Take a classic walking tour through the streets of the Bologna city center. With this guided tour, discover the history of Bologna and its major cultural attractions. Make stops at the Asinelli tower, Neptune fountain, and the Basilica of San Petronio. Meet your guide and walk through the city streets admiring the architecture and discovering the most-famous cultural attraction. See the towers of Bologna and marvel at their height and significance. Then, stroll through the Quadrilatero Market, and learn important historical facts. Make a wish at the Neptune fountain and see if it comes true. Then, gaze at the Basilica of San Petronio, as your guide shares its story and welcomes you into the city of Bologna.

Discover Bologna in comfort via an open top bus, enabling you to admire and photograph all the major attractions of the city.  Upon arriving at the meeting point, staff will welcome you onboard. Choose from an audioguide available in 10 different languages to learn more about the specific landmarks as well as the general history of the city. You will then journey across the city, capturing views of some of the most famous points of interest. Hop on and off at your leisure at some popular spots such as: • Basilica San Petronio • Palazzo dei Notai • Palazzo Comunale • Palazzo di Re Enzo • Palazzo del Podestà, • Tower of Asinelli and Garisenda • Museo Civico Archeologico • Archiginnasio • Palazzo Bevilacqua • Porta Saragozza • Palazzo Bentivoglio • Fontana del Nettuno • Teatro Comunale. After the tour, enjoy a food tour in a historical market in Bologna, where you will try local delicacies.

Experience the vibrant historic center of Bologna on this walking tour. Admire sights like the Basilica of San Petronio and the Loggia of Merchants. Stop to try specialties at three establishments and enjoy a glass of delectable local wine. Start your tour in Piazza del Nettuno, where your guide will share insights into Bolognese culture with you. See an excellent example of Italian Gothic architecture at the Basilica of San Petronio. Admire the two towers that are the symbol of Bologna. View the Loggia of Merchants, where commercial and trading activities have been overseen in Bologna for hundreds of years. Walk to the vibrant Quadrilatero Market. Wander through the sights and smells in this market that has been around since the middle ages.

Explore the reasons behind the many names of Bologna. Admire the red roofs of the city that are the reason for it being called "the red city." Feast on the delectable cuisine that gives Bologna the name "the fat city." Marvel at the forest of over 100 towers that once dotted the landscape of the city, also known as "the towered." Walk the ground of the world's oldest university, the reason that Bologna is sometimes referred to as "the cultured". Learn about each facet of the city on this walking tour, as well as its history and stories, like how the rebellious Bolognese stopped the city from becoming the Vatican. Discover how the Fountain of Neptune's sculptor got away with making Neptune seem particularly well-endowed despite prohibition from the church while at the Piazza del Nettuno. Gaze up at the Whispering Gallery under the Torre dell Arengo while being told about how star-crossed lovers were able to murmur sweet nothings to each other without their other romantic partners knowing. Hear about the legends of Le Tre Frecce and catch a glimpse of how Bologna once resembled Venice with its network of canals and rivers while passing Canale delle Moline. Then, walk down Via Indipendenza and see what it would have been like in the post-Risorgimento period. Have the opportunity to see San Petronio, the largest and most important church of the city before strolling down Via Rizzoli, named after a 19th-century physician. Hear about Giuseppe Garibaldi, the hero of two countries. Pass by Il Pincio, the entrance to Parco della Montagnola, a French style garden commissioned by Napoleon. Take in Garisenda and Asinelli, Bologna’s Two Towers. Stand beside Porta Galliera, where a retreating Austrian army left the city following a rebellion by the Bolognese in 1848. Learn about the city’s history from the Etruscans and the Lombards, including the chaotic factional fighting between the Guelphs and Ghibellines. Discover the Quadrilatero neighbourhood with its cafes and restaurants, and find out about the seven churches of Santo Stefano. Finally, explore the culinary wonders of the city responsible for iconic dishes like lasagna, ragu, and tagliatelle. These recipes were born and fiercely guarded in the chamber of commerce. Then see the cafés, restaurants and shops where you can allow your tummy and taste buds to be tempted by these culinary marvels.

Discover Bologna’s hidden secrets by following clues and solving puzzles on this murder mystery exploration game played on your phone. Discover new places and amazing stories with an app as your guide. Start at Porta Galliera. From there, simply follow the game route and instructions. Explore at your own pace: pause the game and resume anytime from any location where you paused it. As you solve challenges, the story unfolds and directions on your phone will guide you to the next stop. Explore Via dell'Indipendenza and Santa Maria della Vita along with lesser-known places. Discover the city’s most famous marketplace. As you explore, learn about the stories behind the city, including the puzzling history of the Old University, founded in 1088 by an organized guild of students. Choose to play on your own, in a large group, or in several smaller groups to compete against each other and race to the final stop of the game. Enjoy an experience that’s the perfect mix between a tour, outdoor escape game, and treasure hunt. The entire game will take around 1.5 to 2 hours to complete.

