Beautiful Bologna

Our full day in Bologna yesterday was long, busy, and very fun. We both slept well (Sarah has recovered almost instantly from jet lag - very impressive!), had a good breakfast in our hotel (quite substantial for Italy), then started off strong with a climb up a tall tower.


The Due Torri (Two Towers) were built around 1110 AD by local noble families, both for defense and as status symbols. The taller one is the Asinelli Tower, and that's the one we climbed! It is 97 meters (318 feet) tall. Both are leaning quite a lot. The shorter one, the Garisenda Tower, is leaning the most (11 feet) and is not open to the public. The Asinelli Tower leans 7.5 feet.


View from the base.


I think the Asinelli Tower is the tallest tower I've climbed so far - it was nearly 500 steps to the top! And the steps were not the solid stone I'm used to, but an antique wooden staircase with vertiginous views over the rails in the center! But it felt sturdier than I'd expected, thank heavens.


And it was actually pretty fun! We enjoyed listening to people exclaim in various languages as they realized just how many stairs they had left to go. Older Italian ladies usually said, "Oh, Madonna." But some English speakers on their way down assured us that the view was worth it.


And it certainly was. Shown here is the Basilica di San Petronio, which is one of the biggest churches in Italy, and the Piazza Maggiore.


The upper terrace was small but there was room to move around fairly freely, and the protective iron grates allowed plenty of room for taking photos.


Small triangular piazza at the base of the towers


Two other towers built around the same time as this one


A church with intriguing domes

Back on solid ground, our legs like jelly, we spent the next few hours wandering around the city. Bologna is a very nice city, and the sun was out for most of the day, so it was pretty great. For both of us, the main highlight was a little market street just off Piazza Maggiore. It's really a tragedy we didn't have a kitchen at our disposal, because the fresh pasta (and everything else) looked amazing!








A few other highlights:


Old building and autumn leaves near Piazza Cavour


Archaeological Museum (open all day + free admission + clean bathrooms = winner)


Two of many luxury stores on offer


Nike Bologna


One of my favorite stores. And there are only a few in Europe; they are mainly in Japan and Britain.

Around 3:00, we headed over to the most important church on my photography list, Santo Stefano. Actually, it's three churches right next to each other, and there were once seven of them all grouped together! The three that remain are the oldest in the city, founded originally in the 5th century on the site of a Temple of Isis. The current buildings date mostly from the 12th century.


The best of the three was the round one in the center partially hidden by a tree: Santo Sepolchro, which is modeled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Jesus' tomb) in Jerusalem.


It was very dark in there, so I was thrilled to find a coin-operated light switch that made photos possible.


Under the marble altar is the tomb of San Petronio, a 5th-century bishop of Bologna and patron saint of the city.


Ceiling


The equally-old church next door, sadly with no light switch.

By the time we were done with Santo Stefano, it was getting dark and we were completely beat. The legs don't have quite as much mileage in them when you start the day with climbing 500 steps! So we headed back to the hotel and relaxed until dinnertime around 7pm. We asked at the front desk for recommendations, and we got a good one, but she mentioned that they don't start serving until 8pm. But the hotel has a little restaurant, and she would serve us hot food there anytime. It was a tough call, but we were so tired that we just went for the easy option, eating immediately in the hotel.


It wasn't as good as our night out the day before, but it wasn't bad at all. We both had pumpkin tortelloni ragu. The cute little cow is holding the parmesan cheese.


We also got free appetizers, which were quite yummy. The fried balls were filled with bread crumbs and whole olives; the others are buttery pastries filled with spinach.

Then some TV and another good night's sleep. This morning we had another good breakfast at the hotel (which even included freshly baked bread pudding), then headed down the street to the last church on my list, San Domenico. There had been a service in progress when we visited the night before.

Being Sunday, I wasn't so sure we'd be able to take photos this morning either, but it was worth a try. And we lucked out! A service was just finishing when we arrived. And the light was absolutely gorgeous, and no one seemed to mind us taking photos. Hooray!


San Domenico from the hotel terrace.


And a view from the cloister, taken by Sarah.

The church itself isn't too exciting inside - a mostly empty Baroque edifice - but the main attraction is the tomb of Saint Dominic in a large side chapel (the round one seen in the photos above).


[Photo by Sarah.] Dominic (1170-1221) is the founder of the Dominican order, which emphasizes scholarship and preaching. He was from Spain, but died in Bologna. His tomb was sculpted by Nicola Pisano, who also created the tomb of Saint Augustine that I visited in Pavia. They look rather similar, too.


Detail, with scenes from the life of Dominic.


Closer detail, showing a boy falling from his horse and Dominic miraculously healing him.


Behind the tomb, they've posted an X-ray of his bones! Notice something missing? I didn't, but Sarah did (she is on her way to nursing school, so knows something about anatomy) - there's no skull.


I later read that it is kept in this reliquary in a niche in the back of the tomb.


Dominic with a book at the top of the reliquary


Statue of Dominic outside his chapel in the cloister


And atop a tall pillar in the piazza in front of the church

Saint Dominic thus well taken care of, we headed back to the hotel to quickly pack up, check out, and get a taxi to the station, where we took a lovely fast train to Pisa. Today we climbed the more famous leaning tower, visited the cathedral, took night photos, and had some delicious gelato; tomorrow morning we'll see a few more sights before moving on to Orvieto. Photos next time!