Explore Emilia-Romagna
Emilia’s capital, BOLOGNA, is a thriving city, whose light-engineering and high-tech industries have brought conspicuous wealth to the old brick palaces and porticoed streets. It’s well known for its food – undeniably the richest in the country – and for its politics. “Red Bologna” became the Italian Left’s stronghold and spiritual home, having evolved out of the resistance movement to German occupation during World War II. Consequently, Bologna’s train station was singled out by Fascist groups in 1980 for a bomb attack in Italy’s worst postwar terrorist atrocity – a glassed-in jagged gash in the station wall commemorates the tragedy in which 84 people died. In subsequent decades, the city’s political leanings have been less predictable, although its “leftist” reputation continues to stick.
Bologna is certainly one of the best-looking cities in the country. The centre is startlingly medieval in plan, a jumble of red brick, tiled roofs and balconies radiating out from the great central square of Piazza Maggiore. There are enough monuments and curiosities for several days’ leisured exploration, including plenty of small, quirky museums, some tremendously grand Gothic and Renaissance architecture and, most conspicuously, the Due Torri, the city’s own “leaning towers”. Thanks to the university, there’s always something happening – be it theatre, music, the city’s lively summer festival, or just the café and bar scene, which is among northern Italy’s most convivial.
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The 2012 earthquakes
The 2012 earthquakes
On 20 May 2012, pressure caused by the slow movement of the Apennines through the Po valley caused a magnitude-6 earthquake to shake the Emilia-Romagna region. The first quake was followed in successive days by hundreds of aftershocks, leaving 26 people dead, 20,000 homeless and many historic structures damaged. The epicentre was in the province of Modena, and although the town itself was largely unaffected, the surroundings fared less well; many of the dead were workers in warehouses and factories which had not been constructed to withstand serious seismic movement. An important contributor to the local economy – the production of grana padano and parmigiano-reggiano cheeses – was affected when storage facilities collapsed, causing an estimated €200 million-worth of damage. In total, it is thought that the earthquake damage will exceed €4 billion, and experts believe that the spate of earthquakes will continue for years to come.
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Bologna’s porticoes
Bologna’s porticoes
No other city has anything like the number of porticoes or covered walkways found in Bologna. In the city centre there are barely any stretches of pavement not topped by an ornate, arched covering. They make a vivid first impression, especially at night, while by day they provide an unofficial catwalk for Bologna’s well-turned-out residents. The first porticoes were built out of wood, some thirteenth-century examples of which still stand. They proved so popular that by the fourteenth century construction of stone or brick porticoes, high enough to accommodate people on horseback, had become compulsory on all new streets. Today, some 38km still stand, including the longest portico in the world, leading from the city up to the Santuario di San Luca.
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Bologna's restaurants
Bologna's restaurants
Eating is especially important to the Bolognese: the city is known as La Grassa (“The Fat One”), the result of a rich culinary tradition. Its restaurants are said to be the best in Italy, and even the simplest restaurants and the many osterie often serve dishes of a very high standard.
Some of Bologna’s most colourful sights are inside its many food stores, particularly those between Piazza Maggiore and the Due Torri, epitomized by Tamburini at Via Caprarie 1. All manner of goodies are on offer, but look out in particular for tagliatelle and tortellini, regarded with great affection by Bologna’s inhabitants – the first tortellini are said to have been made by a Bolognese innkeeper trying to re-create the beauty of Venus’s navel.
