A town or city will always have some secrets. Bologna boasts seven, although as some can be a little hard to access, I have included an additional secret.

They are little points to go and see, which will help you to uncover a little more of the city, but should be undertaken in addition to a guided tour of the historic centre.

A guided tour will help you to understand Bologna’s position as one of the most important cities of Italy, even if a little underrated by the tourism industry. At one point in its history, Bologna was second only to Rome amongst the Papal States. It has the oldest University in the world, so has always attracted thinkers, artists, even lawyers.

I took a morning tour of the historic centre with Bologna Tours, and then an afternoon tour with them of the Archiginnasio. Both are highly recommended.

On the following day, I undertook a trail to uncover the Seven Secrets of Bologna

The Seven Secrets of Bologna : a Guide

The hole in the wall, Little Venice?

This promises a hidden view of the Molina Canal through a hole in the wall on the bridge on the Via Pialle.  I missed this secret first time round because opposite the hole in the wall, there is no wall, just an uninterrupted  view of the canal in the other direction.

I realised my mistake when I got back to my hotel and was looking through my photos.

I returned the following day and retook the picture through the hole, as well as going to the other end of the “wrong view” for a view looking back.

It is a bit of a stretch of the imagination to call it “Little Venice” and Bologna certainly doesn’t need to borrow any marketing tricks from other cities. 

Neptune’s Appendage

The Fountain of Neptune is one of the iconic sights in Bologna, adjacent to the Piazza Maggiore. It was commissioned by Cardinal Legate Borromeo to celebrate the election of his uncle as Pope Pius IV.

The bronze statue is nicknamed Neptune the Huge, partly because of its size. But the story goes that the Cardinal objected to the size of the statues genitals and insisted that they should be reduced.

The sculptor agreed… up to a point… and reduced the size of the offending appendage. If you walk to the rear of the statue on a slab opposite the Borse and look carefully at the statue again, you will see that the statue’s thumb takes on an entirely different perspective. Neptune the Huge indeed.

Bologna is more than just a University town, it has the oldest University in the World. Legend has it that you will succeed in your exams if you walk around the statue twice. However, one of the other secrets has a warning for students which we will uncover when we look at the Asinelli  Tower ( secret no 7).

The Three Arrows

It is now time to walk to the Strada Maggiore where you will see three arrows embedded into the wooden ceiling of the portico. You will walk past the Asinelli Tower up to the Corte Isolani, which is a sort of covered gallery between the Strada Maggiore and the Piazza San Stefano. Bookmark the San Stefano Complex of churches, because you will definitely want to visit,  but it is not part of the Seven Secrets of Bologna, 

The story goes that someone ordered three assassins to kill a rival. Those assassins had their bows drawn and ready to shoot  when the sight of a lovely lady undressing in one of the rooms opposite distracted their aim. As a result they shot into the roof of the portico where the arrows have remained ever since.

There is a rival story that the assassins were employed to kill a lady but were so taken by her beauty that they missed. I think I prefer the first version.

The ceiling is high and dark so it is not really possible to see where the arrows might now rest. Nor do we know whether the victim was eventually slain. So it remains  a secret of sorts.

The Four Corners of the Podesta: the “wireless phone”

You now head  back down the Strada Maggiore, not stopping at the Asinelli  tower, which is no 7 on the list.

 You are walking back to the Piazza Maggiore and the Palazzo del Podestà. This is a secret that  you hear, rather than see. It also means that it is perhaps something that solo travellers cannot enjoy. I was not brave enough to ask a stranger to try with me.

In the middle of the covered walkway between the Strada Maggiore and the Piazza,  there is a section in the centre with four corners. If you speak into one corner, the person in the opposite corner can hear what you are saying, the sound somehow carried through the brickwork. It is sometimes described as a “wireless phone,” although as you can see from the image below, we are never far from our phones.

 It is said that this is how Lepers could confess to their sins without getting too close to the priest

Cannabis protects you

The city of Bologna derived much of its wealth from the production and processing of silk. It also had a strong industry in hemp, which was grown and processed in the plains around the city,  

Apart from other uses, hemp from Bologna was woven into ropes which were used to supply the Venetian navy.

