Bologna

So, I've been to Bologna, for the annual conference of the Dressing the Early Modern Network. It was really interesting and Bologna is a beautiful, beautiful town. I got to meet and hang otu with old friends, and with new people, like Isis Sturtewagen, of the Medieval Silk Work blog (I've met here before, but we've never talked this much) and also, which was a surprise, Carolyn, who has the Modern Mantua-Maker blog. I think it's so cool when you run into people whose blogs you are reading.

Anyway, there were lots of interesting presentations and I must say that I really look forward to the book on medieval tailoring in Italy that Elisa Tosi-Brandi is working on. Meeting Femke Speelberg and listening to her presetnation sort of made up for me not being able to go to New York to see the Fashion and Virtue. Textile Patterns and the Print Revolution, 1520-1620 exhibition which she curated.

Anyway, I will write lots of posts with photos that I took that more directly relate to costume, but I thought that I would start with an explanatory one, and some photos of the town. According to guide books a lot of the city was destroyed in the Allied bombings, but if so, there must have been A LOT of medieval and renaissance buildings to start with, because there is so much left!

So, without further ado, I give you some photos from the historical centre of Bologna:

Piazza Maggiore, with the Basilica de San Petronio and Palazzo dei Notai.

Palazzo del Podestà, also on Piazza Maggiore

Where the conference was, Dipartimento di Storia Culture e Civiltà, at the University of Bologna
located by San Giovanni in Monte.

Piazza de Santo Stefano:

Under the Palazzo d'Accursio, in Sala Borsa,the sity library, you can visit excavations. The bottom layer is early Roman house walls, followed by imperial Roman and then medieval.

Pretty houses, there were lots of them:

The house with the loggia here was built in the 12th or early 13th century!

The porticoes of Bologna are nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage site  and are really worth a visit just for them. Read about their long history here. I took lots of photos of them. And the beautiful lamps hanging in many of them.

They ar ea wonderful invention: not only do they protect you from rain or provide shade in the sun, they also make it possible to stroll along the streets of Bologna without fearing for your life, unilke for instance Florence which is as full with traffic as it is with tourists on its narrow streets. (I still LOVE Florence though).

I lived less than five mintues walk from the Piazza Maggiore (and despite this it was quiet at night!). And there was also a shop which sold lingerie and haberdashery nearby.

I was good and only got this lovely lace with a fringe.