Have you always wanted to travel to Italy but don't know where to go? Have you already visited the big cities and run out of ideas about where to go next? Do you want to know non-touristy places to live the true Italian experience? You are reading the right article! Here you will find 2 not-so-well-known Italian cities that you will want to see (and no, I’m not talking about Rome, Florence or Venice).
Bologna:
Being the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, one of the 20 regions in Italy, Bologna is one of the most historical cities in the country. Located in the northeast of the nation, it counts 1,015,608 people living there. The city was built 2,000 years ago and it’s full of historical places all coming from different ages. It is also the home of one of the oldest universities, the University of Bologna, built in 1088.
When you go there you must visit the main attraction, which is also what the city is known for, the two towers. They are called the “Asinelli Tower”, so called after the name of the family that ordered its construction, and the “Garisenda Tower”. The second one is the shortest but, truth to be told, it is even more leaning than the famous Tower of Pisa.
Then you can move on to a less-touristy place (very aesthetic and nice for your Instagram pictures!) which is a little window on the river that goes across the city, called “la finestrella”. Only people living in the city or nearby know about this place so you want to make sure you pay a visit!
After all this wandering around you are probably going to be hungry, but don’t worry, this is not a problem there! Matter of fact, Bologna is the mother town of the famous “lasagna”, so it’s going to be super easy to find a place that sells it at a very cheap price with an amazing view of the city centre. Don’t miss the occasion to taste the original one because oftentimes the recipe is different if you go to other parts of Italy and it may not be as good.
A fun fact about the city is that Bologna is also called the “Red city” because of both its reddish tiled roofs and its political orientation, which has been left-oriented ever since the end of WWII.
Also, do you know the famous “Vespa”? An Italian group wrote a song (Vespa special by Lunapop) about riding one in this very city at the end of the 90s which quickly became iconic in Italy and is still famous today among young and less young people!
Siena:
Moving to another region, Tuscany, we can find this much smaller but equally pretty city. Siena is a very old city completely built on tuff, which makes its structure unique and gives the main square a characteristic colour, commercialized to every painter in the world under the name of “Sienna Earth”. The city is over 15 hundred years old, is located in the centre of the nation and it counts 263,801 people living there.
The city became worldwide famous over the years for its “Palio di Siena”, an important horse race
held twice every summer in the main square. Competing in this race are 10 of the 17 districts (the so-called “contrade”) in which the city is divided, the districts are drawn to make sure there are no preferences and that everybody gets a chance to participate. The dates of the races are fixed, July 2nd and August 16th: it’s a little sacrifice to go there on those dates since the weather is normally burning hot, but I promise that it is 100% worth it and a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Just make sure to avoid taping the race: the Palio is a very important thing for the people of the city and it’s considered very disrespectful to be loud and act like an average tourist while the race is going on (remember, you don’t want to be yelled at by the people in the square).
You can then move on and visit the Duomo, which is the most important church in the city. Projected to be the biggest church of all Europe, when they started to build it things significantly changed due to the lack of solid foundations since the city stands on tuff. Eventually, it was built like a regular-sized church, but it’s still worth a visit for its amazing Italian-gothic style and its inside decorations
and structure.
If after all of this you’re hungry that’s understandable, that’s why the city has its particular food: the “ciaccino”, which you can’t find anywhere else! It is a focaccia bread filled with mozzarella and ham (that’s the traditional recipe, but you can find a lot of interesting and tasty variants to that) and it tastes amazing.
Also, a fact that you will probably find funny and a bit old-fashioned: because they compete with each other, the districts have alliances and enemies among them, and a marriage between two people belonging to 2 enemy districts is frowned upon!
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