In May we drove down to Italy and visited some cities in this beautiful country. In Sep.2008 we undertook a somilar trip, but on this occasion we visited different cities.

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The Castello Estense, in the centre of the town, a huge brick building surrounded by a moat, with 4 towers. It was built after 1385 and partly restored in 1554.
I like the moatbridge, very medieval.

Left: On the left of this image one sees a statue of Savonarola, a remarkable person. His history should be read in the context of that day and age, see further below.

Girolamo Savonarola (September 21, 1452 – May 23, 1498), was an Italian Dominican priest and leader of Florence from 1494 until his execution in 1498. He was known for his book burning, destruction of what he considered immoral art, and hostility to the Renaissance. He vehemently preached against the moral corruption of much of the clergy at the time, and his main opponent was Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia).
In 1497, he and his followers carried out the Bonfire of the Vanities. They sent boys from door to door collecting items associated with moral laxity: mirrors, cosmetics, lewd pictures, pagan books, immoral sculptures (which he wanted to be transformed into statues of the saints and modest depictions of biblical scenes), gaming tables, chess pieces, lutes and other musical instruments, fine dresses, women’s hats, and the works of immoral and ancient poets, and burnt them all in a large pile in the Piazza della Signoria of Florence...
On May 13, 1497, the rigorous Father Savonarola was excommunicated by Pope Alexander VI, and in 1498, Alexander demanded his arrest and execution. Savonarola was faced with charges such as heresy, uttering prophecies, sedition, and other crimes, called religious errors by the Borgia pope.
Savonarola was tortured on the rack, the torturers sparing only Savonarola’s right arm in order that he might be able to sign his confession!
On the day of his execution he was taken out to the Piazza della Signoria along with Fra Silvestro and Fra Domenico da Pescia. The three were ritually stripped of their clerical vestments, degraded as "heretics and schismatics", and given over to the secular authorities to be burned. The three were hanged in chains from a single cross and an enormous fire was lit beneath them... They were thereby executed in the same place where the "Bonfire of the Vanities" had been lit, and in the same manner that Savonarola had condemned other criminals himself during his own reign in Florence.
[Wikipedia]

San Pietro the cathedral ('Duomo').
Its origins date back to the 10th century, but it was rebuilt after a terrible fire in 1141. Nevertheless, the original Romanesque-Gothic layout underwent a profound transformation in the 17th and 18th centuries, which gave it its current Baroque appearance. The interior is home to a lot of interesting artwork, including the Annuciazione by Lodovico Carracci (1619) on the high altar and the frescoes in the rectory and apse. The Cathedral Treasure, is also worth visiting, a extensive collection of furnishings and religious objects of a great artistic value, from the 15th to 20th centuries.

We had arrived here the day before Ascension Day and a considerable crowd had gathered.

BOLOGNA is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains.
Bologna is home to the oldest university in the Western world, "University of Bologna", founded in 1088.
It was founded by the Etruscans with the name Velzna—Latinised as Felsina—(c.534 BCE) in an area previously inhabited by the Villanovians, a people of farmers and shepherds.
After a long decline, Bologna was reborn in the fifth century under bishop Petronius, who traditionally built the church of S. Stefano.
In 1256, Bologna promulgated the Legge del Paradiso ("Paradise Law"), which abolished feudal serfdom and freed the slaves, using public money. At that time the city centre was full of towers (perhaps 180), built by the leading families, notable public edifices, churches, and abbeys. In 1294, Bologna was perhaps the fifth or sixth largest city in Europe. In 1348, during the Black Plague, about 30,000 inhabitants died.
During the 16th-18th century, the city's prosperity continued, although a plague at the end of the sixteenth century reduced the population from 72,000 to 59,000, and another in 1630 to 47,000. The population later recovered to a stable 60,000-65,000.
During World War II, Bologna was a key transportation hub for the Germans.
On August 2, 1980, a massive bomb killed 86 people in the central train station in the city (see Bologna massacre). Only two months previously, Aerolinee Itavia Flight 870 had crashed under suspicious circumstances.

Another church we visited was the Chiesa di San Martino, which was founded in 1217 and rebuilt during the first half of the 14th century. The façade was however added much later, in 1879.

In 2008 we also had visited this church, more photos HERE...