Bologna, Italy

Day 1

• Piazza Maggiore and Basilica of San Petronio

  Entry to the basilica is free, and the unfinished facade explains itself: the marble reaches halfway and above it the brick is bare, because the money ran out in the 16th century. Inside is the meridian line Gian Domenico Cassini laid out in 1655, 67.27 metres across the floor of the left aisle: it is the longest in the world, free to look at, and it works as a camera obscura, with the beam entering through a hole in the vault and crossing the line just before noon. Three side chapels, the Bolognini, San Sebastiano and San Vincenzo Ferrer, are visited instead on a ticket of 5 € full and 3 € reduced. Watch out for something many guides still carry: the panoramic terrace, after the restoration, has been closed for good.

• The Two Towers (Asinelli and Garisenda)

  Check before planning the climb: the Asinelli tower is closed, and the Garisenda beside it is under restoration with the square fenced off since October 2023. When open it costs €5 and is 498 steps for 97 metres; the Garisenda, 47 metres tall, has never been climbable. The alternative that works now is the Torre dell'Orologio on Piazza Maggiore, €10 with a 360° view: lower, but currently the only one the rooftops can be seen from.

• Bologna's porticoes

  There are over 62 km of them across the city, twelve stretches of which have been UNESCO-listed since 2021, not all: the listing covers selected portions, not the whole. They were not built for beauty but for room: in the Middle Ages upper storeys were pushed out over the street to enlarge the houses, and the portico carried the overhang. Walking across the centre in the rain without opening an umbrella really is possible, and it is the fastest way to understand why they exist.

Day 2

• Portico and Sanctuary of San Luca

  The longest portico in the world: 666 arches over 3,796 metres, built between 1674 and 1739 on citizens' donations, arch by arch, to cover the pilgrims' route to the sanctuary at 300 metres' altitude. The climb from the Meloncello arch, which stands exactly halfway, takes a solid forty minutes of steps and ramps; to skip them there is bus 20 to Villa Spada and then the San Luca Express. The portico is roofed: you can walk up in the rain.

• Basilica of Santo Stefano (Seven Churches)

  It is not a church but a group of buildings wedged into one another, grown from the 4th century on: they are called the Seven Churches though four interconnecting ones remain today, plus two cloisters. Entry is free, by donation. The hours are the thing to know: on Monday the complex is closed, and from Tuesday to Sunday it opens 09:30-12:30 and 14:30-19:00, with a two-hour gap in the middle of the day exactly when people tend to arrive. In the courtyard of Pilate is an 8th-century Lombard basin, and in the church of the Holy Sepulchre the tomb of San Petronio is a copy of the one in Jerusalem, built when getting there was impossible. It is the quietest place in the centre.

• Quadrilatero and market

  The grid of streets behind Piazza Maggiore where the market has stood since the Middle Ages: via Pescherie Vecchie, via Drapperie, via Caprarie still carry the names of the trades. The food shops keep shop hours, not restaurant hours: they close for lunch and many pull the shutters down on Thursday afternoon, the trade's traditional half-day. In the evening the counters turn into aperitivo bars and the prices change accordingly.

Day 1

• The little window on Via Piella✦ hidden gem

  A wooden window a metre high in a wall on via Piella, free and open to anyone: it looks onto the Canale delle Moline, the only stretch of water still uncovered in the centre. Bologna had a canal network that drove the silk mills and made it a manufacturing power, then covered over in the 20th century to make roads. There is almost always a queue at the window: one person at a time. To see the water without queuing, carry on into via delle Moline, where the canal resurfaces between the buildings.

• Archiginnasio and Anatomical Theatre✦ hidden gem

  The Anatomical Theatre is entirely of carved spruce, with the flayed figures holding up the canopy, and is visited from 10am to 6pm with compulsory online booking; the same ticket gives access to the Sala dello Stabat Mater when it is free. What you see is a reconstruction: the 1944 bombing destroyed it and it was reassembled from the salvaged original fragments. The courtyard with its thousands of student coats of arms, by contrast, is crossed for nothing.

• Hidden canals and Via delle Moline✦ hidden gem

  Beneath Bologna runs a network of medieval canals that drove the silk mills: water was taken from the Reno and the Savena and distributed through the city, and it was that which made Bologna a manufacturing capital before industry. In the 20th century almost all of it was covered to make roads. It resurfaces at a few points: via delle Moline, via Malcontenti, the stretch behind via Piella. You look from the street, free, and at certain times the city drains the canals for maintenance: then you see the dry bed.

Day 2

• Lasagne and fried crescentine✦ hidden gem

  Bolognese lasagne are green because the pasta has spinach worked into it, and they want ragù and béchamel in thin layers, not a mountain of sauce. The fried crescentine, also called gnocco fritto here, are eaten straight out of the oil with cured meats and squacquerone: cold they turn rubbery, so order them when you are ready to eat. In an osteria they arrive in baskets to share and the bill climbs fast: order one round at a time.

• Tagliatelle al ragù

  The recipe is registered with the Bologna Chamber of Commerce: egg tagliatelle that when cooked must measure eight millimetres across, and a ragù cooked for hours with meat, soffritto, a small quantity of tomato and milk, without garlic and without herbs. Spaghetti bolognese does not exist here: anyone who finds it on a menu already knows what kind of place they are in. In the osterie the dish costs less than in the restaurants around Piazza Maggiore, for the same hand-rolled pasta.

Day 1

• Tagliatelle al ragù

  The recipe is registered with the Bologna Chamber of Commerce: egg tagliatelle that when cooked must measure eight millimetres across, and a ragù cooked for hours with meat, soffritto, a small quantity of tomato and milk, without garlic and without herbs. Spaghetti bolognese does not exist here: anyone who finds it on a menu already knows what kind of place they are in. In the osterie the dish costs less than in the restaurants around Piazza Maggiore, for the same hand-rolled pasta.

• Tortellini in brodo

  This one has a registered recipe too, from 1974: a filling of pork loin, prosciutto crudo, mortadella, parmesan, egg and nutmeg. They are served in capon broth, not in cream and not dry: that is the tourist-menu version. They are tiny and counted by the dozen per portion, and anyone looking at something the size of a tortellone is looking at a different pasta. They are a festive dish: many osterie put them on in winter and they are hard to find in August.

• Mortadella and tigelle

  Mortadella di Bologna IGP is not just any cured meat: the paste is ground extremely fine and cooked for hours in dry-air ovens, and the white cubes are throat fat, not offcuts. At the counter you ask for it sliced thin, almost transparent, not in thick slices. Tigelle are not from Bologna but from the Modena Apennines, and are filled hot with cunza, the pounded lard with rosemary and garlic: order them cold with cured meats and you still have a snack, but not that one.

Day 2

• Lasagne and fried crescentine✦ hidden gem

  Bolognese lasagne are green because the pasta has spinach worked into it, and they want ragù and béchamel in thin layers, not a mountain of sauce. The fried crescentine, also called gnocco fritto here, are eaten straight out of the oil with cured meats and squacquerone: cold they turn rubbery, so order them when you are ready to eat. In an osteria they arrive in baskets to share and the bill climbs fast: order one round at a time.

• Quadrilatero and market

  The grid of streets behind Piazza Maggiore where the market has stood since the Middle Ages: via Pescherie Vecchie, via Drapperie, via Caprarie still carry the names of the trades. The food shops keep shop hours, not restaurant hours: they close for lunch and many pull the shutters down on Thursday afternoon, the trade's traditional half-day. In the evening the counters turn into aperitivo bars and the prices change accordingly.