Thursday, January 7, 2016

Our Bologna Walking Adventure

Move over, expensive bus tours and Ferrari factory tours that charge extortionist rates! Old town Bologna is a city one should walk around!!! There is only 1 main traffic road passing through the centre that I could see from the top of the Torre Asinelli - the tallest remaining tower in the city  - 598 steps up!! Apparently all families of note erected a tower each. Today most have collapsed or have been reduced to about 3 stories high and capped. Nearby is the Food Precinct in the Quatra Latino area - a must to visit!  Delicatessens with hundreds of hanging meats, cheeses and local foods, wine bars, cafes, fish and vegetable shops, restaurants, pizzerias and the crowded Mercate di Mezzo Food Hall – where we lunched – had so many choices of freshly-prepared-in front-of-you foods. Just around the we strolled through the very upmarket Cavore Galleria shopping mall - which included a Ferrari shop, and the ornate Venetian designed Santa Maria Bella Vita church – well worth a peek inside -  wow! very dramatic! 

The Palazzo d'Accursio museum across from the Basilica of San Petronio in the Piazza Maggiore we enjoyed, for as well as the significant art works and sculptures, the rooms have been restored and have amazing frescoes painted in the 1500’s by Prospero Fontana. Especially amusing was the room at the  far end – which was done up as a leafy conservatory – where one could imagine that a barbie or picnic, Italian style, would have been held. 

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