Continued from the previous page.
Bologna is a large city and has the usual parking issues that happen in any large city. One solution is a small electric vehicle, such as this little Renault Twizy. Technically it isn't actually a car; it is considered an electric quadricycle.
Another creative solution to parking in Bologna is a parking garage ... underground, with an elevator. The entrance is on one side, and the platform will carry the car down for parking. When ready to leave, the elevator can take the car back up to the surface.
Or sometimes people find a spot on the side of a road, such as Francesco did with his vintage Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint. (Just kidding; this is just a car we happened to walk by.)
It was getting to be lunch time, but we managed to get in to see the Basilica di San Petronio just before they closed for lunch. (Doni had to sweet talk them into letting us in.) As you will certainly notice in the photograph below, the bottom section is finished with marble and the top is rather rustic looking brick. Construction of the church started in 1390. The facade was started in 1538 (148 years later, work having been stop and go at various times). However, agreement was not reached on what the top should look like and funding was diverted elsewhere, so the top portion was never completed.
A major feature of the interior of the church is astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini's meridian line. A meridian line is like a sundial, but instead of telling the time of day it indicates the day of the year. The large size of this meridian line allowed unusually exact measurements for the time, enabling some scientific advances, such as the verification Kepler's laws of planetary motion.
The church is very large in scale.
The nearby famous Fountain of Neptune was temporarily cordoned off; we do not know why.
Lunch was at a restaurant called Osteria al 15, which was slightly away from the main piazzas. Despite this, and despite the fact that it was 2 PM, the restaurant was very busy. Once we got to our seats, though, they were very organized and the food was good. Paul had tortelloni with sage butter. Anne had a rich vegetarian lasagna. Doni had polpette (meatballs), and Francesco had tagliatelle with mushroom. We also tried their tomino with sliced pear and honey. Tomino is a very soft cheese from Piedmont and made an interesting and tasty dish.
Continuing with our tour of Bologna after lunch, this ornate terracotta door portal ...
led us to this ornate interior. It is the Poor Clares Corpus Domini Monastery. Originally founded in the 1400s, the Baroque style interior was made in 1687. The building was again restored because of WWII damage.
Near another church (the church of San Domenico) is an unusual site: a tomb on a pedestal. More precisely it is called the Arca di Rolandino de' Passaggeri. Rolandino literally wrote the book on notaries, written in 1255 and used for centuries to help notaries create documents and contracts. In the background is a second sepulchral ark where Egidio Foscarari is buried. Foscarari was a Dominican bishop who was born in Bologna. Also in this piazza is the Colonna Madonna del Rosario, named that for obvious reasons.
Pigeons have no respect. Most likely if you stood still long enough they would land on your head as well. This statue is of Camillo Benso, who was leader in Italian unification in the 1800s.
In another piazza is a statue of Luigi Galvani, who in the late 1700s studied the effects of electricity on muscles. A young woman was practicing her drawing skills with this statue.
An interesting building that still has wooden porticoes is Casa Isolani. The original wooden supports are still there, although they have been reinforced with large brick pillars. In the 1990s the building was renovated, restoring the interior to be closer to the original design and also opening up a passageway that can bring you over to the Seven Churches Square (mentioned earlier).
Since it was getting late, we headed out. Anne was thirsty, and Il Caffè Dei Gomitoli caught her eye. It is a coffee shop that sells yarn, or perhaps it is a yarn shop that sells coffee. Paul and Anne got hot chocolates, though, not coffee. A woman sitting near us was learning how to crochet, and showed us the lovely hat that she had made.
Here is a final look back at Bologna, with the tower Asinelli viewed through Porta Maggiore (which no longer has any wall connected to it).
If you want to see a little bit more of Bologna, Joy of Languages Italian School has a video, with English subtitles, of a visit to the city.
Updated January 2024