Bologna earns its three nicknames with almost aggressive completeness: La Dotta (the Learned) for housing the world’s oldest continuously operating university, La Grassa (the Fat) for producing mortadella, tagliatelle al ragù, and tortellini, and La Rossa (the Red) for its terracotta rooftops that warm the skyline at every hour of the day. This Bologna walking tour Italy video, filmed in 4K, explores the city on foot under the UNESCO-listed porticoes that shelter every step — 40 kilometres of covered walkways that make Bologna one of the world’s great walking cities regardless of the weather.
About This Walking Tour
This video covers 3.8 kilometres of Bologna’s celebrated portico network, giving you a sustained, immersive experience of what makes this city architecturally unique. The porticoes of Bologna — covered walkways supported by colonnaded arches at street level, with the buildings rising above — were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021, formally recognising what Bolognesi have always known: that their city’s defining architectural gesture is not a single monument but an urban system that runs for 62 kilometres throughout the historic centre and beyond. The walk begins in the city’s heart at the Piazza Maggiore, the magnificent civic square dominated by the unfinished brick façade of the Basilica di San Petronio — intended at its 14th-century conception to be larger than St. Peter’s in Rome, though that ambition was never completed. Beside it stands the Palazzo Comunale and the Neptune Fountain, one of the finest Mannerist bronze sculptures in Italy. From the Piazza the video moves east toward the Two Towers: the Asinelli tower, 97 metres tall and climbable, and the shorter, more dramatically tilted Garisenda, both built in the 12th century by rival noble families as statements of wealth and power. The University Quarter surrounding Via Zamboni and Piazza Verdi unfolds beyond the towers, its palazzi housing faculties that have taught students — among them Dante, Petrarch, Copernicus, and Erasmus — for nearly a thousand years. The Mercato di Mezzo in the old town, where the video pauses, is the best place to understand Bologna’s status as Italy’s food capital.
Highlights of Bologna
The Two Towers are Bologna’s most recognisable landmarks — twin medieval skyscrapers built as acts of competitive one-upmanship that have become the city’s defining silhouette. The Asinelli tower can be climbed for a fee; the 498 steps reward you with a panorama over the terracotta sea of the historic rooftops. Piazza Maggiore and its continuation, Piazza del Nettuno, form one of Italy’s grandest civic spaces, their scale reflecting Bologna’s medieval importance as a major city of the Papal States. The Basilica di San Petronio’s interior, despite the unfinished exterior, is vast and impressive, containing a meridian line laid out in 1655 by the astronomer Giovanni Cassini — a sunbeam tracks across the floor daily, measuring the year. The porticoes themselves are a highlight that defies single-point identification: walking under them on a rainy November afternoon, as students cycle past and market vendors set up their stalls, you understand why Bolognesi regard their city as one of the world’s most liveable. The Mercato di Mezzo, revived as a covered food market in the historic centre, offers the most convenient introduction to Bolognese gastronomy — mortadella, tigelle breads, local cured meats, and the inevitable ragù sauce whose authentic recipe bears almost no resemblance to what the rest of the world calls “Bolognese.”
A Brief History of Bologna
Bologna’s claim to be the world’s oldest university city rests on the founding of its Studium in 1088 — an institution established initially for the teaching of Roman law that grew into a full university attracting students from across Europe. By the 12th century, Bologna was one of the largest cities in Europe, its population of over 50,000 housed partly in the extraordinary forest of tower-houses — over 100 towers are known to have stood in the medieval city — of which only the Two Towers survive intact. The city’s position within the Papal States gave it relative stability but also constrained its political development; it was not until Napoleon’s troops arrived in 1796 that the Papal authority was temporarily lifted. The 19th-century Risorgimento brought Bologna into the newly unified Italian state, and the city developed an industrial base in engineering and food processing that underpins its economy today. The porticoes, documented from the 12th century, began as a way for citizens to extend their upper-floor living space over the public street — a pragmatic medieval solution to urban overcrowding that became a defining element of Bolognese identity over the centuries.
Practical Tips
Italy uses the euro. Italian is the primary language; English is widely spoken by students and in tourist areas. Bologna Centrale station is a 15-minute walk along Via dell’Indipendenza to the city centre; an electric People Mover connects the airport to the main station in 7 minutes. The porticoes provide natural shelter from rain and summer sun, making the city genuinely walkable year-round. The academic year (October–May) makes the city especially lively; July and August are quiet, with many student-oriented restaurants closed. Eating at the Mercato di Mezzo or at Osteria dell’Orsa near the university offers excellent quality at very reasonable prices.
Watch & Explore More
Bologna is the culinary and geographic heart of Emilia-Romagna — one of Italy’s most rewarding regions for food, art, and walking. Explore more on @walkingtoursvideoscom, including our detailed Florence walking tour from the Duomo across the Arno to the Oltrarno, and our Venice walking tour along the Grand Canal to the Rialto Market.