Bologna Day 1 - Part 2

After lunch we ventured to the Archiginnssio, the former site of the university. Spot of trivia: Bologna's university is the oldest in Europe. It houses an anatomical theatre where, you guessed it, anatomy demonstrations and dissections were held.

It's also where plastic surgery was started by Gaspare Tagliacozzi. He was responsible for the first reattached nose (nose loss was common during duels). Here he is holding a nose. No joke!

The building also houses an impressive library. 

We stopped into the Cathedral di San Pietro, founded in the 6th century and rebuilt in the 10th. Apparently it was never much liked by the Bolognese bc it represented Rome's authority over the city. As cathedral's in Europe go, it's "okay."

We walked around a lot of the center of the city. It was a partly rainy day but Bologna has so many porticos (covered walkways) it wasn't bad at all. We were part of a lot of tourists and at one point we passed a family from the UK with a six-ish year old boy who (in an adorable accent) said, "Daddy, remember that time we had ice cream?" We laughed about that the rest of the day. 

After enjoying more views...and seeing some of the canals Bologna was built on...

...we stopped into enoteca Italiana for a splash...

..then had a sumptuous meal at Sale Grosso. Despite the fact the food was awesome and had a Michelin mention, we were oddly one of the only diners even as late as 10pm.