The portico at the beginning of the Via Independente has a number of surviving frescos with three inscriptions in Latin:

Panis Vita, Canabis Protectio, Vinum Laetitia

Bread is life, hemp is protection, wine is joy.

Hemp is protection probably means the money from hemp protects you, rather than referring to the medical benefits of cannabis. Personally I think all three panels should form the secret in the Seven Secrets of Bologna, but I don’t make the rules.

Panum Resis

Apparently in the University there is a desk with the inscription Panum Resis, or Knowledge is the Foundation. Again, I wasn’t brave enough to go inside the university to look for the desk, and I would imagine that the University would be fairly peeved with tourists wandering in looking at their desks. 

It should also be noted that no one knows where this desk might be inside the University, and as they presumably have a lot of desks, finding it will be beyind most tourists. 

The walk to the new University buildings is one of the longest on the Secrets trail, but it does take you past the historic  Teatro Comunale di Bologna, the opera house, which will certainly be well worth a visit once the restoration work has been finished. 

The Asinelli Tower

Your trail to uncover the Seven Secrets of Bologna has almost come to an end. You are standing in front of the Asinelli Tower, all 97 metres high. It is sometimes referred to as one of the Due Torri as it is immediately adjacent to another, leaning tower.

The secret is that there is broken vase hidden at the highest point, apparently to demonstrate the ability of the Bolognese to solve problems. How remains unclear.

A little like the previous secret, no one has ever found this broken vase. The tower is currently closed. for maintenance, and looking at the degree of lean in its neighbouring tower, that might be a good excuse for not climbing up to look for the vase.

Legend has it that if students climb the tower before an exam, they will fail. Yes, indeed, perhaps they should spend more time studying and less time climbing towers

As the last two secrets can not be found, I feel that I should add in another secret, the Demon of the Palazzo Salina. I have written about the devils and demons of Bologna elsewhere (here if you would like to read it (https://bit.ly/4aIDQND  ) but will describe this little chap here as well. 

Along the façade of the Palazzo Salina in the Piazza Santo Stefanu are a series of capricci busts of ladies, warriors, ancient gods, and a demon, possibly a satyr, grinning diabolically. The artists, Alfonso Lombardi and Nicolo da Volterra have left no explanation,  so it remains a secret. The grinning demon is there perhaps to scare off other demons.

Part of the facade is shown at the head of this post. And below is a close up of the bust

Bologna is a city full of stories and secrets, of myths and legends. The Seven Secrets of Bologna only give the briefest of glimpses into the city. One could probably find seven tales in the Basilica di San Petronio, or in the Archiginassio, or in the 7 Churches of Santo Stefano Complex.

We could talk of Bolognese and Tortellini, of Gelato and Sangiovese wine.

Bologna has three nicknames, La Dotta, the Learned One, after its university, La Grassa, because the food is very good, and La Rossa after its red bricks.

It is perfect for a city break because you can uncover much of its heritage centre in a a couple of days, but still be left with enough to see and do to warrant a second visit.

It truly is a city for he curious traveller.  It is also a good transport hub if you want to travel to other cities by rail Rimini, Ravenna, Parma, Modena and Padua are all close and Florence is easily reachable as is Rome.

Contact me if you would like to visit the city and its surroundings and I will  help you to uncover its secrets

One of the unique features of Puglia is the possibility of staying in Trulli, or a Masseria, the traditional buildings of Puglia, and which are not really found to any extent anywhere else. 

The Trulli (singular (Trullo) are old buildings with a conical roof piled on top of each other and without mortar holding them together. In times long gone by, there would be a rent paid to a landlord for homes, but a house without a roof would not count as a home. 

So the enterprising inhabitants built their homes with a roof they could quickly dissemble when they saw a rent collector coming, and then restack once the collector has his back turned on his way out. 

But before we look at Trulli in more detail, let us first consider how and why one would go to Puglia. 

