Bologna in the context of Northern Italy

Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern and Western Europe. It consists of a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land border, as well as nearly 800 islands, notably Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares land borders with France to the west; Switzerland and Austria to the north; Slovenia to the east; and the two enclaves of Vatican City and San Marino. It is the tenth-largest country in Europe by area, covering 301,340 km (116,350 sq mi), and the third-most populous member state of the European Union, with nearly 59 million inhabitants. Italy's capital and largest city is Rome; other major cities include Milan, Naples, Turin, Palermo, Bologna, Florence, Genoa, and Venice.

The history of Italy goes back to numerous Italic peoples – notably including the ancient Romans, who conquered the Mediterranean world during the Roman Republic and ruled it for centuries during the Roman Empire. With the spread of Christianity, Rome became the seat of the Catholic Church and the Papacy. Barbarian invasions and other factors led to the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire between late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. By the 11th century, Italian city-states and maritime republics expanded, bringing renewed prosperity through commerce and laying the groundwork for modern capitalism. The Italian Renaissance flourished during the 15th and 16th centuries and spread to the rest of Europe. Italian explorers discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, contributing significantly to the Age of Discovery.

Emilia-Romagna (UK: /ɪˌmiːliə roʊˈmɑːnjə/, US: /eɪˌ-/, both also /ɛˌ-/, Italian: [eˈmiːlja roˈmaɲɲa]) is an administrative region of northern Italy, comprising the historical regions of Emilia and Romagna. Its capital is Bologna. It has a population of over 4.4 million in an area of 22,509.67 km (8,691 sq mi).

Emilia-Romagna is one of the wealthiest and most developed regions in Europe, with the third highest gross domestic product per capita in Italy. It is also a cultural center, being the home of the University of Bologna, the oldest university in the world. Some of its cities, such as Modena, Parma, Ferrara, and Ravenna, are UNESCO heritage sites. It is a center for food and automobile production (such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Maserati). It has coastal resorts such as Cervia, Cesenatico, and Rimini. In 2018, the Lonely Planet guide named Emilia-Romagna as the best place to see in Europe.

Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (11 January 1503 – 24 August 1540), also known as Francesco Mazzola or, more commonly, as Parmigianino (UK: /ˌpɑːrmɪdʒæˈniːnoʊ/, US: /-dʒɑːˈ-/, Italian: [parmidʒaˈniːno]; "the little one from Parma"), was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, Bologna, and his native city of Parma. His work is characterized by a "refined sensuality" and often elongation of forms and includes Vision of Saint Jerome (1527) and the iconic if somewhat anomalous Madonna with the Long Neck (1534), and he remains the best known artist of the first generation whose whole careers fall into the Mannerist period.

His prodigious and individual talent has always been recognised, but his career was disrupted by war, especially the Sack of Rome in 1527, three years after he moved there, and then ended by his death at 37. He produced outstanding drawings, and was one of the first Italian painters to experiment with printmaking himself. While his portable works have always been keenly collected and are now in major museums in Italy and around the world, his two large projects in fresco are in a church in Parma and a palace in a small town nearby. This in conjunction with their lack of large main subjects has resulted in their being less well known than other works by similar artists. He painted a number of important portraits, leading a trend in Italy towards the three-quarters or full-length figure, previously mostly reserved for royalty.

The University of Bologna (Italian: Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, abbreviated Unibo) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. It is the oldest university in continuous operation in the world, and the first degree-awarding institution of higher learning. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as universitas scholarium or guilds of students by the late 12th century. The university's emblem carries the motto, Alma Mater Studiorum ("Nourishing mother of studies"), and the date A.D. 1088. With over 90,000 students, the University of Bologna is one of the largest universities in Europe.

The university saw the first woman to earn a university degree and teach at a university, Bettisia Gozzadini, and the first woman to earn both a doctorate in science and a salaried position as a university professor, Laura Bassi. The University of Bologna has had a central role in the sciences during the medieval age and the Italian renaissance, where it housed and educated Nicholas Copernicus as well as numerous other renaissance mathematicians. It has educated a wide range of notable alumni, amongst them a large number of Italian scientists, prime ministers, supreme court judges, and priests.

This is a list of the oldest existing universities in continuous operation in the world.

Inclusion in this list is determined by the date at which the educational institute first met the traditional definition of a university used by academic historians although it may have existed as a different kind of institution before that time. This definition limits the term "university" to institutions with distinctive structural and legal features that developed in Europe, and which make the university form different from other institutions of higher learning in the pre-modern world, even though these may sometimes now be referred to popularly as universities.

Ferrara (/fəˈrɑːrə/; Italian: [ferˈraːra] ; Emilian: Fràra [ˈfraːra]) is a city and comune (municipality) in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, capital of the province of Ferrara. As of 2016, it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated 44 kilometres (27 miles) northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km (3 miles) north. The town has broad streets and numerous palaces dating from the Renaissance, when it hosted the court of the House of Este. For its beauty and cultural importance, it has been designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

Maserati S.p.A. (Italian: [mazeˈraːti]) is an Italian luxury car manufacturer. Established on 1 December 1914 in Bologna, Italy, the company's headquarters are now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. The company has been owned by Stellantis since 2021.

