Weekend in Bologna

During my times studying on Erasmus in Turin, I had the opportunity to go to Bologna with my friend, Paula.

One of her friends from her year abroad in Spain was living and studying in Bologna and he had invited her to come visit. As I was in Italy, she asked if I would like to come along and I couldn’t refuse.  

I had never been to Bologna and it was a great opportunity to see my friend again.

I got the Flixbus bus down from Torino to Bologna which took around three hours. Paula and her friend Nico met me at the bus station and walked me through town to get to his flat. The main old part of Bologna, or Centro Storico, is pretty small so we were there in no time!

As I was only there for the weekend, we had no time to waste. We quickly got ready and headed out to see the city. Nico knew all of the best places to go.

We went to La Prosciutteria for a couple of glasses of wine before going to the best bolognese restaurant in town; L’osteria dell’orsa. It was incredible and definitely lived up to its name!

From there, Nico took us on a tour of the city, showing us the ‘Seven secrets of Bologna’. 

This included:

The Fountain of Neptune; when it was built the Catholic church didn’t want the statue to have a penis, however if you walk around the statue, at the correct angle Neptune’s thumb suffices as an exciting, upright alternative.

From there we went to the ‘Whispering Corners of Palazzo del Podestà’, near the Piazza Maggiore. Here if you turn in towards one of the four corners, you can talk with someone in the opposite corner. The arch is designed in such a way that only you can hear each other and no one else can hear the conversation – it didn’t really work when we tried.

We walked along Strada Maggiore where you can see three arrows stuck in the ceiling of La Casa Isolani. It is said that a Lord had ordered his men to kill his wife who he believed had been cheating on him. Distracted by the woman’s naked body, the assassins missed and ended up shooting at the ceiling.

Nico then directed us down some small, secluded streets. It seemed a bit dodgy at first but then he pointed to a hole in the wall and told us to look out. It was a miniature canal named ‘Little Venice’ right in the heart of Bologna in La Piella.

On the way back from Little Vencie, Nice stopped us in the street and told us to look up under one of the porticos. There is an inscription that reads “Panis vita, cannabis protection, vinum Laetitia” which translates to “Bread is life, Cannabis is protected, wine is happiness”. Supposedly it related back to the Hemp trade in Bologna however the inscription is quick humorous nowadays.

We never saw the last two secrets. One is of a broken vase at the top of one of the two Asinelli towers; we never made the trek up. The other is apparently an inscription at a University building stating that “Bread is Resistance”; which is pretty hilarious given Italy’s love of bread.

After our world wind tour of the city, we met some of Nico’s friends for drinks at a flat. It turned into a bit of a bar crawl over the city drinking Tennent’s Super and shots. In and out of various bars over to different piazzas, god knows how we got home. It’s fair to say the next day I wasn’t feeling great.

At midday we got up and found a ‘Cien Montaditos’ to help cure the hangover. I couldn’t have looked that bar as the waiter asked for my number! Nico and Paula took me back to the bus station. The three hours back Torino were spent asleep over two chairs on the bus allowing me to wake up fresh in Turin ready to start my studies again.

I can’t wait to go back to Bologna. It is a beautiful city with so much culture and history. I hear from my friends that it’s amazing also for Erasmus students as there is a great ESN community there.

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