Bologna 2 Day Itinerary

Bologna gets skipped by itinerary-hoppers rushing between Florence and Venice, which is exactly why its restaurants still cook for locals rather than tour groups.

Day 1: The center, on foot

From Marconi Airport, the Marconi Express monorail covers the run into the city center in seven minutes flat for about 12.80 euros one way, considerably faster and pricier than the slower 949 electric bus into Piazza Malpighi, which runs closer to 10 euros. Either way you’re settled in before 9am with time for a proper breakfast.

Start at Pasticceria Crema or a rosticceria near Via Ugo Bassi for coffee and something filled with mortadella, then walk to Piazza di Porta Ravegnana to see the Two Towers. One important correction before you plan around them: the Asinelli Tower has been closed to visitors since October 2023, after engineers detected worrying movement in the foundations of its leaning neighbor, the Garisenda Tower, which is now fenced off and undergoing structural stabilization expected to run for several years. Don’t build your morning around climbing it, the closure has outlasted several predicted reopening dates already. Instead, spend that time in the Quadrilatero market streets just behind the towers, a genuine working market for cheese, cured meats, and fresh pasta rather than a souvenir strip, and the smell alone is worth the detour.

For lunch, look for a trattoria doing fresh tagliatelle al ragu, and note that what most of the world calls “bolognese sauce” is a tomato-heavy imitation of the real Emilian ragu, which uses far less tomato and is built on slow-cooked minced beef, pork, and soffritto. In the afternoon, the Archiginnasio’s anatomical theatre, a 17th-century lecture hall carved entirely in wood where surgeons once dissected cadavers in front of students, is one of the more unusual free-to-cheap sights in Italy and gets skipped by anyone rushing the two towers. Finish at Piazza Maggiore, where the Basilica di San Petronio is so oversized for its original design that construction was deliberately halted in the 1600s, partly because Rome didn’t want it outgrowing St. Peter’s.

Dinner should be tortellini in brodo if a restaurant is serving it that night; it’s a winter dish traditionally but plenty of kitchens keep it on year-round for tourists. Close the night at a wine bar near Via Piella, the narrow street with the famous canal-view window, one of the last visible stretches of Bologna’s covered medieval waterways.

Day 2: The hills and the porticoes

Skip anything billing the Sanctuary of San Luca as a 14th-century monastery, since the current baroque basilica was rebuilt between 1723 and 1757 by architect Carlo Francesco Dotti, and what you’re actually walking to is a devotional shrine housing an icon of the Madonna that pilgrims have visited since the Middle Ages, not a monastic ruin. The walk there follows the Portico di San Luca, 3.8 kilometers and exactly 666 arches connecting Porta Saragozza to the hilltop sanctuary, built in stages between 1674 and 1793 and now a UNESCO World Heritage listing alongside Bologna’s other porticoes. Walking the full uphill stretch takes about an hour at a steady pace; a shuttle bus runs on weekends if your legs would rather not.

For lunch back in the center, look for a place doing crescentine, the fried dough pockets stuffed with mortadella and squacquerone cheese, a street-food staple that’s more distinctly Bolognese than anything on a typical trattoria menu. If you have the afternoon free and access to a car or train, Modena is 25 minutes away by regional train and worth it for the Duomo’s Romanesque facade alone, with the Enzo Ferrari Museum a further draw if motorsport interests you. Imola’s Autodromo circuit, host to the Emilia-Romagna Formula 1 round, is a separate 40-minute trip in the opposite direction and really only worth it on a race weekend or for a dedicated track tour.

Return for a final dinner of Emilian classics and don’t leave without trying real Parmigiano Reggiano and a glass of properly dry Lambrusco, which bears almost no resemblance to the sweet, fizzy export version sold abroad. Validate your bus or tram ticket the moment you board, since Bologna’s transport inspectors do spot checks and an unvalidated ticket counts as no ticket at all, fine included.