Go Citybreak:A stubborn individualism beats at the heart of Bologna, a city rich with poetry, hidden treasures, culinary delights and contradictions, writes Lorraine Courtney
WITH ITS walls flushed salmon, its rooftops crimson, Bologna is perhaps the most visually arresting of northern Italian cities. To wander under its canopied loggias - the covered arcades that line its streets - stopping momentarily to study the frescoes that decorate the facades of its palazzos and ancient university, is the best introduction to a city whose identity is splendidly complicated. In the family of Italian cities, Bologna is the winningly eccentric relative - a crank, a genius, a tough visionary. And like all true eccentrics, there's a fiery logic to its schemes.
It's impossible to be nonchalant about Bologna. This most contentious - and therefore possibly most Italian - of cities inspires fierce opinions. How can one be dispassionate about a city whose university, the oldest in Europe (it predates even Oxford), hired women law professors to instruct Petrarch and St Thomas Becket?
For centuries Bologna has approximated an urban version of The Canterbury Taleswith its procession of mad botanists, renegade friars, staunch jurists and brilliant inventors. A city so varied in its identity that Marconi could invent the radio, Charles V could crown himself emperor and Rossini, in the best Italian tradition, could settle there just for the cuisine.
A stubborn individualism beats at the heart of this city. If Rome is the seat of imperial will, then Bologna is its maverick counterpart. Doggedly improvising its independence, Bologna was the first Italian city to emancipate its serfs and the first to rekindle the letter of Roman law. It's this instinct for autonomy that, until the 15th century, allowed Bologna to resist genuflecting to the Papal States as well as to fascism during the second World War.
Bologna is a city of paradoxes. The wealthiest non-industrial city in northern Italy, it is run by the communist party. Yet only in Bologna could party adherents surface at rallies garbed in gold sandals and designer jeans. In a country that glorifies long-suffering, theirs is a denunciation not of the worldly but of the material. Yet nowhere can one shop or eat as well as in this city. A showcase of temptation, it abounds in the forbidden: expensive foods, leather goods and textiles.
It's a city where Marx and Mastercard vie equally for the fiscal conscience. No matter; Bologna can tolerate that ambiguity. It's a bastion of intellectual inquiry. It is this dedicated bourgeois approach that has earned Bologna its two sobriquets: dotta (learned) and grassa (fat). Students, collapsed in existential crisis, revive themselves with what is regarded as the finest food in Italy.
In a city famed for the loggias that ribbon over 40km within its walls, one can circle endlessly without ever penetrating its core. The portici were built by order of the town authorities to house temporary visitors. They had to be wide enough that a man could lie down under them to sleep.
The city's identity rests largely within its institutions - its academic and civic faculties as well as its monastic network. The 19th-century traveller, primed with fortitude, would seek these out by instinct. Bologna's hidden treasures - its 14th-century lecture halls, its sanctuaries, its tombs of medieval lawyers and saints - were the reward of a calculated imagination.
Having spent nearly 600 years under papal rule, it's not surprising that Bologna has more than 200 churches, oratories, sanctuaries, convents and sacred places of great architectural and artistic design.
At the heart of the city is Piazza Maggiore, with its 16th-century Neptune fountain and its medieval palaces, now used as government buildings. Dominating the square is the Basilica of San Petronio (the patron of Bologna). Construction took 350 years, from 1309 to 1659, although decorations inside are not complete. Frescoes just begun on stone columns remain unfinished. The building is immense and, inside, the play of light and space is intriguing. The air remains refreshingly cool despite the heat outside. It is noted in the history books as the place where, in 1530, Charles V was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Clement VII.
Unwilling to spend unmarked time, today's traveller, content with a few choice holiday snaps and a fistful of postcards, leaves Bologna strangely unsatisfied. "What have I missed?" he ponders. One of the greatest cities in Italy, one that demands effort. Bologna is much like a sonnet. It is tightly constructed, its parts interrelated, and it is full of the most sombre poetry.
Where to stay, where to eat and where to go if you're planning a weekend in Bologna
5 places to stay
• Albergo Garisenda. 9 Via Rizzoli, 00-39-51-224369, www.albergogarisenda.com. One of the cheaper options, overlooking two towers. Doubles €65-€110 per room.
• Grand Hotel Baglioni. 8 Via Indipendenza, 00-39-51-225445, www.baglionihotels.com. You will get a warm welcome in a hotel that offers elegance, tradition and prestige. Superior double room for about €295.
• Grand Hotel Elite. 36 Via Aurelio Saffi, 00-39-41-8620480 www.grandhotelelite.hotels bologna.it. This four-star hotel is elegant and comfortable. Doubles from €89 per room.
• Hotel Orologio. 10 Via IV Novembre, 00-39-51-7457411, www.art-hotel-orologio.it. In a delightful palazzo. The clock in the tower doesn't strike during the night. Doubles €358 per room.
