HIDDEN IN PLAIN HIGHT

The porticoes may be the first and last part of Bologna you notice. They are so woven into the fabric of the city that they both conceal its treasures – many of the city’s historic buildings are hidden in their skirts – and draw you inside. Beneath the forty kilometres of arcades there is no opportunity to step back and admire these treasures – you are well and truly under the city’s skin, you are becoming a Bolognese.

There is something absurd about the relentlessness of these walkways – be they haughty Renaissance arches or low-slung medieval timber beams – which stretch to five kilometres