Editor's picks
A local's shortlist — the places worth your time first, each with a tip.
Piazza Maggiore & the Quadrilatero
Landmark · Centro storico
The civic square with San Petronio's half-finished brick façade, and the medieval market grid immediately east of it.
Local tip: The Quadrilatero's food shops are best before one o'clock and are genuinely working shops, not a display. The Sala Borsa across the square is a public library built over Roman and medieval excavations you can see through the glass floor — free, quiet and open to anyone.
The porticoes & San Luca
Culture · City-wide, and the hill to the south-west
Some 62 kilometres of covered arcade, UNESCO-listed since 2021, including the 3.8-kilometre climb of 666 arches to the sanctuary of San Luca.
Local tip: The San Luca portico is the longest in the world and is how Bolognesi exercise — an hour up, with the last third steep. Start at Porta Saragozza. The Meloncello arch halfway is the point where most people decide whether they meant it.
Santo Stefano — the Sette Chiese
Culture · East of Piazza Maggiore
A complex of interlocking churches and courtyards built over a Roman temple, layered from late antiquity onward.
Local tip: Free, and far more atmospheric than San Petronio. The Cortile di Pilato and the twelfth-century cloister are usually near-empty in the early morning. The square outside is where the city sits in the evening.
Via del Pratello & the university quarter
Nightlife · West and north-east of the centre
Bologna's drinking streets — Pratello for the old osterie, Via Zamboni and Via Petroni for the student crowd.
Local tip: Pratello is where people over thirty go and where the political and musical history of the city is still visible on the walls. Zamboni is loud, cheap and entirely student. They are ten minutes apart and completely different cities.
Giardini Margherita & Le Serre
Nature · Just south of the walls
The city's main park, with a nineteenth-century lake and a set of restored greenhouses now used as a public workspace and events venue.
Local tip: Le Serre dei Giardini is a working coworking space and bar inside the old municipal nursery greenhouses — one of the few places in Bologna where you can sit and work all afternoon for the price of a coffee.
Certosa di Bologna
Hidden gemCulture · West, beside the Meloncello arch
A Carthusian monastery turned monumental cemetery in 1801, built directly over an Etruscan necropolis, with two centuries of funerary sculpture in enclosed cloisters.
Local tip: Free, open daily, and almost always empty. Byron came here in 1819 and wrote about it; the nineteenth-century sculpture in the covered galleries is genuinely first rate. It sits at the foot of the San Luca portico, so the two make one afternoon.
Explore 108 places across Bologna
Museums, landmarks, monuments, heritage sites and parks — mapped, with photos. The most notable spots first.
Museums & galleries
(18)
MuseumPinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna
Museum of arts in Bologna
MuseumArcheological Civic Museum of Bologna
Archaeological museum in Bologna, Italy
Museum
MuseumBologna Museum of Modern Art
Museum in Bologna, Italy
MuseumBologna Gallery of Modern Art
Art gallery in Bologna, Italy
MuseumMedieval Civic Museum
Museum in Bologna, Italy
MuseumDavia Bargellini Museum
Museum in Bologna, Italy
MuseumPalazzo Rossi Poggi Marsili
Building in Bologna, Italy
MuseumMuseo per la Memoria di Ustica
Museum in Italy
MuseumMuseo di Palazzo Poggi
Museum of Bologna, Italy
MuseumDiocesan Museum of San Petronio in Bologna
Museum in Bologna, Italy
MuseumMuseo Ottocento Bologna
Museum in Bologna, Italy
MuseumTapestry and Upholstery Museum (Bologna)
Museum in Bologna, Italy
MuseumBologna City Art Collections
Municipal art museum in Palazzo d'Accursio, Bologna, Italy
MuseumGalleria d'arte moderna "Raccolta Lercaro"
Museum in Italy
Deposito Collezione Storica ATC
Museum.
Museo Carducci
Museum.
Museo del Patrimonio Industriale
Navile
Museum in Navile.
Landmarks & architecture
(22)
Landmark
LandmarkPalazzo Re Enzo
Historic palace in Bologna, Italy
Landmark
LandmarkPalazzo Poggi
Building in Bologna (BO)
Landmark
LandmarkPalazzo Pallavicini
Building in Bologna, Italy
LandmarkPalazzo Albergati
Building in Zola Predosa, Italy
LandmarkPalazzo Bonasoni, Bologna
Building in Bologna (BO)
LandmarkPalazzo degli Strazzaroli
Palace in Bologna, Italy
LandmarkPiazza Liber Paradisus
Landmark in Bologna.
LandmarkPiazza San Domenico
Square or Plaza in Bologna (BO)
LandmarkPiazza Giuseppe Verdi
Square in Blogna, Italy
LandmarkTorre dei Galluzzi
Tower in Bologna (BO)
LandmarkPiazza San Francesco
Urban square in Bologna, Italy
LandmarkPiazza della Mercanzia
Landmark in Bologna.
LandmarkCasa Saraceni
Building in Bologna, Italy
LandmarkVilla Guastavillani
Building in Bologna, Italy
LandmarkGalliera Castle
Series of former castles in Bologna, Italy
LandmarkVilla Pepoli
Castle.
