After 2 weeks in Mondavio for the language school, it was time to switch locations. Francesco and Doni were kind enough to host us again. On Saturday we moved from Mondavio to Fano in time to have lunch with them, and then did a bit of walking around the city. Their street is narrow but there are a few cars parked on it anyway.
We stopped for a cioccolata calda (Italian hot chocolate) at a local bar.
Unfortunately we learned that Francesco's longtime friend Tiziano died that week, at the age of 62. He was obviously well liked by many. On the memorial sign in Fano, 6 or the 8 spots were taken with remembrances of Tiziano.
On Sunday, Francesco and Doni took us to Bologna, the city of "la Dotta, la Rossa, la Grassa". That translates to "the learned, the red, the fat". Learned because Bologna houses the oldest continuously active university in the world. Red because of the red terracotta roofs as well as orange-pink-red buildings (and communist leanings in WWII). Fat because of excellent food (such as the famous meat Mortadella). But perhaps the thing Bologna is most famous for are the porticoes. These extend even outside of the downtown 'centro' area. Paul & Francesco are walking from our parking spot outside of the downtown area.
You can walk literally for miles under the porticoes, only having to come out to cross the streets. Once we got to the city center, many of these covered walkways were very wide.
Another interesting architectural feature of Bologna are the doors. At some point in Bologna's history, having a really large front door was obviously a status symbol. To make them more practical for daily use, most of these doors have a smaller door cut into them.
Sometimes the doors are left off, if the building inside provides other opportunities for doors. This building is the Palazzo Davia Bargellini, which houses a small museum. We did not visit the museum.
If you visit Bologna, you can consider taking advantage of the adorable CityBOexpress tour bus, or train if you prefer.
The porticoes originated around 1000 years ago as a way of having more building space while still allowing room for pedestrians. Another way the citizens of Bologna increased their household living space was to have slanted supports from the lower wall to the bottom of a larger upper story. We saw this on many of the smaller streets.
One of our stops was the Piazza Santo Stefano, also known as the Seven Churches Square. The surface of the plaza is a bit rough, yet we saw some women somehow walking in high heels on it. This photo is the road leading into the plaza.
The name of the plaza comes from the Basilica of Santo Stefano, known locally as 'Seven Churches'. This nickname is because there are multiple buildings, built in different eras, that are merged into one larger building. The primary modern church was having a service when we were there.
Touring was permitted in other areas of the church complex. The Church of the Sepulcher has a very large pulpit for a rather small area.
Next to that was an even older area, Basilica of Saints Vitale and Agricola. In this next photograph, notice the column on the left near the altar.
Yes, the column is being held together (or at least supported) by some iron work.
Here is Anne standing in the exterior doorway of this section.
At a courtyard in the complex was a man with some complicated gear that included 5 fish-eye cameras. His English was not very good, and he did not speak Italian at all, but he said that he was part of a German start-up company that was making virtual tours. We have not been able to find what company it was.
A last glance at the church as we left. Presumably that is an exterior pulpit on the left of the building.
Bologna is famous for towers, particularly the Two Towers: Asinelli (the taller one) and Garisenda (the shorter one). As (bad) luck would have it, however, the weekend we were there is the weekend that they closed the towers due to fears of collapse.
Updated June 2024