Bologna II

We got up later than we intended on Sunday, largely on account of the busy day we had had on the Saturday. My initial plan was to go down to the University Quarter to the east of Bologna, using it as an excuse to walk through some of the suburbs we hadn’t yet seen. The morning was a little cloudy but with sunny intervals, with a pleasant enough temperature, making for some excellent walking. We had hoped to get some breakfast en route, but there were very few food establishments around and the ones that were there were all small family-run affairs closed as it was Easter Sunday. As a result, we arrived at the Palazzo Poggi having not had any food at all, deciding that as we were here now anyway, we might as well have a quick look around the museum.

I enjoyed the Palazzo Poggi, and not only because it enabled me to point to Wolfie’s belly and keep saying the name of the place. The main university moved here from the Archigianiasso, where we had been the day before, in 1803 and one of the highlights was the Baroque and Mannerist frescos that litter the walls of the building. The highlight though was the Museum of Obstetrics and Human Anatomy – never before have I seen so many models of the womb, with babies in various pre-birth positions, which were used as an aide to teaching. Made from terracotta and wax, some of these were rather gruesome, detailing as they did a range of birth defects and issues that can arise in the birthing process. The birthing chair in particular was fascinating and was where students would practice delivering babies while blindfolded while the almost erotic yet eviscerated Veneria model – a reconstruction from a Florentine original – was strangely yet hauntingly beguiling.

Another highlight for me was The Ulisse Aldrovandi Museum, which has an extraordinary array of animal and plant life. Considered the founder of natural history, Aldrovandi’s Storia Naturale was published in thirteen volumes and represented the most complete description of the three kingdoms of species known in the sixteenth century. Some of the original woodcuts from this book adorn this atmospheric dark green room, and being a student of medical history, to me it was a wonder to see them so close.

There were fifteen rooms in the Palazzo Poggi, each one containing frescos around the walls at ceiling level. Some of these were in a more preserved state than others – and had it not been for the accompanying descriptions I would not have been able to know what these pictures represented – but it was a testament to how important this building was at the time of its construction. However, after about an hour or so, we were succumbing to hunger pangs and on discovery that the Specula was only open for guided tours and at 3:30pm at that – some two and half hours later – we resolved to head back to the Poggi later and find some food.

We didn’t have to go far as we turned left, heading down Via Zamboni towards the city centre, where we chanced upon a café in a rather neat looking square called the Piazza Verdi. On its northern flank stood the Teatro Communale, built in 1745 after the original wooden structure burnt down, with its arched 1930s façade being traitor to its baroque-style interior, which alas we could not see as it was closed. The opera house played host to twenty operas by Rossini, who lived in Bologna, as well as the Italian premiere of Verdi’s Don Carlo in 1867. The square is a hub of student life and we almost bypassed the café in favour of something more eloquent in the city centre. However, we were ravenous and I was feeling somewhat gassy, so we decided to take a seat outside the Bar Piccolo & Sublime and grab a couple of ham and cheese paninis. These were pretty average affairs but the high-strength red/amber Birra Moretti at something like 7% was most inviting, while it was great to just sit outside and watch the world go by. It had clouded over somewhat but the weather was still reasonably clement, plus at least I did manage to use the rather basic toilet facilities, with diahorrea unfortunately striking. It had been building up in the Palazzo and I should probably have gone there, suffice to say it was a relief when it was out, and fortunately I didn’t struggle with the runs any more that day.

We had hoped to see inside the church of San Giacomo Maggiore on Piazzi Rossini, named after the composer who studied in the city for three years, as we headed further towards the city centre, but it was not open. This did not deter us, however, as we did manage to pop inside this wonderfully cavernous space on our way back to the Specula for our tour. The main highlight here was the family chapel of the Bentivoglio family, whose church this was. It’s usually locked, as it was when we visited, but for fifty cents (I only had a euro), you could activate a light which enabled one to see the wonderful paintings of the Madonna and Child and the Triumph of Death and the Triumph of Fame through the railings. Painted in the fifteenth century by Lorenzo Costa, the Madonna and Child features thirteen of the Bentivoglio family (the man himself, his wife and their eleven children), making it a strikingly unique piece.

One of the highlights of the Sunday though was the small church adjacent to San Giacomo Maggiore, which we did manage to visit immediately after the café visit. The Oratorio di Santa Cecila is dedicated to the patron saint of music, which is why music is played in the small chapel. Built in 1267, the Bentivoglio family commissioned a fresco going around the walls detailing the life of Cecila, from her wedding day to her burial. She dedicated herself to Christ and was boiled alive and beheaded, as depicted on one of the final scenes in eye-splitting glory detail. There was a genteel man in this chapel, who was some kind of warden. He let us in, even though it was technically outside of opening hours (admittedly by five minutes) while he went outside for a smoke. We tipped generously for his kindness.

