Bologna: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Bologna calls itself la dotta, la grassa, la rossa — the learned, the fat and the red. The learned part is the oldest: the university was founded in 1088 and it is the oldest continuously operating university in the world, which is also where the word university comes from, because the students here organised themselves into a universitas, a guild, and hired and fired their own professors. This walk is the student city. Two and a half hours, and the Archiginnasio and the anatomy theatre close on Sunday.
A short history of Bologna
The Etruscans called the place Felsina, and in 189 BC the Romans founded the colony of Bononia here. In 1088 law began to be taught here, and so the oldest continuously operating university in the Western world was founded. In the Middle Ages wealthy families built dozens of towers, and two of them, the Asinelli and the Garisenda, still stand in the city centre. Its covered porticoes run for about 40 kilometres. In 1506 Bologna came under papal rule, and in 1860 it joined the Kingdom of Italy. On 2 August 1980, 85 people were killed in a bombing at the city's railway station.
The ten best sights in Bologna
1Basilica di San PetronioFree, the facade was never finished, and the meridian line runs across the floor
2ArchiginnasioFree for the courtyard, 3 euros for the 1637 anatomy theatre inside, and closed Sunday
3Torre degli Asinelli97 metres and 498 steps, and check whether it has reopened before going
-
4Torre Garisenda
From outside, it leans about four degrees, and Dante put it in the Inferno
5Santo StefanoFree, seven churches joined into one complex, and the courtyard is Lombard
6Basilica di San DomenicoFree, Dominic’s tomb is in it, and one of the angels on it is by Michelangelo
7Santa Maria della VitaFrom 5 euros, and the terracotta Lamentation inside it is from 1463
-
8Basilica di San Francesco
Free, the first Italian church built in French Gothic, and the tombs of law professors are outside
9Cathedral of San PietroFree, and most people walk past it because San Petronio looks like the cathedral
10Pinacoteca NazionaleFrom 6 euros, closed Monday, and the Bolognese school of painting is the subject
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Bologna →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Bologna:
Free walking tours in Bologna
The learned city
Bologna calls itself la dotta, la grassa, la rossa — the learned, the fat and the red. The learned part is the oldest: the university was founded in 1088 and it is the oldest continuously operating university in the world, which is also where the word university comes from, because the students here organised themselves into a universitas, a guild, and hired and fired their own professors. This walk is the student city. Two and a half hours, and the Archiginnasio and the anatomy theatre close on Sunday.
- Piazza Maggiore · The raised platform in the middle, one step up, is called the crescentone, and it was added in 1934 — before that the square was flat. The step matters because Bolognese sit on it, which is the point: it is the only piece of seating in a square that has no benches at all, and there is an unwritten rule that you can sit there as long as you like without buying anything.
- Basilica di San Petronio · Begun in 1390 and designed to be larger than St Peter’s in Rome, which is why it was never finished: the pope diverted the money to build the Archiginnasio next door instead, and the marble facing stops two-thirds of the way up the facade, where it has stayed for five hundred years. Inside, a brass line runs across the floor — a meridian laid by Gian Domenico Cassini in 1655, sixty-seven metres long, with a hole in the roof that puts a disc of sunlight on it at noon.
- Archiginnasio · Built in 1563 to give the university a single building for the first time — until then lectures were held in rented rooms and churches around the city. The walls and ceilings of the staircases and corridors are covered with about seven thousand painted coats of arms of students who held office here, which was how you paid for the privilege. Inside is the anatomy theatre of 1637, carved entirely in spruce, where the canopy over the lecturer’s chair is held up by two figures with their skin removed.
- Due Torri · Bologna had somewhere between eighty and a hundred towers in the twelfth century, built by families as both defence and status, and about twenty survive. Asinelli is ninety-seven metres, the tallest leaning tower in Italy; Garisenda next to it leans about four degrees because the ground gave way during construction and the top had to be cut off. Dante, who studied here, put Garisenda in the Inferno as a comparison for a giant leaning over him.
- Via Zamboni · The university quarter, and the university is not a campus: its buildings are scattered through ordinary streets, which is why students and residents share the same bars and the same noise, and why there is a permanent argument about it. Bologna has about eighty-five thousand students in a city of four hundred thousand, which is one of the highest proportions in Europe.
