Bologna: delights

June 28, 2025
Cool sign for a stationary store
Not sure if there’s a word for this but we saw several plates with faces that surround a keyhole (key goes in mouth)
Paintings in the basílico de santo stefano
Very cool former water tank that we don’t know anything else about
This very typical street scene shows two of Bologna’s towers. They are both leaning, the short one at a severe angle.
Many towers were built by wealthy families during medieval times. A handful of towers in Bologna remain, including these two. Read more here! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towers_of_Bologna
Main square in Bologna. The building on the right is a civic center.
We took a tourist shuttle up to the sanctuary of San Luca, a church on a hilltop above Bologna
Very impressive church building
It was very hot, which is why we took the shuttle up there instead of walking
The view from San Luca was really nice too. The structure shown here is the portico that goes from Bologna up 600+ stairs over several miles. It’s shaded but very strenuous.
Here’s the top of the portico where it ends at San Luca. Everyone who walked up emerged panting and very sweaty, making us very glad that we took the shuttle

We returned to Milan the night before our flight to Dublin and we stayed overnight very near the train station. Here’s a view of the quite elegant train station from our hotel (where we had a Juliet balcony!) Great trip to Italy! Grazie mile!

One comment on “Bologna: delights”

  1. Those open-mouth door locks are interesting, and a little bit scary. They remind me of the Boca Della Veritas (mouth of truth) in Rome, which appeared in a 1953 film, “Roman Holiday.” I saw the film when I was 8 years old, and it scared me. It’s a face with an open mouth, and a person puts their hand in the mouth. If the person has been lying, they say it will bite their hand.

    Also, I wonder why so many towers lean? Is it lack of engineering know-how and/or unstable ground?

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