Walking back into the city centre, we took a slight detour to the northern flank, which was once the Jewish area. Now highly desirable, it used to be a ghetto which no-one aside from a doctor was allowed to leave or enter. Considering its proximity to the hub-bub of the main squares of the city, the contrast couldn’t be more striking, as this warren of streets has a brooding imposing air. Jews had been welcomed into the city in 1555 but by 1593, they were expelled. Situated on about five streets including the Via dell’Inferno (the street of Hell), the tall buildings were testament to the fact that they could only build upwards, in the very shadow of the two towers which are very literally a stone’s throw away. The streets’ layout is actually in the shape of a hand and there are a number of plaques on the wall – including one on the old synagogue – detailing the history of this unique place.

We pushed on west, taking in the Cattedrale San Pietro in its pretty square before heading across the Via dell’Indipendenza and towards a couple of museums. With about an hour to go until our tour of the Specula, this gave us a choice between the Palazzo Fava and the Museo Civico Medievale, with us opting for the latter as we believed there would be less of it. As it turned out, there were twenty-four rooms in this fascinating museum and we did have to rush our way through some of them, although we did get to see the key sights at least. We ended up having to miss seven rooms, all on the top floor, but at least we did manage to catch the Stone of Peace by Corrado Fogolini commemorating a period of peace between the municipality and the university after a period of strife, the terracotta Madonna and Child statue and the vibrant rubescence of Bartolomeo da Vernazza’s tombstone. The huge gold papal figure was also hugely striking too and I did enjoy the collection of medieval objects they had here. Much of it was excellent stonemasonry and with laminated sheets in English and Italian pointing out the more important exhibits, it was a really enlightening glimpse into the city’s early history. The museum guards were a little too strict mind, insisting we went into each room in order, which was annoying with little time when you wanted to focus on the main things but at least we did manage to see the main things.

On our way back to the Specula, we headed slightly in the opposite direction to see the grand townhouse called San Colombano, which now houses the musical instrument museum. We then doubled back on ourselves, walked through the main square, past the two towers and up Via Zamboni, calling off at the aforementioned San Giacomo Maggiore and reaching the Palazzo Poggi at bang on 3:30pm. At the top of the stairs, near the entrance to the museum, there were about fifteen people sitting which suggested a large tour. However, the vast majority of these were Italian and it turned out that Wolfie and I were to have our own private tour with a rather nice young lady as we were the only two English speakers who were there. This saw us let the Italian group go ahead of us by five minutes before we started on the long journey up to the top of the Specula, which was the university’s old observatory. As is commonplace with this type of construction, there were a number of floors where a range of telescopic equipment now stood. Much of this was for display, but some of the telescopes were in situ, particularly the one that went vertically up through the roof in a vain attempt to capture as much of the night sky as possible. The history of optics, particularly of refracting and reflecting telescopes and the need for a rather large lens, was covered extensively and we got to see some genuine long refracting telescopes which proved to be unwieldy. The different designs of reflecting telescopes were covered and this was all tied into map-making, with the celestial and terrestial globes in one of the main rooms dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries being particulary interesting. The illustrations of planetary observations on the wall from the wife of one of the head astronomers were also fascinating while we also got to hear the stories of some of the key holders of the post. On the top floor, we got to see the actual observation room itself, built shifted on its base so it faced north, south, east and west. However, this wasn't the main treat though, which was a trip onto the roof, where we got a breathtaking panorama of the city from every direction. Even Wolfie, who often fears throwing himself off such heights, was transfixed by the views which took in pretty much every major sight in the city at a level that was very much observable. The observatory has since moved onto one of the nearby hills as the light pollution made observations difficult, but you could see why this was the main place for studying the stars for so long. We also got to chat politics with our guide - she was despairing of the current government in Italy, as is common for ultra-left Bologna, and she also said she enjoyed her time working in Brewdog.

Feeling thirsty, after our tour, we headed down to a small cafe underneath one of the many portici in the city. Indeed there are 35km of such arches and most pavements were covered, even ones on the outer rim of the city centre. This added a grandeur to the place but the desolation at the outskirts was more pronounced, particularly as we were sat at this cafe drinking our Coke and eating our potato chips. It was an almost eerie feel to things.

After this, we went to check out one of the old city gates at the end of Via Zamboni, a gate we had seen from our vantage point on top of the university. We then double-backed on ourselves and headed into the city centre again, swinging by the imposing Basilica di San Petronio once more as our guide at the observatory had told us about one of the longest meridian lines being inside. We had somehow managed to miss this - even though we had actually walked over it the day before when we visited the cathedral proper - but we did manage to catch it this time, and even bumped into our fantastic guide leaving the church as we entered. It was great being back in this magical place, with its silent atmosphere with a heavy yet reassuring pressence, boosted by the sheer number of other silent people walking around this splendor. I do love large cathedrals and never get tired of visiting them - and Bologna's main church was an unforgettable example.

