Clock Tower Legalities?

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First up this morning is a climb up the clock tower of the Palazzo d’Accursio in Piazza Maggiore. I read that the first mention of the Palazzo was back in 1287 when the Accursio family sold one of the family homes to the Municipality of Bologna. It’s effectively been the Bologna Town Hall ever since .... the papal legate even had his apartments and offices there when Bologna was one of the Papal States. It came to national attention in 1920, in an incident during a council meeting presided over by the newly elected socialist mayor. The Piazza was packed with cheering citizens when a fascist paramilitary squad turned up. Shots were fired, and ten died and 58 were injured when the crowd got caught in the crossfire between the fascists and the Carabinieri.

After yesterday’s lessons I’m now on the lookout for leaning towers. We can see the clock tower from our roof terrace, well I thought it was the clock tower, but on closer inspection I think it might actually be another tower. Anyway whatever it is its sides don’t look to be overly parallel to the sides of the dome of the church next door, so one of them’s not straight, and my money’s on the tower.

I climb a couple of spectacularly long wide flattish staircases in the Palazzo to a large hall with frescoes on most of its walls and ceiling. The views from a large balcony over the Piazza are excellent. Three quarters of the way up the tower I’m stopped by a very serious looking lady in uniform, and told that if I want to keep going I need to sign a waiver. Huh? It looks like it’s only a handful more steps to the top, although admittedly they do look a bit narrow and ladder-like. I didn’t need to sign anything to climb the 498 steep narrow steps up the spindly Asinelli Tower last night, and that felt much more like it was about to collapse than this much shorter and more solid looking affair. I had to buy a ticket to get in here, so I’m now wondering why they’ve waited until I’m nearly to the top before asking me to enter into legalities. There’s an English version of the waiver on the wall and it seems to cover most things that could go wrong … except the possibility of the entire thing suddenly leaning over … I’m a bit focussed on leaning at the moment, so that does seem like quite a notable omission. Anyway, I’m here now, so I relent and sign …. and the views from the top balcony over the Piazza and most of the rest of the city are excellent … and it doesn’t feel like it’s leaning too much.

Next up is the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna art gallery. Most of the exhibits are paintings and detached frescoes from the thirteenth to eighteenth centuries, and the vast majority of them are religious. The building was apparently completely renovated in 1997. It looks very modern, and includes state of the art climate control measures presumably intended to protect the works … which probably explains why the doors don’t seem to want to let me in no matter how hard I wave at the sensor and the attendants on the other side … it seems they’re part of a pair, and one won’t open until the other one closes. I’m probably lucky they let me in at all after seeing that performance.

Next stop is La Piccola Venezia, which is a tiny opening in a wall through which you get a peek at one of Bologna’s ancient canals. I read that 27 kilometres of these were dug at the end of the twelfth century to provide water to power silk mills and other factories. Most of them have now been paved over, and the rest are mostly hidden between buildings. The tiny opening is now touted as a tourist attraction - one of the only places you can still see a canal in Bologna … well except for the completely unobstructed view through the large gap between the buildings on the other side of the narrow street. Maybe whoever’s doing the touting thinks that tourists prefer small openings?

The museum at the Palazzo d’Accursio was closed this morning, so next up is a return trip. It’s much larger and more impressive than I might have expected - artworks, statues, and antique ornaments and furniture. Unfortunately nearly all the signage is only in Italian so I’m not sure exactly what I’m looking at most of the time. The rooms are almost more of a feature than the exhibits. The wood panelled ceilings, and frescoes on most of the walls and flat ceilings are particularly impressive. There’s a model of what Bologna was thought to have looked like in the Middle Ages when there were nearly 100 towers here. Yep, it looks just like downtown Manhattan.

We head out for dinner. The couple at the next table don't seem to think they’ve been given what they ordered, so they ask if they can borrow one of our menus ... and that very small request leads to a very entertaining evening. Brent and Sylvia are from Sydney. We’ve scarcely heard an Aussie accent since we’ve been here so what are the odds? Sylvia was born near here and they’re spending a couple of days in Bologna before going to stay with her mother. We swap travel stories as we munch away on our food. Issy tells them about falling down the mountain on the Sicilian island of Volcano and ripping the tendon in her shoulder off the bone. Brent says they met a guy last night who’d just broken his arm on a volcano. It was his left arm, and he’s left handed, so he’s spent the last week driving around Italy with one hand … the wrong one. Brent says these things always come in threes, so he’s now looking forward to meeting whoever it is is going to tell him tomorrow’s story about losing use of their arm on a volcano.

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Photos

Pallazo d’Accursio Museum
What Bologna might have looked like in the Middle Ages

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Clock Towers
We often photograph clock towers. Does anyone really know what time it is?