29-Jan-2025
How quickly the time has gone here... Tomorrow, we're off again.
Bologna is an absolutely beautiful strolling place, and I never get tired of its porticos (which is a good thing, as Bologna has the longest set in Europe).
On Monday, on the recommendation of a friend, we walked the world's longest portico... Constructed between 1674 and 1721, it runs a distance of 3.8 km from Porta Saragozza up to the Basilica of San Luca, 300 metres above sea level. There isn't one of the figures in that sentence that I don't find astonishing...
Porta Saragozza
The beginning of the pilgrims' route
The so-called "Fat Madonna". She doesn't look fat to me...
The portico veers right...
...crosses the road...
...and marches upwards
There are frescoes and statues at regular intervals...
...and interim views, to encourage you as you climb
An overview picture we took this morning, showing the portico snaking up the mountain
At the top you get a really fabulous outlook
The church
And then we're heading down again...
We rewarded ourselves with a couple of tigelle, a classic flatbread from these parts. Bologna is overflowing with good things to eat, but we've been quite abstemious -- payback for the overcarbing of several consecutive travel days
What else? Well, there are the elevated tombs housing notable law professors, the oldest of which dates back to the 13th century:
We had planned to view a few more tombs at the noted Cercosa cemetery, but it was closed today because of the weather. Yesterday's weather, presumably, because that was when a brief but mighty wind whipped through Bologna. It left us unscathed, but it seems to have done quite a bit of damage elsewhere. Never mind. Next time...
Otherwise, walks have included more of the features I noted in the last post, namely, porticos, colours, and bricks:
But there have been a couple of other curiosities worthy of documenting:
This, believe it or not, is the entrance to a supermarket...
This street is a little haven of informal art
And you can still see remnants of Bologna's walls and canal system here and there
These iron gates used to close off the Aposa canal
There has been one downside to our otherwise wonderful accommodation here. Once again, we seem to be living in the vicinity of some kind of private gym... It's right above us this time. Or, at least, that's the only explanation we can think of for the range of strange (and loud) noises that fill whole afternoons or evenings. It's disconcerting, definitely. We very rarely run across noisy accommodation, and so it's a bit weird that two out of the last four places have been in that category.
Despite this drawback, we've enjoyed Bologna. When we originally planned to come here, we'd also contemplated a day trip to Modena or Ferrara. But having seen how much there was on offer here, we decided to just stay in the city. Even so, we're leaving with a lot unexplored.
Tomorrow, winds and other factors permitting: Innsbruck.