Bologna Italy

Rick Steve’s eliminates a lot of top places and focuses on where his tours go. It isn’t a negative on what he doesn’t cover.
Bologna is one of our favorite cities. It is a food mecca and a university city with a lot of energy.
It certainly is worth visiting and is included on many travelers’ itineraries. You can do day trips to Parma ( cheese) and Modena ( balsamic vinegar).
I highly recommend a visit to Bologna, a charming, historic town. Make a reservation for dinner at da Cesari to start your visit off right!

We loved Bologna. We spent nine nights there with a lot of day trips and it wasn't enough time. I think we devoted two full days to Bologna touring; four would have been better. But we'll be back.

Don't miss the Roman ruins under the public library. An under-appreciated (and thus uncrowded) site.

I don't know why, but Emilia Romagna province seems to be a black hole in a number of travel guides. Given the history and foodie goodness of the region, it needs some consideration. That being said, it depends on whether it is a first trip to Italy or what you want to focus on. It doesn't have the depth or amount of things to see or do as the top 3 (Rome, Florence, Venice) but if you want to focus ona smaller region, or take a less traditional trip it may offer whatnuou want.
I am currently organizing a longer winter away for 2024 and due to its excellent train connections, I chose it for my month stay. There are some smaller cities nearby that may also be interesting (Ferrara and Padua), but for me, for a month Bologna is practical.
What you should see is what interest you. It's easy to find a list and short list your choices, or YouTube to show you a taste of the city. Maybe it is the poison garden in the oldest apothecary garden in Italy, or their leaning tower. Maybe the home of ragu (don't call it spaghetti sauce or bolognese sauce)...or the ancient anatomy medical theatre...yep, corpse discetion. Maybe you just eant to eanser for a day and see a university town of several hundred years. There is a fast train from Florence...1.5 hrs...then on to Venice.
If you aren't aware, both Ferrari and Lamborghini have museums and factories in the area. You can drool over rhe fine machines, or for a price...drive one.

Absolutely! We spent five nights in Bologna; one day was used for a day trip to Parma and the rest spent in Bologna. Bologna's tourism website, bolognawelcome.com, is a good resource for tours and activities. We really enjoyed a visit to the Sanctuary of San Luca-take the city bus out there (great ride through the hills just outside Bologna) and return by walking through the porticoes leading back into the city. And the food...

Emilia-Romagna since 20 years ago never spent effort on touristic marketing. Is a industrialized area of Italy where there wasn't the need of tourism (except the mass tourism to the beaches on the seashore). After the crisis of the 2000 the region starts to make touristic marketing and the tourists are arriving.
First of all is not Tuscany: different culture, better living conditions, completely different dialect and accent, different history. Thinking of Emilia-Romagna as an extension of Tuscany is like thinking of Texas like an extension of Mexico.
Rick Steves was a student in Bologna but he never loved it (bullism problem when he was young?), so he usually skip it and the region in his guidebooks.
Said that, Bologna is UNESCO World Heritage for the porticoes and for music (cultural heritage). The historical center is big and medieval style, still having some of the several towers built during the XI-XIII centuries. There are several historical museums and temporary exhibitions to be visited. Can be visited some important churches of different styles and periods.
Bologna could be an hub to visit other part of Emilia-Romagna. UNESCO sites: Modena (Romanesque and Visual Arts), Ferrara (Renaissance), Ravenna (Byzantines mosaics), Parma (Food), Cesena (Library). In the area can be visited food producers: we have 44 PDO and PGI foods protected by European Union (Including Parmigiano-Reggiano, Parma's ham, Traditional Balsamic Vinegar), and about 300 traditional foods at all, not counting wines. Bologna is part of the Motor Valley, where there are several cars/bikes producers: Ferrari, Ducati, Lamborghini, Maserati, Pagani, Dallara and several private collections. Is even an area plenty of medieval fortress among the best of Italy (like Torrechiara, San Leo, Vignola...) and medieval villages.

We are at the Bologna airport now, after spending 4 days here in (mostly) beautiful weather. We like Bologna more than Rome or Florence. There is so much history here, and walking is pleasant in the porticos (covered walkways) that are free of cars and take you past all kinds of shops, palazzi, churches, and so on. Bologna is home to the world’s oldest continuing university, and many of the departments have science museums one can visit.

I won’t list everything there is to see and do here, as everyone has different interests, but I will describe what we did yesterday. We made an appointment to climb the Torre Orologico (Clock Tower) at 10 am to start our day. This is on the huge Piazza Maggiore with the famed Neptune Fountain. From the top, view over the city and into the hills was outstanding. As you climb the stairs there are numerous exhibits in small windowed rooms, and the mechanics of the clock itself ( gears, pendulum, etc.) are right there to see. We really liked that.

After that we went inside the Basilica San Petronius, a huge Gothic-style church that is not only beautiful inside but has some significant scientific features inside—-a 67-meter long meridian line/ sundial on the floor that one should see at noon-ish when it is illuminated by the sun, and a Foucault’s pendulum that helped validate Galileo’s radical idea that the earth moves around the sun ( he still got in trouble with the church).

https://www.basilicadisanpetronio.org/

https://www.gapers.it/il-gapers/il-pendolo-in-san-petronio/

https://www.basilicadisanpetronio.org/

Then we visited the Palazzo Archiginnasio, one of the old university buildings, to see the famed anatomy theatre where early dissections took place. The woodpaneled room is beautiful, but the marble operating table looked a little scary to me ( but not to my husband, a physician).

After a break for lunch at our apartment, we strolled the porticoes of two of the street that radiate spoke-like from the center, stopping in a charming little museum with old musical instruments and many documents important to the history of music, including Mozart’s famed failed test.

In late afternoon the streets in the university district we filled with students celebrating their graduation—recognized by the Laurel wreaths they wear on their heads. Several had on very funny costumes that I am going to try to find.

One word of caution—on Saturday afternoon and evening the streets are filled with partying Bolognese, and it is very crowded and loud. We preferre the weekdays.

One word of caution—on Saturday afternoon and evening the streets are filled with partying Bolognese, and it is very crowded and loud. We preferre the weekdays.

Is interesting this point of view, because most of locals have exactly the opposite opinion. During week ends (and holidays) the two main streets (Indipendenza + Rizzoli /Bassi) of the center become completely pedestrian (no taxis, no buses, no local cars...), so the center is much less noisy because the traffic in the whole historical center decrease at least of the 70%. But is true that mainly during afternoons and evenings the streets are very crowded by people walking and enjoying the city.

I like both Florence and Bologna. As mentioned above the library is a nice off the beaten path place to visit. The Central market is a great place for lunch. We have local friends who have taken the time to show us all the great things about the city. And it is a great place to day trip to Parma and Modena. Don't miss the Lamborghini and Ferrari "museums." We were lucky enough to have a private tour of Cantine Motta Acetum.

Wow! Thank you for all the replies. I think we will definitely go to Bologna.

Ricky—we did indeed enjoy the car-free aspect of the main street (Via Indipendenza), but we had to walk the length of it with our luggage from the train station to our apartment close to Piazza Maggiore, and the crowds made that quite difficult. And the porticos amplify the sound so that even without car traffic it is very noisy. It is happy people noise, but noisy nonetheless less.