La Storia di Bologna

Today we had my urban history class outside, walking around the city to see the traces of Medieval and Renaissance Bologna that are now the homes of cafes and shoe stores. I love seeing the way cities incorporate old towers or porticos and just keep going. They are truly living things that change and evolve drastically over the years, but luckily for us retain bits here and there from the past.

To start our tour we had to get coffee, obviously, so we stopped at a lovely cafe on Via Alessandrini called Opera Caffè e Tulipani. The surprise for us was that our professor had chosen this spot because of the tiny balcony it has overlooking one of the few remaining canals of Bologna. This street used to be a canal for the windmills of the city, and while now there is just a tiny piece of waterway left, it was amazing to see an echo of what the entire city would have looked like a mere century ago.

After sipping on some coffees and listening to the rushing water, we walked a street over to the next canal on Via Oberdan, which also flows under Via Piella with a little picture window looking over it to enhance the effect of the view.

I walked by these canals almost every day for 5 months and had no idea they were there. Now I like to stop on my way to class and just stare at them for a few minutes, making up for lost time. Apparently there was a time when you could travel through the entire city by boat, and the larger canals connected with one huge one that connected Venice to Bologna! The last ticket from Bologna to Venice by boat was sold in 1930.

After our little canal tour, we stopped to notice one of the torresotti on Via Oberdan. The torresotti were part of the medieval wall built to enlarge and protect the city around 1300. These little towers with gates under them were the only access points into the city, farmers and merchants were taxed as they entered through them and they would be closed every night. Parts of the medieval wall that connected them are now built into the houses on either side.

We were told to look up as we walked through the streets further towards centro, and doing so we noticed many more towers that seem to hide in plain site until you look up. Bologna used to have more than 200 of these towers, resembling a medieval Manhattan full of skyscrapers. Each of the towers was constructed by a different powerful family, and when the Comune took power around 1000 it either forcibly purchased the towers or had them torn down, because the familial power was a threat to that of the citizens.

A brief pit-stop (and another order to "look up!") brought some medieval porticos to our attention. These wooden beams, probably carbon by now, have been standing for 800 years. Fun fact: the famous porticos of Bologna were originally constructed to make more space for inhabitation and give artisans room to work outside. Porticos were in many cities until the comunes ordered them destroyed. However, the Comune of Bologna decided it liked the idea of porticos, and so not only did the Comune allow the existing ones to stay, it also ordered that new ones be built on all new construction. The funny thing is that although the space under the porticos is for public use, they *technically* belong to the owner of the building- who is thus in charge of keeping that space clean- hence the smell of pee under many of them. Hey, I'd refuse to clean that too.

Our final treat of the day, was a private visit to the normally closed bell tower (campanile) behind San Pietro. We climbed up a sloping stone ramp with little treads built in (which I prefer to stairs because they trick my brain into thinking the climb is easier) and arrived (after many, many loops) in a little whitewashed room beneath the bells that had windows overlooking the entire city!

Another room right above that had even bigger views, and a tiny wooden staircase leading up to the massive room of bells at the very top. Surprisingly we were not allowed to ring them.

It was quite an impressive class! I wish all of my courses were this wonderful- and photogenic. The day made me love Bologna even more.