New Travel Trends

We are told that we should be travelling out of season and to less popular destinations, partly to get a better travel experience, partly because travel costs may be lower, and partly to try and avoid some of the effects of over-tourism. 

With this in mind, I decided to travel to Bari and Puglia as a solo traveller. I had been invited to stay in a trulli in Puglia during the October school half term, hence choosing the week at the end of October, but otherwise I was ticking most of the sustainable travel boxes. 

I flew from Stansted with Ryan Air to Bari. I did look at the possibility of flying with a different airline to another Italian city, and taking the train, but the long travel time dissuaded me. So I was not completely sustainable in my travel choices. 

Bari Airport, or Bari Karol Wojtyla Airport to give it’s official name is a relatively small airport. Getting through passport control and collecting cases is relatively straightforward. I take the train from the Airport to Bari Centrale a ride of about 15 minutes. 

I want to stay close to the train station as I don’t want to lug a heavy suitcase through some of Bari’s pedestrianised streets. Hotel options in the centre of town are a little limited. The perhaps unfortunately named Bra Hotel is someway out of my Budget. JR Hotels Oriente, a 4 Star hotel is more within that budget, but I decide to stay at an apartment, the Train Suites pretty much immediately opposite the station. 

A day in Bari

The most attractive part of Bari to visit is the Old Town and around the harbour. It atkes about 15 minutes to walk from Train Station to the Old Town through the up market shopping /fashion district known as Murat. To my admittedly untrained eye and  window shopping only, Italian fashion looks good and well priced. 

But I was not here for fashion shopping and continued tthough to the old town, veering slightly right to take in the Petruzzelli Theatre. 

Old Town

If you were coming to Bari on a city break, you will come for the Old Town. Narrow streets, largely pedestrianised, allow access to small shops and boutiques, coffee shops and restaurants, squares and churches.

There are a fair number of tourists, it’s busy but not overcrowded.

Tourists will gather around the ladies making little ears of pasta, Orecchiette. I read that it was the grandmothers, the nonnas, who sat outside fashioning these little ears into which local sauces would flow, but the ladies I saw were far too young to be grandmothers.

Bari really started to develop during the time of the Emperor Trajan, but there are now just a few pockets of Roman ruins left.

Day 2 Polignano a Mare

Polignano lies about 50 minutes train ride south of Bari. It is a popular destination, and makes a good secondary destination if you are coming to Bari on a short city break. 

Like Bari, it has an attractive old town, popular with tourists and in particular coach parties on tours of Puglia. 

Again, like Bari, its development can be traced back to the Emperor Trajan and a viaduct still remains across the bay. 

It is perched across two sides of a cliff, and the cliffs themselves are used by Red Bull as part of their series of Cliff Diving competitions. The diving boards are placed at 27 and 21 metres above the sea and will be an impressive sight for those watching, possibly a slightly nervous one for those taking part. 

You might think that the old town of Polignano a Mare is too similar to that of Bari, and therefore it is not worth a visit, but I would disagree. 

The impression I got (which could be completely wrong) is that most of the people in the bars and restaurants of Bari were locals, while in Polignano it really did feel that they were tourists, albeit mostly Italian tourists, apart from a few groups of American tourists who were on a tight schedule. 

So there is a very different feel between Bari and Polignano, perhaps more relaxed as people generally have more time to linger when they are tourists. The cliff top setting of the latter is impressive and is worth travelling to Polignano just to see that. 

You do believe me that the cats here can write in English, don’t you? 

If you would like to see more photos of Polignano a Mare please head over to my instagram page https://www.instagram.com/travellerstales61/.    I have to head back to Bari, because tomorrow I am off to Locorondo and the Leonardo Trulli Resort, where I shall finally be staying in a Trulli in Puglia, which is what this post is about. 

Leonardo Trulli Resort

I am staying at the Leonardo Trulli Resort for four nights. I get there by taking the train from Bari Centrale to Fasano, and am then picked up by car and taken to the resort. 

