Day 9 - the one in Bologna

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Today was our final full day in Italy before our two days of travel to return to the UK.

After a good breakfast, which also included cake, we headed off back to the city to follow the map we had been sent from our Tailor Made Rail. We were to start from the Neptune statue - our first port of call was the Salaborsa, once the economic centre, now a place of culture. In this building, you could see some of the old city below through a glass floor. We did do this a little later than planned, as opening times in the summer are a little later 14:30 not 10:30 when we got there. It is worth a look, however some of the glass could do with a clean to have a better look.

Heading past the Basilica, we visited yesterday, we followed the road beside and came to the building that once housed the University of Bologna ( oldest in Western Hemisphere founded in 1088), this building dates more to the 1800s. Within this building is the Teatro Anatomico, where anatomy lessons were once this was €3 to visit (which includes the Stabat Mater hall). It was fascinating to see the theatre as you often hear about them during talks or history lessons. Some of the photos below show this. The stabat mater hall, named as Rossini’s Stabat Mater was performed there was very ornate and also housed some of the old books of the library. Definitely a seat of learning.

From there we visited the churches of San Domenico and San Stefano, both very ornate and well maintained. We were amazed at the number of streets that had covered walkways in all styles, they were very welcome today with the heat and sun.

This city is stunning with its history and architecture, we are certainly glad we made this one of our visits, having little knowledge of the area apart from a Times article.

The day finished off with some more of the amazing Bolognese sauce.

Now to brace ourselves for the trip to Munich tomorrow.

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