My favourite place: Bologna, Italy
In the July 2016 issue of BBC History Magazine, Loyd Grossman selects Bologna as his favourite place. History Extra caught up with him to find out more....
This article was first published in the July 2016 issue of BBC History Magazine
Q: When did you last travel to Bologna and why?
A: I was there in late January. My interest in food makes Bologna a must-visit destination as one of the great places to touch base with the fundamentals of Italian cookery. When not eating or food shopping there's a wealth of artistic and historical interest!
Q: Why do you love the location?
A: It has an authenticity that some of the tourist honey pots are losing and a great deal of variety in a relatively compact city centre. Bologna is also celebrated as one of the world's jazz capitals and there are great street musicians their.
Q: Which historical sight would you recommend and why?
A: The Archiginnasio is the beautiful central building of Bologna University, the world's oldest.
The Church of Santo Stefano is a remarkable complex of early medieval places of worship on the edge of a wonderful square.
I’d also recommend the university's museums in the Palazzo Poggi for their weird, fascinating and inspiring testimony to Bologna's intellectual prowess.
Q: Where else in the world would you most like to visit and why?
A: Gosh... Paradoxically the more I travel the more places I want to visit. Some are relatively close to home: Dresden, Reykjavik, Bergamo, Strasbourg, and others are a little more far flung – Cochin, Seoul, Ecuador, Antarctica.
Loyd Grossman is a television presenter, art historian and food lover.
You can read more about his experiences in Bologna in the July 2016 issue of BBC History Magazine.