Photo Essay: Bologna at Night

Early evening is a magical time in Italy, when everyone comes outside to walk the streets — that evening ritual is called the passeggiata, and it goes on throughout the country.

Then darkness falls.  Bologna, as fascinating a city as it is during the day, becomes positively magical at night.  Here are some of my favorite photos.

Bologna is, first and foremost, a food city — and the streets are dotted with fruit and vegetable stands.  Do not touch the produce under any circumstances — it’s a major faux pas in Italy.

I spoke earlier about Bologna’s trademark arches, but I just need to reiterate how much I love them!  They keep you cool in the summer, warm in the winter, shielded from the rain and sun, and they provide a great subject to photograph at night.

It’s hard for me to walk past a bookstore and not go in.  When I saw this tiny bookstore, looking like it belonged in the pages of a storybook, my heart literally ached.  I wonder what it was like inside.

I thought these thick doorway arches were interesting — I don’t recall seeing these elsewhere in Italy, but I saw them in several different towns in Emilia-Romagna.

I could spend all night looking in the windows of the food shops.  Despite how many Bologna has, each of them seem to have starkly different products for sale.

I don’t know what it was about this car park at this angle…it just looked so beautiful to me, so perfectly Italian.

When night falls in Bologna, don’t ensconce yourself in your room.  Get out and walk around.  It’s a whole different side of Italy.

Many thanks to Emilia-Romagna Tourism and Wilde PR for hosting me on the Delicious Emilia-Romagna Blog Trip.  All opinions, as always, are my own.