Bologna

I traveled up to Bologna a few weekends ago to meet with a two professors about my work.  I have never been to Bologna before and wasn't expecting a lot, but I immediately fell in love with the city.  Rome is definitely the love of my life, but I may have to cheat on her from time to time and have a passionate and heated affair with Bologna.  It's a much smaller city, but still feels like a real and authentic Italian city, as compared to, for example, Florence, which feels a lot like Disneyland with all the tourists and shops catering to them.  It is also a wonderful mix of Medieval and modern architecture, and somehow the two blend seamlessly together.

One of the unique architectural aspects about Bologna is its portico-lined streets.  The majority of the sidewalks in the major parts of town are covered, and have been since the Renaissance. 

I was fortunate to have beautiful weather while there, but I can only imagine how wonderful the porticoes are when it rains or snows.  Since Bologna is much further north than Rome, the temperatures are quite cooler.

Inside the Duomo of Bologna, which isn't particularly famous since neither its architecture nor its altarpieces are by anyone especially famous.  When I was inside, however, I finally realized why quadratura, or the painted imitation of 3d architecture, is a Bolognese specialty.  The "architecture" that you see here around the altarpiece is completely flat.

See?  Although painting trompe l'oeil (literally, to trick the eye) was a fun display of skill practiced by many painters, it wasn't until the late 16th century in Bologna when a school of painters really perfected the depiction of fictive architecture.  This style of painting became immensely popular and spread throughout the peninsula, especially to Rome under the pontificate of Gregory XIII (my pope!).

View of the Palazzo Comunale and the Piazza Maggiore.

Giambologna's fountain of Neptune.  Giambologna is one of my favorite sculptors-- you may remember in my Vienna post how excited I was to see a tiny bronze statuette of Astronomia while in the Kunsthistorisches museum there.

Like many Mannerist artists, Giambologna inserted a bit of humor into this work.  If viewed from a specific angle Neptune's arm looks rather like a different appendage...

But he's got nothing on the mermaids that make up the base of the fountain!

Above the door on the Palazzo Comunale is a bronze statue of Gregory XIII.  He is Bolognese by birth and attended the University of Bologna, and so his native city figures prominently in many of his commissions.  For example, on the walls of the Sala Bologna (the room of my dissertation) are painted maps of his hometown (therefore giving the room its name).

Another view of Piazza Maggiore.

Like all Medieval towns, Bologna was once home to numerous towers, in this case over 200, of which about 20 survive.  These two are the most famous, with the tower on the left, the Tower of Garisenda, leaning so precariously that it makes the Leaning Tower of Pisa look quite stable by comparison.

Better view of the two towers.  The Tower of Asinelli (on the right) is open inside and you can walk up it, but it was too late in the day for me to do so.

See what I mean?  Quite tilted...

Street of markets open in the evening.

I've heard that Bologna is famous for its food, but how good could it be I thought.  After all, it's not like we're lacking good food in Rome.  With that said, I have never seen food more beautiful in my life!  The vegetables were the brightest and most colorful I've ever seen; the cheese and meat was stacked in windows begging to be purchased and eaten immediately.  I don't consider myself a foodie by ANY means, but after seeing some of these window displays I began to understand why some people are.

Given its proximity to Parma there are wheels and wheels of beautiful Parmesan cheese everywhere.

Pecorino is a cheese very common and popular in Rome (and one of my favorites), and here there are stacks and stacks of mouth-watering wheels.  I almost peed my pants and fell over.  How I adore cheese!