Our final stop of the day was the Museo Civico Archeological, which we were told was the best museum in the city. This is the one we had visited the day before to check the opening times, deciding to come back on the Sunday so we would have more than an hour. As it turned out, we only had an hour due to our other commitments, meaning we had to eschew the special (and rahter expensive) special exhibit and instead just focus on the main attraction. Housed in the former hospital of Santa Maria della Morte (of Death) which looked after the terminally ill, this arched building with its serene courtyard was rather impressive. We decided to focus on the Etruscan part of Bologna's history, largely because it was a road less travelled for us, having done the Roman period to death. We started with the Neolithic period, where we saw a range of Celtic tools in a rather extensive space which detailed a surprisingly great deal about this era. Indeed the social structure, rites and manufacturing of the communities were covered in extensive detail, although many of the descriptions were only in Italian, making it hard to follow. The Etruscan area contained a number of urns, vases and terracotta, highlighting the skilled masonry and produce of the time, with a great deal focusing on the geography of the area and how this played such an important societal role. Funerary stelae, ossuaries and a wide range of small vessels upon which animals were stamped were commonplace here. The final room we got to see was the Egyptian area, which had a range of interesting finds from that civilisation, including an actual mummy, a couple of sarcophagi and a preserved crocodile, which was scary. Also, a range of tablets and papayri, still intact, were my highlights if only because of the linguistic aspect of them. Alas, we didn't get as much time as I would have liked here as by 6:30pm they were shutting the museum and we had to leave.

We were getting rather tired now and with a pizza restaurant in sight, we decided to quickly explore the southern part of town on the other side of Piazza Maggiore. The main sight here is the Basilico di San Domenico, another huge and imposing church which we poked our heads in. However, the highlight here was not on the inside but in the courtyard, where a huge column upon which a statue of San Domenico had been erected. The two mausoleums on this square were rather unique, erected as they were on pillars above ground with each tomb almost suspended in mid-air. Protected by a canopy, they almost resembled morbid little houses and are dedicated to two medieval scholars - Rolandino de'Passaggeri and Egidio Foscherari. The church itself was built between 1228 and 1238 on the remains of San Domenico, the founder of the Dominican Movement, who had died here in 1221. Alas we couldn't go and see his tomb, or the works of Michaelangelo inside the church, as it was Easter Sunday and there was a service going on.

We had reached the church after observing the Collegio di Spagna, a huge walled complex which was founded in 1365 and bequeathed to Spanish scholars studying at the University of Bologna, a function it still reserves today. In addition, we also got to see the outsides of some of the huge palace-like buildings near here, including the Palazzo Bevilacqua, where the Council of Trent met for two sessions in 1547. It's sandstone exterior held a somewhat rustic and gracious charm.

After all this, we were quite famished so decided to get food, heading to the Pizzeria Ranzani 13, in the Ranzani district in the north-east of the city. This was about a half hour walk from where we were and with feet barking, it was far from pleasant, not aided by the fact I made a wrong turning at the ring road and went the wrong way. Ranzani is one of the university areas and the signs were not promising as we turned into a residential district off the ring road, with it being incredibly quiet. The Pizzeria, which had been recommended to us by the Brewdog waiter in Florence, was tucked on a side street which we missed, resulting in us walking a full loop back around again to come across it. There were no other restaurants or bars in the area so I was somewhat concerned, but I need not have worried as the place was busy when we arrived and continued to attract people as we stayed there. We got a table pretty easily and were soon sampling some of the twelve or so beers they had on tap, with every one we tried (we had six) being a very strong contender. The food was great too - mozzerella sticks which had a strong meaty texture for some reason and in my case a pizza split into four quadrants each with a different local topping. The mushroom one was my least favourite but even that was fine, with the other three being exquisite examples of local flavours.

The pizzeria was very close to the hotel - about fifteen minutes away - and the main bar area was another twenty-five minutes beyond that so it was quite a deliberation as to whether we would go for more drinks. We toyed with going to a bar ten minutes away which was more a cocktail place but did good beer according to the reviews, but ultimately we were absolutely knackered and had probably had enough to drink already. Furthermore, it was approaching 9:30pm by this point and we had a free drink each at the hotel bar, which we thought we might as well claim. Consequently, after chatting briefly to the friendly pizzeria staff, we headed back to the hotel, calling at a geocache along the way, which Wolfie managed to find very quickly. Annoyingly, I didn't have my pen but the cache was pretty much opposite the hotel, so we could easily get one and then come back, which we did. We then went to the rather quiet bar and had a final drink, catching up on the horrific events in Sri Lanka, which had happened that morning. It was a sombre downbeat way to end a fantastic mini-break but we had achieved everything we had wanted to achieve and I also got my Italy Geocaching badge the next morning, and made two new local friends off the back of it (who annoyingly didn't get in touch until the Thursday after we had gotten back). Still, it was a much needed break in a country which has somehow captivated me so much. I hope to get back there soon.