Bologna
Italy · Southern Europe
Forty kilometres of covered street.
Bologna's University of Bologna, founded in 1088, still pulls 85,000 students into a medieval city centre that has resisted demolition so consistently that its 14th-century street plan remains the operative one.
Bologna moves at the pace of its university — persistent, purposeful, and resistant to spectacle. The porticoes that line virtually every street in the old city, some dating to the 12th century, are load-bearing infrastructure for daily life: students eat lunch under them, workers cut through them at speed, and the arcaded route to the Santuario di San Luca stretches nearly four kilometres without a break in coverage. The city's medieval brick towers — two still standing on Piazza di Porta Ravegnana — frame a skyline that has changed less than almost any other Italian city of its size. Bologna feeds itself seriously: the covered market at Mercato delle Erbe on Via Ugo Bassi runs Tuesday through Saturday and trades in the same mortadella and fresh egg pasta the city has exported to the world's understanding of Italian food. It is not a city that performs for visitors; it functions for residents, and visitors who accept that arrangement are rewarded.
Essentials
The things every first-time visitor should know.
Deep cuts
What the locals know, and most visitors miss.
Day trips
Where to go when the city needs a break.