Bologna Day 4 Palazzo Pepoli

Our ticket to the Pinotecca yesterday included a visit to the 17th century Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande, with frescoes by Giuseppe Maria Crespi and Donato Creti. It also houses the collection of paintings that the Zambeccari senatorial family collected during the 18th century.

It is always a privilege to have the gallery to ourselves. We had an addition recommendation by the check ticket lady, to see the Oratorio de San Cecilia that was a bonus because at the Oratorio, a official lady took to Ruby and explained the beautiful frescoes and instructed her as to which order to look.

We also did a free walking tour and learnt that Bologna was like Venice and had lots of canals that are covered up now. Also, Bologna is in the Guinness book of records for the most Portico city. From memory, it was around 43km of porticoes, and that is increasing as new ones are added.

We saw the big Basilica that is half finished because it was built without the pope's permission. When the pope visited a year later, he stopped work on it. It has only been recognised by the Catholic See in 2020.

After walking around Bologna today, Ruby was feeling rather unwell. She complained of headache, dizziness and even nausea. It did not stop her finishing all her polenta lunch, but I knew she wasn't well when she did not want any dessert. We think it's from secondary inhalation of all the alternative substances smoked. Probably not helped by the large number of youths around with Bologna being a university town. She was most disappointed that she did not experience any happy high, just awful symptoms. In January this year, on a hike in Albany, Ruby stopped for a 10-15 minute chat with a fellow hiker who held a smoke behind his back the whole time. When she caught up with me after, she complained of being dizzy and had to sit down for a while, and giggled . We realised then that he was smoking pot and that was what he was holding behind his back. No giggles this time.

After apertivo with a plate of local cold cuts, cheese and bread, we were too full for dinner.

Distance walked 17.2 kmEn savoir plus