- Palazzo Poggi museums · The university’s eighteenth-century teaching collections, kept as they were: obstetric models in clay showing every way a birth can go wrong, made in the 1750s so that midwives could be trained by touch; wax anatomical figures; and the natural history cabinet of Ulisse Aldrovandi, who assembled it in the sixteenth century and is one of the founders of natural history as a discipline.
Sixty-two kilometres of portico
Bologna has sixty-two kilometres of covered arcade in its centre, which Unesco listed in 2021, and they exist for a reason that is almost comic: in the Middle Ages landlords wanted more floor space, so they extended the upper storeys out over the street on posts, and the city — instead of banning it — made it compulsory and set the minimum height at a man on a horse. The result is a city where you can cross the whole centre in the rain without an umbrella. This walk is the porticoes and the churches along them. Three hours, flat, and the last part is a climb.
- Santo Stefano · Not one church but a complex of them, built and rebuilt from the fifth century onwards on the site of a temple of Isis — the columns in the courtyard are the temple’s. It was laid out to reproduce the holy places of Jerusalem for people who could not travel there: one chapel is a copy of the Holy Sepulchre, and the basin in the courtyard was said to be the one Pilate washed his hands in.
- Santa Maria della Vita · The reason to pay the five euros is one group of seven life-size terracotta figures made by Niccolò dell’Arca in 1463 — a Lamentation, and the two running figures in it are among the most violent depictions of grief in European art: the cloaks are blown backwards, the mouths are open, and nothing about it is composed. It was made for a hospital brotherhood, and it sits in a side chapel.
- Basilica di San Domenico · Dominic died in Bologna in 1221 and his tomb here was built over two hundred and fifty years by a sequence of sculptors: Nicola Pisano and his workshop carved the sarcophagus in the 1260s, Niccolò dell’Arca added the canopy, and in 1494 a nineteen-year-old Michelangelo carved the angel on the right holding a candlestick. You can see which angel is his by looking at the hands.
- Quadrilatero · The lanes behind Piazza Maggiore still carry the names of the trades that occupied them — fishmongers, goldsmiths, drapers, butchers — because the guilds were assigned streets in the thirteenth century and the shops never moved. Via Pescherie Vecchie is still fish and vegetables. It closes on Sunday and on Thursday afternoon, which is a rule most visitors discover the hard way.
- Finestrella di Via Piella · A small shuttered window in a wall that opens onto a canal — and the canal is the surprise, because Bologna had a network of them from the twelfth century that powered silk mills and connected the city to the Po. Most were covered over in the 1950s to make roads. This window is one of about three places where you can still see water, and the stretch below it is the Canale delle Moline.
- Portico di San Luca · Three point eight kilometres of continuous covered arcade with six hundred and sixty-six arches, climbing three hundred metres to the sanctuary — the longest portico in the world, built between 1674 and 1793, and paid for arch by arch by individual families and guilds whose names are on them. It was built so that the icon of the Madonna could be carried down into the city every May without getting wet.
The fat city
La grassa is not a joke: Bologna sits in the middle of Emilia-Romagna, which produces Parmesan, prosciutto di Parma, balsamic vinegar and mortadella, and the city is where all of it was traded. The food here has rules. Tagliatelle are served with ragù and never spaghetti; tortellini go in broth, not cream; and the thing called spaghetti bolognese does not exist in Bologna and never has. Two and a half hours of walking and eating, and almost everything closes on Thursday afternoon.
- Mercato delle Erbe · A covered market of 1910 that was nearly closed in the 2000s and was saved by letting half of it become counters where you eat standing. The vegetable side is still a working market at eight in the morning. The thing to look for is friggione, a long-cooked onion and tomato relish that is the oldest written Bolognese recipe and takes three hours.
- Tamburini · A salumeria since 1932, and the counter at the back is where to understand mortadella: it is pork, finely ground, with cubes of neck fat and whole peppercorns, cooked slowly in a dry oven for hours — and it is protected, so a mortadella di Bologna must be made to a specific recipe within a defined area. The thin-sliced kind in a sandwich and the thick-cut cube with a toothpick are two different foods.