• Hotel Roma. 9 Via Massiomo d'Azeglio, 00-39-51-226322, www.hotelroma.biz/eng/index.php. Superbly located and, despite an overpowering floral decor, it is fairly upmarket and offers superior comfort. Doubles €150 per room.
5 places to eat
• Ristorante Diana. 24 Via dell Indipendenza, 00-39-51-231302. Famous for its tortellini and white-suited waiters. You dine well under crystal chandeliers.
• La Stanze. Via Borgo Di San Pietro, 00-39-51-228767, www.lestanzecafe.com. This used to be the chapel of a patrician's palazzo. Marvel at its frescoed walls and ceilings. People-watching opportunities are superior to the food.
• Marsalino. 13d Via Marsala, 00-39-51-238675. This is a tearoom at 4pm, a cocktail bar from 6pm and a restaurant from 8pm. Compact and arty.
• Trattoria da Danio. 50a Via San Felice, 00-39-51-555202. This popular local haunt serves delights such as pumpkin-filled tortellini and veal cutlets. It's great value, too.
• Trattoria da Gianni. 18 Via Clavature, 00-39-51-229434. Its home-made pasta is delish, as the testimonials and reviews decking its walls attest. Fresh flowers on the tables are a nice touch. Da Gianni is the ultimate in home-style Bolognese cooking.
5 places to go
• Palazzo Comunale. 6 Piazza Maggiore, 00-39-51-203111. Bologna's city hall, a 14th-century palazzo, has a very rich collection of Renaissance paintings, sculptures and antique furniture. Don't miss its enormous main staircase, designed to be used by horse-drawn carriages chauffeuring their passengers up to the first floor.
• In Piazza del Nettuno, you find the charming fountain of Neptune, which was sculpted by iambologna and dates back to 1566. The Roman god of the sea, armed with his trident, stands in a classical pose. The four cherubs represent the winds, and the four sirens, water spewing from each nipple, symbolise the four known continents of this pre-Oceania world.
• The Basilica di San Domenico (13 Piazza San Domenico) south-aisle chapel features an angel carved by Michelangelo when he was just 19. When Mozart spent a month in the city's music academy, he occasionally played the church organ. San Domenico's skull lies in a reliquary behind the sarcophagus.
• Cinema Lumière. 55a Via Pietralata, 00-39-51-523812. While it is largely devoted to restoring old movies (there is a festival of silent films every June), the archive has more than 9,000 rare prints, including classic Russian films.
• If you feel a little more adventurous, climb the 498 steps up Bologna's own leaning tower, from which there is a fine view across the city and countryside. The Torre degli Asinelli, built in 1109, leans 2.1m out of its vertical axis. It reaches up to 70m and dominates its twin, the truncated Torre Garisenda, which tilts even farther. Dante lived among these towers while a student in the city and gave them a place in his first rhymes.
Shopping
The four main shopping streets - Via dell'Indipendenza, Via Ugo Bassi, Via Rizzoli and Via d'Azeglio - lead off Piazza Maggiore. You'll find antiques and second-hand books, as well as all the top Italian designers. There is a daily morning book market on Piazza Maggiore during the winter months.
Hot spot
The student quarter around the university - Via Zamboni, Via delle Belle Arte and surrounding areas - is full of bars, restaurants and clubs that stay open until 4am.
A taste of Bologna
Not for nothing did the city earn its sobriquet Bologna la Grassa (Bologna the Fat). Pellegrino Artusi, a noted expert on Italian cuisine, wrote in 1891: "When you hear mention made of Bolognese cooking, drop a little curtsy, for it deserves it. It is a rather heavy cuisine, if you like, because the climate requires it - but how succulent it is and what good taste it displays." Restaurants are plentiful, and typical Bolognese hospitality is almost excessive. The traditional cart loaded with steaming dishes is still pushed from table to table and, after ordering one of the local wines, perhaps a Lambrusco di Sorbara (a sparkling red, and a perfect choice with Bolognese cooking), let your eye roam over your first course: tagliatelle, boiled and served with ragu, butter and grated Parmesan cheese. Then try one of the meat dishes, which will make your mouth water: cotoletta alla Bolognese(veal cutlet), filetti di tacchino(slices of tender turkey breast, baked in the oven and sprinkled with white wine) or involtini(rolls of veal, stuffed with spices and cooked in ragù).
In the red
The tag Bologna la Rossa (Bologna the red) refers to Bologna's communist administration since the war. Apart from Kerala, in India, it is the only place in the world where communists have won and held power through free elections. Bologna-style communism subtly mixes ideology with pragmatism.
It is often said within Italy that communist Bologna is the best administered, socially most progressive and egalitarian, and least corrupt place in Italy.
Go there: British Airways (www.britishairways.com), Lufthansa (www.lufthansa .com) and Alitalia (www.alitalia.com) fly direct from Dublin to Bologna. Both Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) and Aer Lingus (www.aerlingus .com) will run direct routes from February and March next year. A regular bus service links the airport with the railway station