Bologna - (Italian pronunciation: [boˈloɲɲa] )

I just want to post here some pictures of my home town, Bologna. Although I have a sort of love-hate relationship with this town, Bologna is definitely the place I love the most. I was born here, the greatest part of my memories are connected to its streets and people.
I love Bologna in spring and summer time. I love Bologna on Saturday mornings when the city center is vibrant and full of energy. I love Bologna when is empty, around the beginning of August (every single year).
I love the little shops you can find in the city center. I love the espresso you can drink almost everywhere.
I love the towers which are the symbols of its medieval splendour. I love to sit on the stairs of San Petronio, the main church in the main square, Piazza Maggiore, on a summer night and look at the stairs.
I love the antiques market every 2nd Sunday of every month.
I love my bolognese accent when I speak Italian (and possibly when I speak English as well).


Pic 1: Piazza Maggiore, the Municipal Building

Pic 2: San Petronio (the fifth largest church in the world- It can contain 28,000 persons- the first stone of construction was laid June 7, 1390)

Pic 3: the arcades (there are some 38 kilometres of arcades in the city's historical center)

Pic 4: the 2 towers are the landmark of the city. The taller one is called the Asinelli while the smaller but more leaning tower is called the Garisenda. Their names derive from the families which are traditionally credited for their construction between 1109 and 1119.
They were even quoted by Dante Alighieri in the Divine Comedy.

As when one sees the tower called Garisenda

from underneath its leaning side, and then a cloud

passes over and it seems to lean the more,

thus did Antaeus seem to my fixed gaze

as I watched him bend...

Divine Comedy, Inferno, XXXI, 136-140