- Via Pescherie Vecchie · The old fish lane, and the reason a landlocked city had one is the canals: fish came up from the Po and from Comacchio on the Adriatic by water, which was faster than any road. The lane is now mostly wine counters, and the custom is to stand with a glass and a plate of cheese on a barrel in the street from six onwards.
- Paolo Atti e Figli · A pasta shop open since 1880, and what you see in the window is the whole local argument: sfoglia, the sheet of egg pasta, rolled by hand with a long pin rather than through a machine, because a rolled sheet is slightly rough and holds sauce where a machine-pressed one is smooth and does not. There is a guild of women, the sfogline, who do this professionally and it is a recognised trade.
- Osteria del Sole · Open since 1465 and it serves only wine — no food at all, and it never has. The arrangement is that you bring your own food, buy it in the Quadrilatero fifty metres away, and sit at a shared table. There are signs asking you not to leave rubbish. It is the oldest osteria in Bologna and probably one of the oldest continuously operating bars in Europe.
- Trattoria Anna Maria · A trattoria where the pasta is rolled on the premises every morning and the walls are covered in signed photographs of opera singers, because the theatre is two streets away and the cast eats here after the performance. The dish that settles the question is tortellini in brodo: about thirty to a bowl, each folded by hand around pork, prosciutto, mortadella and parmesan, in capon broth and nothing else.
Getting to Bologna and getting around
- Marconi Airport · The Marconi Express monorail reaches the station in seven minutes for about 11 euros
- Bologna Centrale · The junction of the whole Italian network, and Florence is 37 minutes away
Cheap eats in Bologna
Bologna is the strictest food city in Italy about its own rules, and three of them are worth knowing before you order. Tagliatelle, not spaghetti, go with ragù — and the official recipe filed with the chamber of commerce in 1972 specifies the width of the noodle at eight millimetres cooked. Tortellini go in capon broth, never in cream. And spaghetti bolognese does not exist here and never did; it is an export. Standing food is the crescentina and the tigella, split flatbreads filled with lard spread or cheese, two to four euros.
- Osteria del Sole · Wine from 2 euros, cash only, and bring your own food
- Osteria dell’Orsa · About 8 euros a plate, no booking, and the queue is the system
- Trattoria Anna Maria · About 35 euros, the pasta is rolled every morning, and book two days ahead
- Sfoglia Rina · About 12 euros, a pasta shop with a counter, and you watch the sfoglia being rolled
- Tamburini · About 15 euros for a plate of cold cuts, and a glass is 4
- Simoni Laboratorio · About 14 euros, a salumeria tasting board, and they will explain each one
- Mercato delle Erbe · 10 to 20 euros, counters inside the covered market, and closed Sunday
- Atti · Closed Sunday and Thursday afternoon, and cash is easier
Museums in Bologna
The museums here are mostly university collections, which gives them a particular character: they were built to teach rather than to impress, and several are unsettling in a way a public museum would not allow. The obstetric models at Palazzo Poggi and the anatomy theatre at the Archiginnasio are the two that people remember. Most close on Monday and the university ones close at the weekend in term time.
- Archiginnasio · 3 euros for the theatre, free for the courtyard, and closed Sunday
- Palazzo Poggi museums · From 5 euros, closed at the weekend in term, and an hour and a half
- Pinacoteca Nazionale · From 6 euros, closed Monday, and the Carracci rooms are the reason to go
- Museo Civico Archeologico · From 6 euros, closed Monday, and the Egyptian rooms are included
- Palazzo Pepoli · From 10 euros, the city history museum, and closed Monday and Tuesday
- MAMbo · From 6 euros, in a former municipal bakery, and the Morandi rooms are in it
- Museo Ebraico · From 5 euros, closed Saturday, and small
- Museo Lamborghini · From 25 euros, 30 kilometres out, and the factory tour is booked separately
Nature and day trips near Bologna
Bologna sits exactly where the Apennine foothills meet the Po plain, and you can feel it: walk south from the centre and within twenty minutes the ground tilts and you are in orchards; walk north and it is flat for a hundred and fifty kilometres to the Alps. The hills immediately above the city are public parks with no facilities at all, which is unusual and is the reason locals use them. In summer the plain is humid and still, and the hills are the only relief.
