Night at the Palazzo (Una notte al Palazzo)

Trekking Urbano is a program offered by the city of Bologna which gives guided tours to discover more about the city. This year there was one trek that I thought would be particularly interesting: a visit to the palazzo which is the center of the city government. The building is quite large. The original part was acquired in the 14th century, has been expanded several times, and currently only a small but very important part of the government is still housed in this building. The mayor and city council have their offices and meeting rooms here. In addition to the government functions there are rooms for civic marriages and the spectacular Civic Art Collection which includes the unique and recently restored Sala Urbana (see my blog post on that here:  http://www.dreaminginitalian.com/2015/06/01/sala-urbana/)

The Urban Trek allowed entrance to rooms normally closed to the public and a very special treat – access to a terrace overlooking Piazza Maggiore.

Il Trekking Urbano ci ha permesso di entrare in sale normalmente chiuse al pubblico e, cosa molto speciale,  l’accesso ad una terrazza che affaccia su Piazza Maggiore.

We started the tour with a visit to the Green Room, a fairly recent addition (well, perhaps in the the last 100 years or so) is used for civic marriages.

Abbiamo iniziato il tour con una visita alla Sala Verde, un’aggiunta abbastanza recente (forse degli ultimi cento anni o qualcosa del genere) che viene usata per i matrimoni civili.

 Then we went up the first of two stairways. As you can see these are very unusual stairs which were designed to allow horses to go up the stairs. It’s hard to imagine horses on both the first and second floor, not to mention the, er, cleanliness aspect.

Poi abbiamo salito la prima rampa di una scalinata. Come puoi vedere, queste sono scale molte insolite, che erano state pensate per permettere ai cavalli di salirle. E’ difficile immaginare i cavalli sia al primo che al secondo piano, per non dire, ehm, della pulizia.

One room had a large statue of Hercules and was called, what else, the Hecules room.

Next to Hercules was the room for the Ancients, the original council of government composed of elders of the city.

Accanto alla Sala d’Ercole c’è la sala degli Anziani, il consiglio governativo originario composto dagli anziani della città.

The Council Room was quite spectacular with lots of frescos and seating for the press, representatives of the political parties and the city council.

La Sala del Consiglio e’ decisamente spettacolare con molti affreschi e sedute per la stampa, i rappresentanti dei partiti politici ed il consiglio comunale.

We then went through a number of rooms of the museum housing the city art collection and at the end were treated to a visit to the terrace. First look at the picture below of the Palazzo from the other side of Piazza Maggiore. Note the position of the clock and imagine being just underneath it in the cool night air looking at views of the city.

Siamo quindi passati attraverso alcune sale del museo che ospita le Collezioni Comunali d’Arte e alla fine ci e’ stata offerta una visita alla terrazza. Prima guarda la foto del Palazzo qui sotto, scattata dall’altra parte di Piazza Maggiore. Fa’ attenzione alla posizione dell’orologio e immagina di esserci proprio sotto, nell’aria fresca della notte, godendo vedute della città.

It was quite a night!

E’ stato una bella serata!!!

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 3rd, 2016 at 9:06 am and is filed under Culture, Language, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.