Budget · 3-hour walk · Bologna
Bologna's medieval centre in three hours
Neptune, the unfinished basilica, the old university's anatomy theatre, the market lanes, the two towers and the seven churches.
Bologna kept its medieval centre almost whole, and kept it under cover: more than 38 kilometres of porticoes line the streets of the historic centre, so this route works in rain or sun. It starts in the civic heart around Piazza Maggiore, passes through the old university and the market lanes of the Quadrilatero, and ends at the cluster of churches of Santo Stefano. Go in the morning, when the market stalls are full and the Archiginnasio is open.
The route, stop by stop
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Fontana del Nettuno
Giambologna's bronze Neptune, fixed in place around 1566 on a fountain designed by Tommaso Laureti. The inscription on the basin gives 1564, which is wrong.
10 min here Walk here → -
Piazza Maggiore
The main square, closed by the city hall, the Palazzo del Podestà and the basilica. In summer a cinema screen goes up here for free open-air films.
15 min here Walk here → -
Basilica di San Petronio
Begun in 1390, and its façade is still unfinished, half marble and half brick. Cassini laid the 66.8-metre meridian line in the floor of the left aisle in 1655 to time the sun's noon passage.
25 min here Walk here → -
Archiginnasio
The university's main building from 1563, its walls and vaults painted with some 6,000 coats of arms of former students. The wooden anatomical theatre of 1636 was rebuilt from its own fragments after the bombing of 29 January 1944.
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Quadrilatero
The market lanes behind the square, where the medieval guilds had their shops. Delis hang mortadella and culatello in the windows, and fishmongers and greengrocers set out their stalls under the arcades.
20 min here Walk here → -
The Two Towers
The Asinelli, 97 metres, and the shorter Garisenda, which leans so far that the city sealed it off in October 2023 and is still shoring it up. Neither can be climbed; look from Piazza di Porta Ravegnana.
10 min here Walk here → -
Santo Stefano
Called the Sette Chiese, the seven churches: a cluster of chapels from the 4th century onwards built to echo Jerusalem's holy places, with the Courtyard of Pilate at its centre. The cobbled triangular piazza in front is the city's most elegant.
30 min here Walk here →
More walks in Bologna
More in Bologna
Every walking route in Bologna, the full Bologna guide for where to stay and what a day costs, or walks in other cities.