Europe poured into the medieval commune. Porticoes
supporting additional lodgings sprung up all over the city, to accommodate
the influx of newcomers and Bologna’s leitmotif was born.
Today, 40km (25 miles) of ochre-hued arcades still shadow the streets
with covered walkways that give Bologna its unique style.
The heart of Bologna is around the twin piazzas, Maggiore
and Nettuno – a handsome public space surrounded
on all sides by medieval palazzi and the hulk of San Petronio. Here,
along with the pigeons, the Bolognese come to shop, to pray, to
chat and, of course, to demonstrate. Not just for the ochre colouring
of the medieval buildings in the fading evening light is the city
known as ‘Red Bologna’, with socialism
and communism a major feature of life in Bologna, ever since determined
partisan resistance in World War II. It comes as no surprise to
learn that Bologna was the first Italian city ever to elect a communist
council. The well-educated citizens of Bologna have never been afraid
to voice their opinions and immerse themselves in all things cultural
– a feature of civic life recognised in 2000, when Bologna
was named a European City of Culture. Recently
the former stock exchange has been converted into Italy’s
largest multimedia library, in keeping with a city that
well deserves its tag of La Dotta, The Learned.
In Bologna, a social conscience and cultural knowledge go hand in
hand with a hearty appetite, with the city fully justifying its
other moniker, La Grassa, which translates literally
as The Fat, a reference to the seriousness with
which some of the locals take Epicurean pursuits. It is something
of a favourite joke among the Milanese and the Romans that only
at mealtimes do the Bolognese fall silent. The local cuisine goes
far beyond the world famous spaghetti bolognese (something the locals
never eat – they call the sauce ‘ragu’ and would
never mix it with spaghetti), with a wide range of culinary delights
culled from the surrounding countryside, as well as some robust
and interesting local wines. Although summers are hot and
generally dry, winters on the Emilia-Romagna plains
can be quite cold affairs, with January being particularly inhospitable.
The climate is moderate in spring and autumn, with few tourists,
and these are the best times to visit, although even at the height
of the season, tourist numbers seldom become too suffocating. In
July and August it can be unbearably hot and stuffy and this is
a good time for day trippers to head to the breezy Adriatic beaches
which are less than an hour away. |
