City areas

The centre is an area with large and luxurious arcades of bright red and white marble that alternate with tree-lined avenues and squares where you can smell the scent of trees and flowers or, sometimes in winter, let yourself be captivated by the fog that wraps the landscape. With a little luck, you can catch a glimpse of gorgeous courtyards hidden inside private buildings, or look out of windows overlooking stretches of the river that resurfaces. Bologna revolves entirely around its main square, Piazza Maggiore, which is surrounded by some of the most important buildings of the medieval city. In front of the Basilica of San Petronio you can see the so-called crescentone, a large granite raised floor, which has been recently made accessible to everyone.

This area of Bologna is one of the richest parts of the city; in addition to ancient buildings and arcades, you can see various shop windows with designer clothes, trendy handbags, high-heel shoes, and silk scarves. It is therefore ideal for unbridled shopping lovers, but also for art historians and culture enthusiasts who can visit the famous Seven churches, the complex of the Basilica of Santo Stefano which is located in the homonym and beautiful square, or the charming cloister of the Basilica of San Domenico (where the relics of the saint are preserved), where everything is surrounded by silence. Service information: in this area you can also find the central post offices of the city, open until evening.

These are the famous places of knowledge, both residential and familiar. Trees and courtyards, squares full of umarell, bars with vintage table-football tables that recall that Sports bar style that was once so common to many Italian cities, where you almost never eat anything, as the writer Stefano Benni tells in his book Bar Sport, and where - let us add - you can smell wine, peanuts, newspapers and coffee, and you can always find regular customers. But you can also find historic streets, such as via Zamboni, the heart of the oldest university in the world and still very popular among international students, as well as ancient buildings that are worth visiting.

The area near the station is a nerve centre - as in any city. As you walk, you can see a distinct range of landscapes with different architectural shapes and lines. Some of them seem deserted and abandoned, others form small centres around which life revolves, others are so full of people that you will have the feeling of never being alone. Not far from the station are the Cavaticcio park, the MAMbo (Museum of modern and contemporary art), and the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna. Going all the way down via Marconi, just before Piazza Malpighi, you reach the intersection with via del Pratello, one of the meeting points of the city's nightlife.

It all began in the 1960s when public housing buildings were built in the North-Eastern outskirts of the city as a way to cope with the increase in citizens, due to national migrations. It is in this context that the peripheral Pilastro district was born. An area that today is rich in parks, social regeneration projects and an active city community. Here are many associations committed to daily and tenaciously trying to regain an identity free from stereotypes.

This city area is located outside the walls of the ancient city, quickly reachable by crossing the bridge in via Matteotti. The neighbourhood, which is located behind the train station, was characterized by a strong concentration of labour and manufacturing workers at the end of the nineteenth century - and more precisely following the urban development plan of 1889 that moved the factories from the city centre to the suburbs. Today, in this district, which is one of the most multi-ethnic and lively in the Emilian capital, there are citizens of all geographical and social origins. The district of La Bolognina also houses the administrative heart of the city, in the recent buildings in Piazza Liber Paradisus and in the Palazzo Bonaccorso.