Bologna—how much time there?

You don’t say how much time you have to spend on your trip, but my husband and I spent 11 nights there last fall and wished for more. We did one day trip to Ravenna for the mosaics, spent one day going to and from San Luca-a walk through the porticos to the Santuario. We also did a well known one day tour that takes you to see/eat Parma ham, Parmiggiano-Reggiano cheese-making/tasting and making/tasting Aceto Balsamico. It’s wonderful. The others were spent in Bologna sightseeing and walking, walking and more walking.

Otherwise, there are many things to see there and if you like to eat-well, say no more.
Bologna is a major transportation hub, so easy to do day trips too.

We’ve been twice - a full week, and 5 nights on the last trip. We took a food tour with Italian Days, which included prosciutto (not Parma Ham), Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, Balsamic Vinegar and Saba, and an enormous, fantastic lunch with an amazing view. Transportation via Mercedes-Benz bus picked up and dropped off at our lodging.

Bologna is famous for its porticoes. The town Tourist office, puts on portico tours, but ours in English and Italian mostly in Italian. We got great restaurant recommendations, though. And restaurants! Bologna is, arguably, the food capital of Italy. So many different pasta shapes, sauces, and other specialties. You can climb the taller of the two leaning towers. Lots of museums and churches to see. The Quadrilateral, right downtown is a place for eating and exploring.

Bologna has one of Europe's largest historic centers--perhaps the largest. What's especially nice about it is that many streets are arcaded, so if you happen to have wet weather, you'll be protected except when you need to cross a street.

A week. The Arcades are wonderful. This university city is worth at least a week. It is a food center, wonderful dining.

It depends on your overall amount of time you have available for everything else you want to visit in Italy. You need a full day to see the top sights, but my Bolognesi relatives will tell you that 3 full days is the absolute minimum.

I believe I spent four nights/three days in Bologna, and really enjoyed my time (especially the food!). I was basically focusing on sights in the city, but if was planning to take day trips, I would have added a few days.

This website might provide a few ideas for you - https://www.lonelyplanet.com/italy/emilia-romagna-and-san-marino/bologna . As the RS guidebooks don't cover Bologna, I used Lonely Planet. At the time of my visit, I was able to download the individual guidebook chapter for Emilia-Romagna, but I'm not sure if LP sill offers that. If you're travelling with an iPad or smartphone, you could download the LP Ebook for Italy - https://shop.lonelyplanet.com/products/experience-italy?variant=44248492343547 .

We spent 4 nights (3 days) there and we visited the entire downtown area within 2 days, walking in its narrow streets full of food stores, enjoyed an aperitif in a local outdoor bar. On the next day we went to visit a Parmiggiano cheese factory were they showed us the production system and we could taste it! It's a very active city where you will have a great time!

We spent 10 days in an apartment halfway between the main plaza and the train station. In addition to the cited day trips, we also took a day trip to Padua, and another to Florence. It was June and I knew Florence would be a madhouse, so we didn't want to go for an overnight stay. My husband had never been, so with the quick train ride through the mountain tunnels, Florence is a feasible day trip. We did two intensive tours with Walks of Italy with lunch in between and then took a fast train back to relatively calm Bologna.

We spent two weeks there in October which was more than enough time to explore and eat. Our favorite restaurant was Drogheria della Rose (via Cartoleria 10). Liked it so much, we went for a second meal. We loved the informal Trattoria Pizzeria il Tari (via Collegio di Spagna 13) where we got to know Giselle, the owner. On our third visit, we just asked her to just bring us her favorites!

Our Air B&B was on the outskirts of the university district which placed us within walking distance of most everything. The Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna was excellent.

We did the Taste of Bologna Tour. That was pretty much a letdown.

One of the overnight trips took us to Ferrara - about an hour by train - and stayed at Hotel Annunziata. Ferrara was a nice change of pace.

We arrived in Bologna and stayed for 4 days (including arrival day) and felt we had time to explore the downtown, try the food and get to know the city a little bit. But trying to gauge "how much" time is a tricky thing because it happens in the context of your time to travel and interests. Many places can support weeks of exploration but given limited time how much do you budget?

Based on my interests - food, art, museums - I would say Bologna "needs" less time than Florence or Venice but more time than Ravenna or Padova. If you've never been to Italy I think it falls outside of the general tourist interest (I guess Rick does too) so if you have a week to budget for Venice, Florence and Bologna then I think Bologna loses out in that schedule. If you've seen the big cities and are looking for more depth or more "Italian" cities then Bologna clearly supports more than a day or two in that plan.

Hope that helps, have a great trip,
=Tod

We spent 5 days in Bologna last year, and wished we had had more time. Other than the one day "Italian Days" tour, all our time was spent in Bologna itself.