19 & 20 October 2025 - Bologna and Pescara

For obvious reasons, there was no great rush to be up on Sunday morning, but eventually the need to vacate our very comfortable and convenient accommodation won out and we headed to the station via the pasticceria. The trains were quite infrequent, and a short trip to the next station in the wrong direction was needed before were headed into Bologna, where we had 24 hours of sightseeing with Chris.


Bologna is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy, with 390,734 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its metropolitan province is home to more than 1 million people as of 2025. Bologna is most famous for being the home to the oldest university in continuous operation,  the University of Bologna, established in AD 1088.
Bologna was the centre of a revived study of law, including the scholar Irnerius (c. 1050 – after 1125) and his famous students, the Four Doctors of Bologna. The university originated as a centre for the study of medieval Roman law under major glossators, including Irnerius. It numbered Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarch among its students. The medical school was also especially renowned. By 1200, Bologna was a thriving commercial and artisanal centre of about 10,000 people.
The city has been an important urban centre for centuries, first under the Etruscans, then under the Celts, later under the Romans , then again in the Middle Ages, as a free municipality and later signoria, when it was among the largest European cities by population. Famous for its towers, churches and lengthy porticoes, Bologna has a well-preserved historical centre, thanks to a careful restoration and conservation policy which began at the end of the 1970s. In 2000, it was declared European Capital of Culture[ and in 2006, a UNESCO "City of Music" and became part of the Creative Cities Network. In 2021, UNESCO recognized the lengthy porticoes of the city as a World Heritage Site.

San Petronio Basilica, built between 1388 and 1479 (but still unfinished), is the tenth-largest church in the world by volume, 132 metres long and 66 metres wide, while the vault reaches 45 metres inside and 51 metres in the facade. With its volume of 258,000 m3, it is the largest (Gothic or otherwise) church built of bricks of the world.




It's the perfect place for shopping in the rain, there are miles of covered porticos.


Bologna is renowned for its culinary tradition. It is the home of the famous Bolognese sauce, a meat-based pasta sauce. In Italy, it is called ragù and is substantially different from the variety found worldwide. In Bologna, the sauce is served primarily with tagliatelle, and serving it with spaghetti is considered odd. We were determined to sample as many of the local specialities as we could, and we ate royally while we were here.

Situated in the fertile Po Valley, the rich local cuisine depends heavily on meats and cheeses. As in all of Emilia-Romagna, the production of cured pork meats such as prosciutto, mortadella and salumi is an important part of the local food industry. Well-regarded nearby vineyards include Pignoletto dei Colli Bolognesi, Lambrusco di Modena and Sangiovese di Romagna. Tagliatelle with ragù, tortellini served in broth, lasagna and mortadella Bologna are among the local specialties. 
Monday morning there was time to visit another of Bologna's most famous sites.
The Portico di San Luca is possibly the world's longest. It connects Porta Saragozza (one of the twelve gates of the ancient walls built in the Middle Ages, which circled a 7.5 km part of the city) with the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca, a church begun in 1723 on the site of an 11th century edifice which had already been enlarged in the 14th century, prominently located on a hill overlooking the town, which is one of Bologna's main landmarks. The winding 666 vault arcades, almost four kilometres, effectively links San Luca, as the church is commonly called, to the city centre. Its porticos provide shelter for the traditional procession which every year since 1433 has carried a Byzantine icon of the Madonna with Child attributed to Luke the Evangelist down to the Bologna Cathedral during the Feast of the Ascension.





We had to go to the very top, and the view was well worth it


After lunch, it was time to head back to the station to catch the train for the 3 hour journey back to Pescara.  The trains here are wonderful - fast, clean and comfortable. We arrive back in time to catch the shops before they closed so that we had food for the onward journey. 

Distance today -            0 miles (in the boat, but plenty on the train)

Distance this year - 1748 miles 

Steve (and Tricia & Chris) 

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