If you are coming to Puglia and intend travelling around some of the villages, it is definitely worth hiring a car. It is perhaps possible to cycle, if you are quite fit, but public transport is quite difficult. 

There are a number of villages and towns that you will want to visit, including Alberobello, the village of the trulli, and Ostuni, the White City, Martina Franca, and one of my favourites Locorotondo. 

I will write a separate post to review the Leonardo Trulli resort, but for now, suffice it to say that the estate was restored by its owner Rosalba Cardone about 12 years ago. She has been continually improving the resort and is now able to offer 14 rooms in 6 trulli and 8 Masseria. 

Each room has very thick walls which makes it cool in the summer. I would love to stay here when the weather is cold. I think it would feel so cosy to whack the heating up and feel cocooned in your trulli or masseria.

If youwant to stay in a Trulli in Puglia, you may naturally gravitate towards Alberobello, but you should bear in mind that Alberobello is popular with tourists, and that means less avalability and higher prices, not just for the accomodation but also anything that you may want to buy, either food wise or as a souvenir. 

Many of the Trulli in Puglia will be self catering, but the Leonardo Trulli has a restaurant, the Artecibo, or perhaps more Food Experience than restaurant. Much of the food in the resort is grown on site. They produce their own red wine (red only for now), which is very good. The chef is excellent and you will eat very well, if perhaps a little too much. 

The resort also has a pool with heated seawater and added magnesium. The bottom of the pool is black so the water in the pool appears black, which reflects the main building very well. 

Locorotondo

One of the most attractive villages in Puglia, if not Italy is built around a round hill, hence the “round place.”  The huge Mother Church of St George, built between 1785 and 1820, dominates the scene. 

The houses are built in a Commerse style, with pointed roofs, similar to the Trulli but older, going back to the 1300s. They are regularly whitewashed with lime to keep them looking pristine. The village has a regular best balcony and wall pot competition which helps to keep the village looking attractive. 

Nearby there is another very attractive church, perhaps more chapel than Church and also much older, the Church of St Nicholas of Myra, built in or around 1690. You can read a little more about this charming chapel here.

St Nicholas of Myra 

In the corner of the church was a charming Nativity Scene painted on stones

Porto has long been associated with Port, but even if Port is not your drink, there are still so many reasons to visit Porto, and I shall outline a few in this post. A port celebrating Port will have to wait for another time.

The special bond between England and Portugal can be traced back to the Treaty of Windsor in 1386, sealed by marriage between Portuguese King John and an English lady,  with English archers helping John win the battle of Aljubarrota.

In 1662, English Charles II married Catherine of Braganza, who is credited with bringing tea drinking to England, perhaps Portugal’s greatest contribution to England.

A claim perhaps disputed by Jose Mourinho, who has lent his special talents to several English football sides. 

But the glue that holds our two nations together must surely be port. When the wars between England and France made it difficult for us to import wine from France, who else could we turn to but the Portuguese?They discovered that adding brandy to help preserve the wine created something rather special and so Port was born. 

Much  of Porto’s culture and tourism  is tied up with Port, but there is so much more for the visitor to see and do when you visit Porto. It is a perfect city break being just a few hours flight from the UK and with multiple carriers allowing you choice on times and budget

Lello’s Bookstore 

The most beautiful bookstore in the world owes much of its popularity now to Harry Potter, whose English author is said to have been inspired by the shop’s centrepiece staircase. It stands proudly in the middle of the shop and branches out in two wings to the next floor

You now have to pay €5 to enter, with the price being deducted from the cost of a book. There are always queues as it is one of the most visited places in Porto, so it is best to arrive early and without backpacks or large bags. 

The Serralves Park 

In  a city of striking architecture, the Serralves Museum really stands out, a curved slab of white stone. A museum of contemporary art, its displays are intended to spark debate about modern art and the environment. It also houses exhibitions from contemporary artists from around the world. On my visit, I was fortunate that the celebrated photographer, Cindy Sherman, had an exhibition, but as the exhibitions change frequently, there will always be another reason to visit Porto again… apart from the fact that one never sees everything one wants to see.

