The Bologna you miss: a canal window and seven churches in one

Hidden Bologna sits a step off the main axis and cannot be seen from it: a canal behind a small window on Via Piella, the Roman town under the glass floor of the city library, the lanes of the old ghetto behind the towers. It is done on foot, without queues and mostly without a ticket.

The finestrella on Via Piella

A small wooden shutter in the wall of an ordinary street, opening onto the Canale delle Moline running between the houses — named after the mill wheels that once lined it. The canal network was dug between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries to bring the city water and power for its workshops, and most of it was covered over in the twentieth. It is free, takes two minutes, and is easily missed if you do not know where it is.

Santo Stefano, seven churches in one

A complex of joined churches from different centuries around courtyards that lead into one another — hence the name Seven Churches, though today there are four churches, plus two courtyards and a museum. The relics of St Petronius lay in the church of the Holy Sepulchre from 1141 until 2000, when they were moved to the basilica that bears his name; in Pilate's Courtyard stands an eighth-century marble basin with an inscription naming Lombard kings. Entry is free.

The anatomical theatre in the Archiginnasio

A seventeenth-century room of spruce where public dissections were held, with a table in the middle and tiers around it. It was destroyed by bombing in 1944 and reassembled from pieces pulled out of the rubble, so what you see today is the original wood in a post-war setting. The audio-guided ticket is €10 and covers the whole building.

FoodWhere to eat in these streets, and at what price:What to eat in Bologna →

Three more

• The Salaborsa — the city library on the main square, with a glass floor showing Roman Bononia below. Entry is free and people sit inside as though it were the city's living room.
• Via dell'Inferno — the main street of the ghetto that Pope Paul IV decreed in 1556, narrow and dark; the Jewish Museum is in the same quarter, on Via Valdonica. The name is older than the ghetto — it is recorded in 1409, next to the butchers' stalls on the nearby square — and has nothing to do with the Jews.
• The Montagnola and the Pincio — a park north of the centre with a monumental staircase opened in 1896 by King Umberto I and Queen Margherita; on the neighbouring Piazza VIII Agosto the La Piazzola market runs on Fridays and Saturdays.

Day tripsAnd once you leave town, Emilia starts immediately:Day trips from Bologna →

One hack

The Asinelli climb is shut while work on the Garisenda goes on, and the San Petronio terrace closed for good after its restoration. The view from above now comes from the Torre dell'Orologio on the Palazzo d'Accursio, right on Piazza Maggiore: two terraces, stairs only as there is no lift, entry every twenty minutes with compulsory booking, and a €10 ticket that includes the Municipal Art Collections. Children under eight are not allowed on the top terrace.

2 daysThe same loop, but by the hour and with a slot for the tower:Bologna in 2 days →

Where to stayWhich area to sleep in near these streets:Where to stay in Bologna →

BudgetWhat this adds to a day's spend:What Bologna costs →

When to goWhether rain spoils this walk:The best time to visit Bologna →