Porta Castiglione
Historic city gate.
Porta San Donato
Historic city gate.
Monuments & memorials
(8)
MonumentArco del Meloncello
Arch in Bologna, Italy
MonumentMonumento ai caduti del VIII Agosto 1848
Monument in Bologna.
MonumentMonument to Fallen Partisans
Memorial to the fallen partisans of the Second World War in Bologna
MonumentMonument to Giuseppe Garibaldi
Monument by Arnoldo Zocchi in Bologna, Italy
MonumentSacrario ai caduti della Resistenza (Monte Sabbiuno)
Monument in Bologna, Italy
Monumento ai Caduti
Memorial.
Mausoleo di Guglielmo Marconi
Historic monument.
Tomba di Giosuè Carducci
Historic site.
Places of worship
(48)
ReligiousSan Petronio Basilica
Minor basilica
ReligiousSanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca
Church building in Bologna, Italy
Religious
ReligiousSanto Stefano Church
Minor basilica in Bologna
ReligiousSan Giacomo Maggiore
Historic church and monastery in Bologna, Italy
ReligiousBasilica of Saint Francis
Minor basilica in Bologna, Italy
ReligiousSan Paolo Maggiore, Bologna
Church building in Bologna, Italy
ReligiousSanti Bartolomeo e Gaetano
Church building in Bologna, Italy
Religious
ReligiousSanctuary of Santa Maria della Vita
Church building in Bologna, Italy
ReligiousBasilica di Santa Maria dei Servi
Minor basilica in Bologna, Italy
ReligiousSan Giovanni in Monte
Church building in Bologna, Italy
ReligiousSynagogue of Bologna
Synagogue in Bologna, Italy
ReligiousSantissimo Salvatore
Church in Bologna, Italy
ReligiousCorpus Domini, Bologna
Former monastery in Bologna, Italy
ReligiousBasilica of St. Mary Major
Building in Bologna, Italy
ReligiousEremo di Tizzano
Sanctuary in Casalecchio di Reno, Italy
ReligiousOratory of San Filippo Neri, Bologna
Oratory in Bologna (BO)
Religious
Religious
ReligiousSanti Gregorio e Siro
Renaissance style parish church in central Bologna
ReligiousMadonna del Baraccano, Bologna
Church in Bologna, Italy
ReligiousFormer church of San Barbaziano
Church in Bologna (BO)
ReligiousMadonna di Galliera, Bologna
Church in Bologna (BO)
ReligiousSan Nicolò di San Felice, Bologna
Former church in Bologna
ReligiousSan Girolamo dell'Arcoveggio
Church building in Bologna, Italy
ReligiousOratory of San Giovanni Battista dei Fiorentini, Bologna
Building in Bologna, Italy
ReligiousSan Giovanni Battista dei Celestini
Church in Bologna (BO)
ReligiousSanta Maria della Visitazione al Ponte delle Lame
Church building in Bologna, Italy
ReligiousSan Donnino, Bologna
Church building in Bologna, Italy
ReligiousSanta Maria Maddalena, Bologna
Church in Bologna (BO)
ReligiousSanta Maria della Carità
Church in Bologna, Italy
ReligiousChurch of San Mattia, Bologna
Church building in Bologna, Italy
Religious
ReligiousSan Giuliano, Bologna
Church in Bologna (BO)
ReligiousSan Giuseppe Sposo
Church in Bologna, Italy
Religious
ReligiousOratorio di San Carlo
Church building in Bologna
ReligiousSanta Maria delle Muratelle
Church building in Bologna, Italy
ReligiousChiesa di San Girolamo alla Certosa
Church building in Bologna, Italy
ReligiousSant'Andrea Apostolo di Quarto Superiore
Church building in Bologna, Italy
Religious
ReligiousSan Giovanni Battista di Calamosco
Church building in Calamosco, Bologna, Italy
ReligiousChiesa del Sacro Cuore
Roman Catholic church in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
ReligiousChiesa dei Santi Vitale e Agricola in Arena
Church in Bologna (BO)
Chiesa di Santi Nicolò e Petronio
Place of worship.
Oratorio di Madonna dei boschi
Place of worship.
Chiesa di San Lorenzo di Farneto
Place of worship.
Heritage & archaeology
(4)
ArchaeologicalCava a filo
Paleontological site in San Lazzaro di Savena, Italy
Bagni di Mario
Archaeological site.
Belvedere
Historic ruins.
Poggio
Historic ruins.
Parks & nature
(5)
ParkOrto botanico dell'Università di Bologna
Botanical garden in Italy
Park
Park
ParkCavaticcio Park
Public park in Bologna
ParkVilla Ghigi
Park and villa in Bologna
More to explore
(3)Torretta di osservazione
Viewpoint.
Locomotiva FS Gr 880.038
Visitor attraction.
Villa Aldini
Viewpoint.
Data from Wikidata (CC0) & OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Images via Wikimedia Commons — see each credit. Listings are community-maintained and may be incomplete or out of date — verify hours and access before visiting.
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