Page 37 - Lonely Planet Europe’s Best Trips (Travel Guide)
P. 37
A4 and navigate around the ring
road in the direction of Bologna
to pick up the A13 southwest for
this short two-hour drive. After
Padua the dual carriageway
dashes through wide-open
farmland and crosses the Po
JUSTIN FOULKES/LONELY PLANET ©
river, which forms the southern
border of the Veneto.
5 Bologna
Home to Europe’s oldest
university (established
in 1088) and once the ITALY 1 GRAND TOuR
stomping ground of
Dante, Boccaccio and
Petrarch, Bologna had an
enviable reputation for
courtesy and culture. Its
historic centre, complete
with 20 soaring towers,
is one of the best-
preserved medieval cit-
ies in the world. In the
Basilica di San Petronio
(www.basilicadisanpetronio.it;
Piazza Maggiore; h7.45am-
2pm & 3-6pm), originally
intended to dwarf St Pe-
ter’s in Rome, Giovanni
Cassini’s sundial (1655)
proved the problems
with the Julian calendar
giving us the leap year,
while Bolognesi stu-
dents advanced human
knowledge in obstetrics,
natural science, zool-
ogy and anthropology.
You can peer at their
strange model wax-
works and studiously
labelled collections in
the Palazzo Poggi (www.
museopalazzopoggi.unibo.it;
Via Zamboni 33; adult/reduced
€5/3; h10am-1pm Tue-Sun
mid-Jun–mid-Sep, 10am-4pm
Tue-Fri, 10.30am-5.30pm Sat &
Sun mid-Sep–mid-Jun).
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