The secrets of Bologna

Bologna is worth visiting not just for churches, monuments or museums, but also for discovering some secrets that Bologna is hiding for centuries. Some of the Bologna secrets are urban legends, superstitions and some are real.

The first secret you will find at the Via dell Indipendenza, just under the Scappi tower. 
“panis vita, canabis protectio, vinum laetitia” which means “bread is life, Cannabis is protection, wine is happiness”. It is said in honor of the cultivation of hemp at the time which was an important trade product for Bologna. 

The second secret of Bologna sounds odd and I couldn’t believe or find the right angle for years. I was thinking for a while how to describe it without sounding like a pervert. Look at Neptune’s penis – yes, you read correctly, his dick is a secret. When the statue was established the catholic priests didn’t like the artist to make a big dick for Neptune because it was too obscene. So the artist followed the instructions and when you stand in front of Neptune you won’t notice anything extraordinary. Take a few steps around the statue then you will see that his thumb is placed in way that it looks like him having an erection. His penis looks very big and real, and is pointing right to the pope that is sitting on a chair in front of him!

The third secret is at Palazzo del Podesta (near Piazza Maggiore) you can talk to a friend by whispering in one of the corners. The architecture is constructed that only people in diagonally opposite corners can talk and nobody else can listen to the conversation. Definitely fun trying this one with a friend! It’s funny for people watching others talking into corners.

The fourth secret are the arrows. It is said that once there was a rich Lord in Bologna whose wife had cheated on him. He decided to hire assassins to shoot her with arrows. The night they came of fulfill their order, the wife appeared naked and they were so distracted that they shot three arrows into the ceiling. When you go to Strada Maggiore and stop underneath the wooden porticoes of Casa Isolani, you can still see the arrows stuck in the ceiling.

The fifth secret is the 666 Portici di San Luca. It is the biggest on the world and have 666 arches. 666 is the number of the beast and in Bologna they said that if you walk all the way under the 666 arches something really bad will happen to you in the next days. It's advise by locals from Bologna that you should skip one of the 666 arches. The way up there is not easy, is a big hike but is worth the view. The portico represents the Devil, if you look the picture looks like a snake and Mary in stepping on him. Other people would say that the portico was designed by the Devil. This secret will have a continuation on the tenth. 666 arches are great after a big plate of Tagliatelle.

The sixth secret is a little window in La Piella shows old waterways that were used for transportation but due to urban renewals of the city, most of them disappeared. Today you won’t see any signs of the canals by walking around in the city but the window in La Piella shows you one remaining.

The seventh secret is the liberty style building that is now H&M. It was a famous and infamous place in Bologna. Built on 1908 it was a fancy coffee shop on the ground floor and a dancing room on the second floor. Some people would look very bad at the place saying that the place was build in front of a church ordered by the Devil. The place was full of bohemian parties, weed and sex. On 1958 a bank bought the Viennese style building and the fun was over. You can still go on the first floor and see some pieces from the original infamous dancing room of Bologna. 

The eighth secret According to the locals, the Tower of Asinelli was not actually built by Gherardo Asinelli. A much more romantic legend tells of a young man who one day sees a beautiful girl as he is transporting bags of gravel by donkey (‘asinelli’ is Italian for ‘little donkeys’). Smitten, he asks her father, a rich nobleman, for her hand. The father bursts out laughing and says: “Only if you build the highest tower in all Bologna!” Shortly after that, the young man finds a wealth of golden coins which he uses to finance the construction of the tallest tower in the city. The Tower of Asinelli is then used as the dowry for his marriage to the girl, and it continues to be a long-standing symbol of all-conquering love. One superstition tells that if you are studying in a college right now you can't climb that tower. If you do go up the steps you will not finish your studies.

The ninth secret is the most macabre. If you go to a church called Basilica di Santo Stefano you will find a pair of scissors in a tomb. The legend tells that the men buried there was killed with those scissors. Maybe the men buried there was a tailor, or maybe both stories are wrong.

The tenth and last secret is the most weird and bizzarre. There is a legend saying that Lucifer picked Bologna to be his own city. People from the North and the South of Italy tells that many people in Bologna praises the Devil. There are many demoniac faces all around the city, inside and outside the buildings. The residents enjoy the 'hell' red paint in their houses and that's why all Bologna is all painted in red. I think many people say that story because the South and the North are both very religious and conservative while Bologna is the opposite.

Click here to see the map of all the secrets of Bologna!