DESTINATIONS EUROPE | ITALY
The city’s heritage film festival marks its 40th anniversary in June, and this celebration of cinema is yet another string to Bologna’s cultural appeal, writes Yolanda Zappaterra
It’s a balmy June evening in Bologna, and diners around the elegant Piazza Maggiore are enjoying some of Italy’s best cuisine, as they have done for centuries. Since its university was founded in 1088, the refined capital of Emilia Romagna has drawn illustrious visitors – the likes of Goethe, Stendhal, Mozart and Michelangelo – to its art, architecture and gastronomy. The piazza is perennially filled with the chatter of people tucking into dishes such as tortelli al tartufo nero, tagliatelle al ragù and, for those so inclined, traditionally prepared tripe. But on this balmy evening, the huge square is so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Yet it’s not empty: hundreds of people are massed in the bars and restaurants and across the huge square, and suddenly the silence is broken by riotous, raucous laughter. We’re all watching the 1985 French film Trois Hommes et un Couffin (Three Men and a Cradle, later remade by Hollywood as Three Men and a Baby), showing as part of the little-known but utterly beguiling Cinema Ritrovato film festival. Celebrating its 40th year in June, the annual 10-day festival shines a light on the city’s role as a centre of film restoration with a diverse selection of works from cinematographic archives and film laboratories around the world, from silent movies on silver nitrate prints and rare colourised world cinema to more-modern popular titles. The piazza screenings are free, with the remainder of events covered by a pass costing €140, which allows you to spend up to 15 hours a day in gorgeous buildings such as the Cinema Modernissimo, an arthouse theatre that opened in 1915. But in a city with so much to offer, from medieval towers and Roman archaeological collections to 50-plus museums, who would be crazy enough to do that? Many of the festival’s attendees, I discover. Coming out of a blissfully cool afternoon session into
35C heat, I see their point. But over an amazing meal under one of the Unesco-listed porticoes in the medieval market area known as the Quadrilatero, I decide the festival is just one of many great reasons to visit this alluring city – though certainly a good place to start.
BOOK IT
Railbookers’ eight-night Venice, Bologna and Milan package, from £1,259, includes two nights’ hotel stay in Bologna, a small-group food tour in Bologna and return rail travel from London St Pancras. A June 23 departure, coinciding with Cinema Ritrovato (June 20-28) costs from £2,319.
railbookers.co.uk
TW
TOP: Film fans enjoy a Piazza Maggiore screening ABOVE: Cinema Modernissimo PICTURE: Shutterstock/Mikhail Grachikov
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28 MAY 2026
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