This is our new room with a view, which is in a quiet residential area about a 10-15 minute walk from the city. We’re at Hotel Porto San Mamolo and about to meet our new tour people. The hotel itself is family run, simple and charming, but has all we need for our three day stay.
I guess I’m giving the punchline away at the beginning of the post but I’m a little punchy anyway, since I just woke up from a long-deserved nap. This is the first afternoon nap I’ve taken since arriving in Italy. Jet lag has been almost nonexistent on this trip, but it’s been an active morning as usual so I needed to crash a bit.
Our first stop after breakfast was the Basilica of San Francesco, a Romanesque Gothic gem founded in 1251!
Yes, we were welcomed by baby lions on the fence. Mass was going on when we arrived so we sat in the sunshine and read a bit about the church in Ann’s handy Berlitz guidebook before making our visit. The Gothic arches were impressive, as was some of the stained glass, but overall it was a dignified rather than flashy basilica.
We headed a few blocks back to the center of the town, first to the church of Saint Petronius at the Piazza Magiorri, then to the Piazza Galvani to visit a part of the world’s oldest university that houses its library and a most unusual room: the anatomical theatre in the gorgeous Palace of the Archiginnasio.
The University of Bologna was founded in 1088, but the anatomical theater wasn’t built until 1636 and was completed in 1737; though damaged during WWII, it still appears as much as it did when candlelit dissections were done on humans and animals alike. The room is completely carved from spruce with its imposing marble dissecting table still in position in front of the teacher’s chair. Each corner of the theater is elaborately decorated with carved statues of Hippocrates and other famous physicians and two anatomical models with muscles exposed – called spellati, or “skinned men” – are also there, surrounding the teacher’s chair, perhaps to show students what they’ll be seeing as they do their cutting.
You’ll find astrological symbols on the ceiling and overseeing it all is a representation of a woman being offered a thigh bone by an angel.
My details here were taken from the website Atlas Obscura, but if you google “anatomical theater Bologna” you’ll find a wealth of information.
As you enter the building on the ground floor you’ll see, on the ceiling in the lower portico, the coats of arms of the cities or countries of those who studied medicine there and had the honor of putting their names on the walls. The visitor then goes up a flight of stairs to enter the room of the anatomical theater.
This is a must-see site for anyone visiting Bologna
We had our own scientific experiment to do after the visit to the anatomical theater, so we headed to a gelateria, at the Piazza Cavour near by, to taste gelato, which we ate at one of the benches of the lovely park in the center of the square. I used the camera phone; Ann posed with our gelati. This was a serious taste test: our guide Alice emailed me the name of the two best places for gelato in Bologna and we had to decide on the winner. A few days ago we tested at the first shop and now we’re here. Which is the best of the best? Not sure. We may have to do more testing before coming up with an answer. It’s hard work but someone’s got to do it – all in the interest of science, of course.
At 7:00 we attended our proseco-and-light supper orientation meeting. Our guide Alice is a delight and our seven other trip mates seemed congenial; there were lots of criss-crossing conversations as we sat at a square table in the middle of the garden room, where we’ll also have breakfast in the morning .
We’ll leave tomorrow at 9:00 AM for a walking tour of the city, with lunch on our own. The afternoon is free, and we’ll have a welcome dinner with the group in the early evening.
I leave you with a view of the garden, in hopes that I may meet Romeo the cat there tomorrow.
