We refer to Bologna as 'the Learned' because the first university in the western world was founded here, an institution that has been attracting, and still attracts, students from all over the world.
Today's university area offers plenty of ideas for a scientific and environmental itinerary among the sites of the University of Bologna's Museum System.
This itinerary starts from Via Zamboni, the beating heart of Bologna's modern university.
This is where groups of students can easily be found under the arcades, lingering along the street engaged in conversation or struggling with exam anxiety.
Keep in mind that from the beginning of the street to the beginning of the porticoes, on the left side of Via Zamboni, the pavement is a little uneven. Access to the porticoes has no steps and the floor is even.
Along the street, at number 22, we reach the Faculty of Law where the path under the porticoes is interrupted by high steps, which can be circumvented for a short distance via the cycle path, until we reach Piazza Verdi.
The historic Teatro Comunale, the city's opera house, is now a lively meeting place for the students' evening movida.
The theatre is currently under extraordinary maintenance until 2025. The wide range of concerts has been moved to the accessible venues of Teatro Auditorium Manzoni, in via de' Monari 1/2, and Comunale Nuveau, in the Fair district.
We then move on to the Zoology and Comparative Anatomy and Anthropology Collections in Via Selmi 3, consisting of over 9,000 rare specimens and materials of international renown.
The Zoology Collections, on the other hand, are home to African hunting trophies and two fascinating dioramas of Italian environments: the Abruzzo National Park and the Gran Paradiso National Park.
Access to both collections is available to physically impaired visitors: visit the official website for more information.
We now retrace our steps to the "Giovanni Capellini Museum" Geology Collection. When the portico on Via Zamboni ends, keep an eye on the pavement as it becomes uneven for a few metres before the building entrance.
The Collection is named after Professor Giovanni Capellini, who held the first Italian Geology professorship in Bologna.
Here, among fossil invertebrates and vertebrates, skeletons of the Pliocene proboscidean Mastodon, Pliocene whales and the imposing twenty-six metre long model of a Jurassic dinosaur Diplodocus, you will feel like a character of 'Night at the Museum', famously set at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
Finally, a visit to the Botanical Garden and Herbarium is almost imperative. This is one of Europe's oldest herbaria, not by chance originating in the western world's first university.
It houses collections of dried plants collected from the 16th century onwards, the subject of numerous studies by Ulisse Aldrovandi, whose online archive can still be consulted.
The botanical garden and herbarium are freely accessible with the exception of some restricted areas due to maintenance work, but please note that the bottom of the garden paths is gravel with main sections being grated and unpaved.
For more information and accessible itineraries in Bologna downloand the app BOforAll.
This project was promoted by the Municipality of Bologna, Fondazione per l'Innovazione Urbana and the University of Bologna, in collaboration with Accaparlante, Istituto dei Ciechi Francesco Cavazza, Fondazione Gualandi a favore dei Sordi, ITcares, La Girobussola onlus, MUVet, MIA open inclusive museums project, Bologna Musei, Sistema Museale di Ateneo.
