Bologna is a beautiful city, and travelers could spend a day just strolling its arcaded streets and admiring its ornamented buildings and palaces. These sights are the ones not to miss.
Basilica di San Petronino
Originally intended to be larger than St. Peter’s in Rome, the church was never finished, but is still impressively grand. Side chapels are each the size of a small church, and on the floor of the nave a meridian line acts as an astronomical sundial. In the small museum (closed from 12:30 to 2:30pm)look for the drawings for completing the half-finished façade; numbers 10-12 were submitted by Andrea Palladio.
Le Due Torri
Tall towers once crowned many of the city’s the palaces, but only two remain, the Asinelli and Garisenda, standing side by side and leaning at alarming angles that rival the Tower of Pisa. Climb the taller Asinella’s interior stairways for stunning views of the city.
Basilica San Dominico
Saint Dominic died in the Bologna convent of the order he founded, and is buried here. Among the city’s most revered treasures, his tomb is carved in marble by artists that includes Pisano and Michelangelo. Don’t miss the outstanding wood inlay work in the choir.
San Stefano
The religious ensembleis made up of five Romanesque churches dating from the 8th to 13th centuries. The older church of the Holy Sepulchre was built in the 5th century, but(renovated in the 12th century), as well as that of San Vitale ed Agricola renovated in the 8th and 11th centuries.
Museo Civico Medioevale
The collections of art and stonework from the Middle Ages are outstanding, and well displayed. The museum is open daily, with no mid-day break.
Oratorio Santa Maria della Vita
The tiny and newly re-opened 1604 Oratorio isalmost hidden upstairs off Via Clavature, but its fresco ceiling is so incredible that two long benches are set under it so visitors can lie down to look up at it. At one end is a gold altar, on the other a large terra cotta relief.
Teatro Anatomico
Medical students once learned anatomy in this beautiful lecture hall, whose entire interior is paneled in cedar wood.
Oratorio S Cecelia
Hidden for many years and only recently reopened, this extraordinary church on Via Zamboni is completely covered inside with a medieval fresco cycle.
Pinacoteca Nazionale
The art gallery contains works by Giotto, Raphael and other Italian luminaries, its nucleus being works take from local convents and churches when these were nationalized under the rule of Napoleon. One entire gallery is filled with Medieval frescoes.
Museo Civico Archeologico
More than 200,000 works dating from as early as prehistoric times include galleries of artifacts from Etruscan, Greek, Roman and Egyptian times. Closed Monday.
