When nights get warmer and the stars come out, Piazza Maggiore puts on its summer dress: the steps in front of the Basilica of San Petronio become crowded with young people chatting into the night. The café on the ground floor of the Palazzo del Podestà gets its tables out so customers can sip coffee in the open air while listening to the sound of water gurgling in the 16th-century Fontana del Nettuno (whose nudes caused quite a scandal when it was unveiled).
Piazza Maggiore is the right place to start exploring the heart of Bologna.
You can reach it from
with a short walk under via San Felice porticoes