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ABOUT Piazza Maggiore, porticos, the oldest university in Europe and the Palazzo del Re Enzo in the UNESCO City of Music in Italy. If there is one cast iron, golden rule of travel, it is as follows: when there is an exhibition advertised by a picture of a frog in a top hat, you go in. And the fact that you haven't a clue what it is about is totally irrelevant. To be fair, such ingenious gimmicks are needed in a city like Bologna. Piazza Maggiore, the city's hub, has promotional banners all over the place heralding various events, shows and installations. A quick scan brings promises of Charlie Chaplin, Indiana Jones-style archaeology, a history festival, the future of the internet and the season of opera and ballet. Throw in some chest-thumping boasts of being the UNESCO City of Music, and there's an awful lot going on. But only Bologna Si Sposa has a comical yet dapper amphibian, so it wins. The exhibition is in the Palazzo del Re Enzo, right in the centre of Piazza Maggiore. It is one of many impressive red brick buildings that manage to combine grandeur with gutsy no-nonsense. And, from a balcony, a DJ is pumping out Barry White as loud as possible. It turns out, after paying the entrance fee and getting more than a few quizzical looks, that it is a wedding expo. A rather upmarket one too, with representatives of wildly expensive country retreats in among the photographers and dressmakers. Sauntering through, I spy a woman plucking a harp and a clarinet trio doing their thing, but it's the building that really grabs the attention. In any other city, an exhibition like this would be held in a purpose-built exhibition centre, probably on the outskirts of town. In Bologna, they hold it in a palace. And if someone else needs to do a big carpet sale or host a trade fair, then no problem - there are plenty more fabulous old buildings to go around. It is rather difficult not to agree with Renaissance historian Jakob Burckhardt. He wrote: "Considering individual buildings, there are four or five cities [in Italy] preceding Bologna, but it is and remains the most beautiful Italian city judged as a whole." They might be a few years late, but the chaps at Lonely Planet appear to have finally worked out much the same thing. In their newly-released Blue List, which highlights 2008's must-see destinations, Bologna is a surprise entry alongside the usual untouched corners of exotic rainforests. To get an idea of why, it is necessary to take a stroll away from the main square. To the north is Via dell' Indipendenza, a grand arterial route leading towards the train station. Towards the university in the north-east is Via Zamboni. Both are lined with what may as well be Bologna's trademark: porticos. As a way of cramming more people into narrow streets, buildings had their upper floors extended to overhang the pavements. Pillars and arches support the construction of what was to become such a design success that the city now has 38 kilometres of such arcades. This makes it the most porticoed city in the world, an unusual statistic that becomes far more impressive when you experience the effect by stepping inside. When the porticos break off for large open spaces, they are filled with structures designed to wow. Towers, palaces, basilicas, Roman gates ... Bologna seems to have more than its fair share of all of them. The cumulative effect, especially when walking up to the university, is spectacular. The university, of course, gives the town a large part of its flavour and has done so for nearly 1000 years. Founded in 1088, it is the oldest university in Europe and can count the likes of Dante Alighieri, Nicolaus Copernicus and Umberto Eco among its alumni. Its students have been perennially regarded as troublemakers, either making mischief for the church or the state, and it comes as no surprise to learn that the city is traditionally a communist heartland. Indeed, the amount of Che Guevara merchandise in the shops and odd scrawl of graffiti confirm this. In Italy, Bologna is known as the Red City, and that doesn't just refer to the brickwork in Piazza Maggiore. The student area is the most lively. The little bars, cafes and pubs (yes, the Italians can do pubs when they feel like it) all have that frisson of excitement about them. Even on a quiet Sunday or Tuesday evening, there's an undeniably perky vibe, as bright young things conduct verbal foreplay over a drink or a meal. Not spaghetti bolognaise, mind ... Ironically for the city in which the classic student dish was invented, no one will serve it. They prefer to use tagliatelle and call the sauce ragu. As with the rest of the city, it pays to be nosy around the university. Through a not particularly prominent doorway in the Palazzo Poggi is a thoroughly bizarre collection of oddities. These include possibly the most disturbing room on earth. The grandly-titled Museum of Obstetrics has its walls covered in glass cabinets, and within these are models of uterus after uterus. They all demonstrate childbirth complications, and were designed as teaching aids by someone who had far too much time on their hands. One of them would be mildly freaky, but hundreds of them in the same room is enough to induce recurring nightmares. It doesn't help that the other rooms around (all separate museums, it seems) appear to be the brainchild of someone who eats far too much cheese. There is a trippy monument to Sir Isaac Newton, which offsets the ostrich eggs and waxwork eyeballs glaring through the dim light. But before taking to the corner and rocking back and forth, it's worth looking up. They are not immediately obvious when fighting elephant tusks and skinned humans vie for attention, but at the tops of the walls are a series of fresco paintings. Anywhere else and they would be the star attraction, but here they're buried away matter-of-factly. In Bologna, as it has been for nearly a millennium, those who seek shall find. TRIP NOTES Getting there: Bologna is at the centre of northern Italy, in the middle of a rough triangle between Venice, Florence and Milan. The city is a major railway hub, and Rome is less than three hours away by train. Cathay Pacific flies to Rome via Hong Kong. Fares start at $2010 including taxes. For details, phone Escape Travel on 1300 799 783 or see http://www.escapetravel.com.au. More information: See http://iat.comune.bologna.it for tourist guides on the city and accommodation options. Source: The Sun-Herald, Sydney, Australia (January 20th 2008)
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