Our full day in Bologna yesterday was long, busy, and very fun. We both slept well (Sarah has recovered almost instantly from jet lag - very impressive!), had a good breakfast in our hotel (quite substantial for Italy), then started off strong with a climb up a tall tower.
The Due Torri (Two Towers) were built around 1110 by local noble families, both for defense and as status symbols. The taller one is the Asinelli Tower and that's the one we climbed! It is 97 meters (318 feet) tall.
Both are leaning quite a lot. The shorter one, the Garisenda Tower, is leaning the most (11 feet) and is not open to the public. The Asinelli Tower leans 7.5 feet.
I think the Asinelli Tower is the tallest tower I've ever climbed - it was nearly 500 steps to the top! And the steps were not the solid stone I'm used to, but an antique wooden staircase with vertiginous views over the rails in the center! But it felt sturdier than I'd expected, thank heavens.
And it was actually pretty fun! We enjoyed listening to people exclaim in various languages as they realized just how many stairs they had left to go. Older Italian ladies usually said, "Oh, Madonna!" But some English-speakers on their way down assured us that the view was worth it.
And it certainly was worth it. Shown above is the Basilica di San Petronio, which is one of the biggest churches in Italy, and the Piazza Maggiore.
The upper terrace was small but there was room to move around fairly freely, and the protective iron grates allowed plenty of opportunities for looking down safely.
Back on solid ground, our legs like jelly, we spent the next few hours wandering around the city. Bologna is a very nice city, and the sun was out for most of the day, so it was pretty great. For both of us, the main highlight was a little market street just off Piazza Maggiore. It's really a tragedy we didn't have a kitchen at our disposal, because the fresh pasta (and everything else) looked amazing!
A few other highlights:
{img151806|Archaeological Museum (open all day + free admission + clean bathrooms = winner)}
