III.xii. Stepping off a bus

"Man himself is a visitor who does not remain."
- Unknown

My brother Alex, fresh off the plane from Dublin, stepped out of the BLQ Aerobus at about 7:45 on Saturday night, and I was there to meet him at the station. "Let's just move here," was the first thing he said to me. I was surprised that a nighttime journey from the airport could be so inspiring, but I do concede that first impressions of Bologna tend to be quite striking.

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    My first visit to Bologna, back on an exploratory journey in May of this year, started with a stroll, somewhat inadvertently, through Via Zamboni through to the centre of the city. I was staying at the youth hostel located in the agrarian suburb of San Donato, and the bus into the city left me just outside the great gate that announces the entrance to the university district, as well as the city centre itself. It was a glorious spring day and the university's high street was in full form: crowded, grimy, and chaotic as ever. I had really wondered what I was getting myself into, that day. As I have explained earlier, though, my fears were somewhat assuaged when I happened to stroll into Saint Cecilia's chapel and see frescoes that calm the nerves like a visual balm. If such incredible beauty could coexist literally on the opposite side of a wall from the grunge, noise, and debauchery of modern university life, I couldn’t do anything but play my part in the dichotomy.

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    So, after Alex unpacked, we went for a quick walk through the city centre. Piazza Maggiore, in the floodlit November mist, was impressive as always, thoughy I was a little disappointed because Via Zamboni was not entirely as lively as it can be on a Saturday night, but its physical presence remained striking. The crumbling arcades, overflowing garbage bins, badly named pubs, pizzerias, and encrustations of student flyers added atmosphere and an organic quality to the architecture of the part of the city that, though never planned for the purpose, now accommodates one of the largest body of students in the world.