- Portico di San Luca · Free, 50 minutes up, and a bus comes back down
- Santuario di San Luca · Free, at the top of the portico, and the terrace looks over the whole plain
- Villa Ghigi · Free, no facilities at all, and a 15-minute walk from Porta Saragozza
- San Michele in Bosco · Free, a 20-minute climb from Giardini Margherita, and there is a hospital in it
- Giardini Margherita · Free, 26 hectares from 1879, a lake, and an Etruscan tomb found during the digging
- Parco della Montagnola · Free, built on the rubble of a papal fortress the citizens tore down in 1511
- Brisighella · 60 kilometres out, three hills with a clock tower, a fortress and a shrine on them
- Marzabotto · Free, 30 kilometres out, and the train from Bologna stops there
Things to do in Bologna with kids
- Due Torri · Check whether Asinelli has reopened, 498 steps, and no lift
- Museo Civico Archeologico · From 6 euros, mummies and Etruscan bronzes, and under 18s are free
- Giardini Margherita · Free, a lake with pedal boats, a playground, and shade
- Museo Ferrari · From 27 euros, 50 kilometres out, and the shuttle goes from Modena station
- Museo Lamborghini · From 25 euros, 30 kilometres out, and booked online
- Museo Ducati · From 15 euros, at the factory in the city, and booked ahead
- Sala Borsa · Free, a glass floor over a Roman dig, and the children’s library is downstairs
- Autodromo di Imola · The surrounding park is free to walk, and the track is visible from it
Live music in Bologna
Eighty-five thousand students in a city of four hundred thousand produces a particular music economy: a lot of small venues, cheap tickets, and a season that empties out completely in August when the students go home. Bologna is also the city of the Italian singer-songwriter tradition — Lucio Dalla lived and wrote here, and Francesco Guccini and Gianni Morandi are both from the area.
- Teatro Comunale · From 20 euros, and the venue may be temporary — check first
- Piazza Verdi · Free, the student square, buskers and crowds, and it is loud until two
- Cineteca di Bologna · Tickets from 6 euros, and the June festival screenings in the square are free
- Manifattura delle Arti · Free to walk, cinemas, MAMbo and the university arts faculties in one quarter
- Piazza Maggiore in summer · Free, open-air cinema in the square through July and August
- Via del Pratello · Live music in several bars, from nine, and it is the local street
- Mercato delle Erbe at night · The counters stay open as bars, and it is covered so it works in the rain
- Via Zamboni · Free, the student bars, and in term time the street is the venue
Nightlife in Bologna
The night here is cheap, early and in the street. The local custom is aperitivo: between six and nine you buy a drink for six to nine euros and food comes with it, sometimes a full buffet, and in a student city that is how a lot of people eat dinner. The drinking is in Via del Pratello, around Piazza Verdi and in the market lanes, and it is all walkable. In August the city empties almost completely.
- Via del Pratello · The bar street, nothing before nine, and it runs till two
- Piazza Verdi · Free, people drink on the steps, and the police clear it around two
- Osteria del Sole · Wine only, bring your own food, closes at nine, and cash
- Via Pescherie Vecchie · Wine counters in the market lane from six, and you stand with a barrel for a table
- Quadrilatero · The aperitivo hour fills these lanes completely, and it ends by ten
- Piazza Santo Stefano · Free, quieter, and people sit on the church steps with a bottle
- Mercato delle Erbe · Covered, open till one, and the cheapest aperitivo in the centre
- Via Zamboni · The student end, cheapest of all, and dead in August
Frequently asked questions about Bologna
What is there to see in Bologna?
The top sights in Bologna are Basilica di San Petronio, Archiginnasio and Torre degli Asinelli. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Bologna?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Bologna without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Bologna?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Bologna, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The learned city.
How do you get to Bologna and get around?
The main ways are Marconi Airport and Bologna Centrale. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Bologna, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Bologna that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Bologna for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.