Italy
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Show to the erasmus, that had just arrived, their host city
There would be at least 7 secrets in Bologna, although perhaps more than secrets would be better to speak of "curiosities" we showed and explain to the exchange students anecdotes, secret places of our beautiful town.
The three arrows
The three arrows stuck on the ceiling of the “portico”. In Strada Maggiore, just at the Entrance of Corte Isolani, you can often see people looking upward: they search for the 3 arrows stuck into the wood of an ancient porch. A legend tells of three robbers intent on hitting to death a noble man, but they would be distracted by a beautiful girl who was naked at the window. So, wrong aim and arrows ended up on the wooden ceiling of the portico.
The 4 corners
The vault of Podestà and the "wireless phone". No wonder if passing under the “Palazzo del Podestà vault” you can seepeople intent on talking to the four corners under the Arengo tower : the curious fact is that the sounds are transmitted from corner to corner. The explanation for this phenomenon? This channel with a so discreet distance of communication had been concocted in medieval times to confess lepers.
A Little Venice in Bologna
The window on the little Venice. In Bologna there is a "Little Venice". It can be seen in Piella street looking in a small window overlooking a canal, one among the many which, in the twelfth century , were used for commercial shipping. Given the romanticism by this unexpected glimpse (which loses a bit during dry periods), the wall around the window was filled with drawn hearts and words of love.
Canabis protectio
“Panis vita, canabis protectio, vinum laetitia” that in Latin means: "Bread is life , wine is fun, cannabis is protection”. This inscription, which refers to the wealth that the cultivation of hemp brought in Bologna, is located in Via Indipendenza, near the corner of Via Rizzoli, under the Escape Tower on the vault of the Canton de' Fiori.
The finger of Neptune
The finger of the statue of Neptune that becomes a phallus in erection. The beautiful fountain that with its imposing statue gives the name to the square in front of Salaborsa hides a funny optical effect. If well positioned near the staircase of the library (in the recent past, there was even a darker tile to indicate the right point on the floor) you could see not the God of the sea index, but a sort of phallus in erection of the same Neptune. One of Giambologna artist joke?
The vase upon the two towers
That broken vase on the Tower of the Asinelli. Just up the Asinelli tower, on which more superstitious college students do not rise up to the graduation (it is said that those who do get no degree) there is a pot, a broken vase that symbolizes the good qualities of Bologna in solving problems.
Palazzo Poggi in Bologna
Bologna “the Learned” (as well as “the Fat “). On a table of University of Bologna headquarters, the Alma Mater Studiorum, in Palazzo Poggi, there is the inscription: "Panum resis ", which would indicate that knowledge is the basis of all decisions.
