Walks · Bologna · English
6 narrated stops, 19 minutes of stories, 2.4 km on foot. Press play at each stop — no app needed — or open the walk in Avsha and let the stories keep coming as you move.
Stop 1 · 3 min
In short: Beneath the paving stones runs a complex network of eighteenth-century vaulted masonry drains. This advanced infrastructure, designed by French engineers, kept the French Quarter dry and sanitary by preventing flooding and tropical diseases.
↓ 850 m · 12 min to the next stop
Stop 2 · Teatro Anatomico dell'Archiginnasio, Bologna, Italy · 3 min
In short: Built in 1637, this room served as the primary lecture hall for the University of Bologna’s medical school. It hosted anatomical dissections on a central marble table, where students and dignitaries watched professors teach human anatomy during the winter months.
↓ 50 m · 1 min to the next stop
Stop 3 · 3 min
In short: Sound waves travel along the vault's curved arches, allowing people at diagonally opposite corners to hear each other's whispers. Historically, priests used this acoustic phenomenon to safely hear confessions from people suffering from the plague or leprosy without risking contagion.
↓ 200 m · 3 min to the next stop
Stop 4 · 3 min
In short: Via Drapperie belonged to the medieval drapers' guild, merchants who traded cloth and fabrics. Located in a commercial center dating to the Roman Empire, the street has transitioned from a textile hub to a market selling food like Mortadella and pasta.
↓ 600 m · 8 min to the next stop
Stop 5 · Basilica di San Domenico, Bologna, Italy · 3 min
In short: The basilica houses the tomb of Saint Dominic and works by masters like Nicola Pisano and Michelangelo. It also features wooden inlays by Fra Damiano da Bergamo and an organ where a young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart practiced in 1770.
↓ 700 m · 10 min to the next stop
Stop 6 · Le Sette Chiese di Santo Stefano, Bologna, Italy · 3 min
In short: Known as Le Sette Chiese or Bologna’s Holy Jerusalem, this complex was built as a spiritual center replicating the Holy Land. Although named the Seven Churches, only four distinct structures remain today due to time and Napoleonic reconstructions.