Five things to see in Bologna

Bologna, with its chaotic look is a mix of cultures, styles, curiosities and flavours.

It is difficult to choose only five unmissable things to see, but with the help of previous guests of the Hotel Maggiore, we selected five places to see at the heart of Bologna.

1. THE MOST ROMANTIC VIEW OF BOLOGNA: SAN MICHELE IN BOSCO It is a perfect stop-over for the first visit of the city and strangely, it is a parking. In fact, from the parking of the San Michele in Bosco Church, you can enjoy the most romantic view of the city as it includes in one thrilled breath a panorama going from the old towers to the outlines of the seventeenth century domes to the more recent buildings of the Fiera District and the Unipol Tower.
2. MUSEUM OF THE HISTORY OF BOLOGNA This recent eye-catching and well-finished museum can transmit the enthusiasm for the Emilian industriousness, starting from the Etruscan world until the beginning of the twentieth century. The museum, set in an ancient building, is intriguing and it piques the curiosity of everyone who visits it with the city's rich history from the age of communes until today. The recreation of Bologna’s canals is evocative and unmissable.
3. PIAZZA MAGGIORE, SAN PETRONIO, PIAZZA NETTUNO AND PALAZZO RE ENZO Being these two square very close, we decided to group them in one unmissable point of interest. From the Fountain of Neptune, work of the Fleming Jean Boulogne, focused on stilling the waves with a gesture, the look gazes on the crenelated outline of Palazzo Re Enzo, whose name comes from Frederick II’s son, who was made prisoner in 1249 during the Battle of Fossalta and kept until his death. A few steps away you 'll reach Piazza Maggiore. The square is overlooked by the unfinished façade of the Basilica of San Petronio, whose base is embellished by precious white and pink marbles. Inside, in the left aisle, the papal astronomer Giandomenico Cassini in 1655 enlarged the meridian line, designed a century earlier by the Dominican Danti, and adapted it to the size of the building that was definitively completed. It is the longest meridian line of the world.
4. COMPIANTO SU CRISTO MORTO At the heart of the so-called ”Quadrilatero”, there is the church Santa Maria della Vita. In the chapel at the right of the altar there is the most incredible masterpiece of Niccolò dell’Arca: the Compianto su Cristo Morto. On the lifeless body of Christ laying on the ground the terracotta figures seem to hurry, expressing in sculpture, with an original expressiveness, all the grief, the misery and the confusion that Death creates on the faces of those who remain.
5. THE CANALE DELLE MOLINE Bologna has a secret: for centuries this town has been a small Venice, wet by canals that have always been employed for domestic or industrial use and as a drainage system. In Via delle Moline there is a window where it is possible to see the canal, that underneath still runs through the city.