Bagno di Romagna (Bagnese: Bagne ed Romàgna; Romagnol: Bagn d'Rumàgna) is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Forlì-Cesena in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about 90 kilometres (56 mi) southeast of Bologna and about 45 kilometres (28 mi) south of Forlì. Bagno di Romagna borders the following municipalities: Bibbiena, Chiusi della Verna, Mercato Saraceno, Poppi, Pratovecchio, Santa Sofia, Sarsina, Verghereto.

A renowned centre for thermal cares (due to various natural springs that supply water at 47 °C, rich in sodium-carbonate-sulphur micro-elements) and nature tourism (due to its proximity of a 368 square kilometres (142 sq mi) national park, namely the Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona, Campigna National Park, with woodlands, kilometers of paths in the woods, mountains and a major artificial lake. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy").

Verghereto (Romagnol: Vargaréd; Tuscan: Vergareto (rare)) is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Forlì-Cesena in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about 90 kilometres (56 mi) southeast of Bologna and about 50 kilometres (31 mi) south of Forlì.

The main parish church is San Michele Arcangelo, Verghereto.

The Metropolitan City of Bologna (Italian: città metropolitana di Bologna) is a metropolitan city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Its capital is de facto the city of Bologna, though the body does not explicitly outline it. It was created by the reform of local authorities (Law 142/1990) and established by the Law 56/2014, replacing the province of Bologna. It has been operative since 1 January 2015.

The Metropolitan City is headed by the Metropolitan Mayor (sindaco metropolitano) and by the Metropolitan Council (consiglio metropolitano).

The porticoes of Bologna are an important cultural and architectural heritage of Bologna, Italy and represent a symbol of the city together with the numerous towers. No other city in the world has as many porticoes as Bologna: all together, they cover more than 38 kilometres (24 mi) only in the historic centre, but can reach up to 53 kilometres (33 mi) if those outside the medieval city walls are also considered.

On account of their cultural and artistic significance, in 2021 the porticoes of Bologna have been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Giovanni Gozzadini (15 October 1810 – 25 August 1887) was an Italian archaeologist.

The last male heir of a noble family in Bologna, that had given the city men-at-arms, doctors, and jurists, Giovanni was a highly educated man in other areas such as politics. His excavations in a necropolis on his property at Villanova (Castenaso, eight kilometres south-east of Bologna), lasting from 1853 to 1855, involved 193 tombs, six of which were separated from the rest as if to signify a special social status. The "well tomb" pit graves lined with stones contained funerary urns. Thus were unearthed the first remains of the Villanovan culture, the first Iron Age culture in ancient Italy. The name Villanovan derives from that of the estate owned by Gozzadini.

Adria is a town and comune in the province of Rovigo in the Veneto region of northern Italy, situated between the mouths of the rivers Adige and Po. The remains of the Etruscan city of Atria or Hatria are to be found below the modern city, three to four metres below the current level. Adria and Spina were the Etruscan ports and depots for Felsina (now Bologna). Adria may have given its name during an early period to the Adriatic Sea, to which it was connected by channels.

Marche (/ˈmɑːrkeɪ/ MAR-kay, Italian: [ˈmarke] ), in English sometimes referred to as the Marches (/ˈmɑːrtʃɪz/ MAR-chiz), is one of the twenty regions of Italy. The region is located in the central area of the country, and has a population of nearly 1.5 million people, being the thirteenth largest region in the country by number of inhabitants. The region's capital and largest city is Ancona.

The Marche region is bordered by Emilia-Romagna and the republic of San Marino to the north, Tuscany and Umbria to the west, Lazio to the southwest, Abruzzo to the south, and the Adriatic Sea to the east. Except for river valleys and the often very narrow coastal strip, the land is hilly. A railway from Bologna to Brindisi, built in the 19th century, runs along the coast of the entire territory. Inland, the mountainous nature of the region, even today, allows relatively little travel north and south, except by twisting roads over the passes.

High-speed rail in Italy consists of two lines connecting most of the country's major cities. The first line connects Turin to Salerno via Milan, Bologna, Florence, Rome and Naples, the second runs from Turin to Venice via Milan and Verona, and is under construction in parts.Trains are operated with a top speed of 300 km/h (190 mph).

Passenger service is provided by Trenitalia and, since April 2012, by .italo, the world's first private open-access operator of high-speed rail to compete with a state-owned monopoly.25 million passengers traveled on the network in 2011.In 2015, ridership increased to 55 million for Trenitalia and 9.1 million for NTV, for a combined 64 million passengers.

Goro (Ferrarese: Gòr, but locally Goro) is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Ferrara in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about 80 kilometres (50 mi) northeast of Bologna and about 50 kilometres (31 mi) east of Ferrara, near the mouth of the Po River.

Goro borders the following municipalities: Ariano nel Polesine, Codigoro, Mesola.

The Holy Roman Emperor received the imperial regalia from the hands of the Pope, symbolizing both the pope's right to crown Christian sovereigns and also the emperor's role as protector of the Catholic Church. The Holy Roman Empresses were crowned as well.

The Holy Roman Empire was established in 962 under Otto the Great. Later emperors were crowned by the pope or other Catholic bishops. In 1530 Charles V became the last Holy Roman emperor to be crowned by a pope, Clement VII, albeit in Bologna (Frederick III was the last to be crowned in Rome). Thereafter, until the abolition of the empire in 1806, no further crownings by the pope were held. Later rulers simply proclaimed themselves Imperator Electus Romanorum ("Elected Emperor of the Romans") after their coronation as German king.
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