The Bologna Tour The 8th Of August we had the opportunity to visit the big city of Bologna which is famous for its churches, university and lasagna bolognaise. The day began early in the morning with a small breakfast which we ate “to go”. When we arrived to the train station we could immediately feel the atmosphere of a big city, due to the rush and numbers of different kind of people.
We started with a guided #MIGRANTOUR from an organization which is called “Next Generation Italy”. The organization gave us a whole different point of the city. They told us different stories about the life of the New Italians living in Bologna and showed us certain places which were related to their stories. The idea of #MIGRANTOUR is that of showing that part of Bologna that tourists usually don't visit, that media label as 'dangerous, full of migrants and criminality', the 'Bolognina'.
Firstly, we started from seeing the Memorial of Shoah, tribute to Jews that used to live in ghettos in Bologna, secondly we saw the Salesian Church of Sacro Cuore, then we passed by the Federzoni elementary school, which is known for being composed by 70% of children of immigrants, followed by the medical clinic, where we learned that immigrant pregnant women without family suffer of loneliness and can't communicate with doctors.
Finally, we moved to the gallery of Bolognina which is full of ethnical and foreigners shops, famous for its concentration of immigrants. We ended the first part of the day by having some typical bolognese food, after which we visited the center of the city, where we had one of the best gelato, saw Bologna's towers, the municipality, Piazza Maggiore, the Cathedral, and had some shopping. We came back home at 21:30 with an exhausted body but a renewed and happy spirit.