The museum is situated in a park designed in the French style, featuring sculptures reflecting its art and environment theme. The set up is competed with a pink Art Deco villa. 

It is the second most visited museum in Porto with entrance costing €20. 

The Rotunda da Boavista

In a quiet garden located inside one of Porto’s busiest roundabouts stands a monument some 148 feet tall. At the top stands the lion of Great Britain and Portugal crushing the Imperial French Eagle. 

The best view of the Rotunda, and the 8 streets that converge upon it is from the VIP suite of the  adjacent Casa da Musica, the modern concert hall standing in stark contrast to its neo Gothic surroundings. 

You can also admire the Azulejo tiles inside the suite, depicting the Dutch heritage of the architect.

Azulejo Tiles 

The blue and white tiles that adorn many of the public and private buildings of Porto are among its iconic sights and are considered to be one of the main reasons you should visit Porto. . They can be seen everywhere from private homages to heroes to huge murals on public buildings such as the San Benito railway station, one of the most beautiful in the world, showing scenes from Portugal’s history.

Nearby stands a huge mural depicting poverty along the Douro, showing that Alulejo tiles are a living and current art form 

The Douro River 

The Douro has played a huge part in Porto’s trade. Barrels of wine were transported down the river in Rabelo boats, before being stored in the Vila Nova de Gaia region of the city. 

The wine is now carried by road, and the old boats are used to take tourists up and down the river. 

Start by taking the train from San Benito along the river bank to Pinhao. The journey takes just under 2 hours and costs about €13.

Cumeira 

Stop off in the village of Cumeira for a taste and feel of traditional Portugal at Come 2 run by the Altrapada family. Get your hands dirty in son Manuel’s pottery shed. Alberto’s passion for rocks and soil is balanced by the mastery his wife Rosa demonstrates in the kitchen with a simple, but oh so delicious meal of rice, mushrooms  and pork.

The meal is complemented by Alberto’s wine, and if sufficiently complimentary, you may be treated to some of his 30 year old port.

Guimaraes 

The medieval fortress and city is associated with the founding of Portugal in the 11^th Century. The fortress is at the top of the hill, with a monastery a little lower down and the cobbled and narrow streets of the town below. The narrow streets lead to wider squares, such as the Largoda da Oliveria and its ancient olive tree where you can pause and take a coffee and pastry. 

Porto’s Museum district. 

The Museum district provides a great view of Porto’s most famous bridge, the Ponte de Dom Luis, and consists of 7 museums: the Chocolate Story, the Fashion and Textile Museum, the Story of Porto, The Bridge Collection of cups and goblets, the Cork Museum and the rather eccentric Pink museum celebrating all things pink. The museums essentially summarise everything that makes Porto the city it is today. 

The food tour 

Porto has a lively gastronomic scene, from its “heart attack on a plate”, the Francesinha, a sandwich of various meats covered in melted cheese and a beer sauce right up to elevated Michelin starred restaurants. A food tour will take you through markets and small back street shops where the locals shop and where the shopkeepers will deliver a dollop of gastronomic history on the side. 

Mercado Bom Succeso 

After a long day on your feet, where better than to sit down and watch  the world go by than in a formerly derelict fresh food market. The Mercado has been converted into a bustling centre of restaurants, wine and cheese bars and foot boutiques on the ground floor and offices on the first floor. The well priced, 4 star , musically themed hotel Musica completes the set up.

Conclusion

I have managed to get through an entire post about Porto with barely a mention of one of my favourite drinks, Port. I will feature Port in a subsequent post, but let me finish this visit to Porto with a Porto Tonico cocktail, a white port and tonic with various leaves at the Vila Foz, one of my favourite hotels

You can read about it here http://bit.ly/3P348iP

If you would like to visit Porto and ensure that you make the most of your visit, please get in touch. I have developed a number of personal relationships with some of the key suppliers as well as some hard to source activities so that you can really get to see and experience the best that the city and the region can offer