One city, a thousand souls
Bologna is ancient yet forward-looking; it is a food-and-wine experience infused with art and culture, music and cinema. It is a portico that contains worlds. It is unique: it knows how to welcome you with an embrace and never be forgotten. At I Portici Hotel, this plurality of souls intertwines, gifting you an unforgettable stay.
An experience that begins inside Palazzo Maccaferri, in the rooms, iconic spaces, signature kitchens, and moments of care; then continues outside, under the porticoes, in the piazzas, museums, churches, venues, shops, and still farther on, into the hills, across Emilia, to the Riviera. Because Bologna cannot simply be visited: it must be crossed, observed, tasted, touched, listened to, danced, and carried away as a story.
The city of porticoes
More than 38 kilometers in the historic center alone: Bologna truly is the city of Porticoes, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2021.
Born in response to the growth of the medieval city and to expand living space, they became much more than an architectural solution, eventually expanding everything: artisan workshops, businesses, walks and pauses, conversations and laughter.
Even today, they remain the most natural way to move through Bologna: they accompany you from the station to the center, from piazzas to markets, from shops to places of culture. They are the simplest example of what we mean when we say Bologna is to be lived: a rhythm, a shelter, a continuous threshold between private and public.
Bologna, in every sense
Ancient and contemporary, cultured and popular, gastronomic and musical: Bologna holds together different souls without ever losing its identity. That is why every stay may follow one of them, or move through all of them within the same experience.
From Etruscan and Roman settlements to the Middle Ages, from the Papal States to the Risorgimento and the Resistance, Bologna carries history within the living fabric of the city: in its piazzas, palaces, towers, churches, and street names.
Bologna is one of Europe's great cities of knowledge, home to one of the oldest universities in the Western world. Students, libraries, intellectuals, associations, and a widespread cultural life. An ancient city that continues to think, study, and evolve.
Here, food is not simply tradition: it is a cultural fact, an everyday language, a living part of the city. Fresh pasta, local specialties, sfogline, markets, and osterias tell the story of a daily, concrete, generous culture of taste.
Bologna is a UNESCO City of Music, but also a city of cinema, theaters, museums, festivals, galleries, and independent spaces. From the Cineteca to historic stages, from exhibitions to contemporary experimentation, culture here is not merely memory to preserve: it is something created every day.
A rail and road hub of Northern Italy, Bologna is a city that is easy to arrive in and easy to leave from. For this reason, it is also a gateway to Emilia: hills, villages, the Apennines, Food Valley, Motor Valley, art cities, and the Riviera.