The Basilica of San Petronio, dedicated to the patron saint of the city, is the largest church in Bologna. It dominates Piazza Maggiore and, despite being largely unfinished, its imposing dimensions make it the 4th largest church in Italy and the largest Gothic brick church in the world. In the Basilica of San Petronio it is impossible not to know what time it is. Instead of a clock, the structure houses the longest sundial in the world. It measures 67 meters and crosses the floor of the church since 1657. It was Domenico Cassini who built it; an astronomy professor, who believed that the motion of the planets depended on the sun. With this guided tour, you will learn about the art and history of this church. Afterwards, together with your expert guide, you will visit the famous Archiginnasio Library located next to San Petronio. Here you can admire the history of the oldest university and visit the famous Anatomical Hall

Bologna is home to some of the best food, the most sublime beauty, and the richest history in all of Italy. Yet it’s rarely on the tourist radar. On this walking tour, award-winning author Frank Bures will give you a taste of authentic Italian culture, show you the city’s many historical sites, and tell you the stories most travelers don’t hear. Throughout the walk, he’ll share anecdotes from the time he spent in Bologna as an exchange student in the 1990s, where he came of age as a global citizen. Starting at the Neptune Fountain, you’ll walk through Piazza Maggiore to San Petronio Basilica where you’ll see the world’s largest sundial. You’ll then make your way to the Two Towers, one of which garnered a mention in Dante’s Inferno, and stroll beneath the famous porticos that became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2021. En route to the city’s culinary epicenter, the Quadrilatero, he’ll show you where the 1902 murder that dominated world headlines for three years took place. He’ll also tell you about the case of a 1980 train station bombing by right-wing terrorists that killed 85 people, before you walk back to San Petronio to learn about Michelangelo’s lost statue of Pope Julius II. Finally, you’ll loop past Piazza Galvani to hear about scientific experiments that electrified frogs before heading back where you started. Along the way, you’ll also have the chance to: • Hear about the different Italian dialects Frank encountered while studying here, including Bolognese • See the Roxy Bar, which was featured in the Italian superstar Vasco Rossi’s song Vita Spericolata (The Reckless Life) • Discover how the world’s oldest university got its start • Take in the “Seven Churches” of Santo Stefano • Find out how an ancient painting once saved the city • Learn the secret to cooking good Italian food • Be transported back to the time Aerosmith visited the city • Relive the glory of Bologna’s canals which once rivaled Venice’s • Understand why the poet Gabriele D’Annunzio called Niccolò dell’Arca’s Lamentation for the Dead Christ sculpture a “scream in stone” Join Frank Bures for this lighthearted 60-minute stroll through the ancient – and more recent – past of Bologna, a place that art critic John Berger once called “an improbable city.” PHOTO CREDITS: Photos of San Luca, Piazza Maggiore, Piazza Maggiore at night, Neptune at night, Santo Stefano and “Speaking Bolognese" courtesy of Bologna Welcome. All other photos by the author.

Bologna is rich in well-known churches and cathedrals. From the Basilica of San Petronio to the Cathedral of San Pietro, you will discover the wonders of ecclesiastical Bologna. During the tour you will range from Gothic to Baroque churches crossing centuries of history. Did you know that San Petronio is the largest brick-built Gothic church in the world? Discover many other curiosities with your expert guide! At the end of your tour, enjoy a tasty treat in the city centre.

Start the tour at Archiginnasio Palace, which serves as the main office building for the oldest university in the world – the University of Bologna. After, walk to Piazza Maggiore, where the Basilica of San Petronio is located, known for its imposing facade. Continue to Piazza del Nettuno, which is surrounded by three important administrative buildings: Palazzo d'Accursio, Palazzo del Podestà, and Palazzo del Capitano del Popolo. Afterward, continue to the base of Bologna's iconic towers, the Asinelli Tower and the Garisenda Tower. Learn about the history and features of these imposing structures. Next, continue to the wooden arch of Corte Isolani and see the Oratory of Santa Cecilia. Admire the exterior of the church of San Giacomo Maggiore, before concluding the tour in the area of Quadrilatero, which is home to many markets and shops.

Enjoy a Private Tour of Parma and Bologna from Milan for twelve hours with a private tour guide for two hours in each city and a private luxury vehicle with a chauffeur that will pick you up and drop you off from your hotel in Milan. Once your private chauffeur has picked you up, besides your private tour guide you will go ahead to your first destination. You will discover Parma, a city in the north of Italy that has remarkable medieval architecture and beautiful forests surrounding it. Your private tour guide will show you the tourist attractions of the city such as the cathedral with Romanesque style, the opera house Teatro, the Baptistery with Romanesque and Gothic styles and much more. When you finish visiting Parma you will go ahead to your destination, Bologna which is one of the best-preserved historic cities and has one of the largest medieval old towns in Europe. You will visit as well the tourist attractions of Bologna such as the two medieval famous towers, the Piazza Maggiore, the Basilica of San Petronio known for being one of the largest churches in existence, the basilica of San Francisco known for being a Gothic church and much more. After visiting the two cities, your private chauffeur will drop you off at your hotel in Milan or your place of preference inside the city.