Home / The thirty days / Emilia and the Apennines / Under the porticoes with a mason
Brick arches, a mason's hammer, and a wet morning
Thirty eight kilometres of covered street are why people reserve a portico walking day in Bologna
From $144 per person, 09:30 to 14:30, in Emilia and the Apennines. A working stone mason takes the covered streets from the old centre outward, stopping where columns have been repaired, replaced or left alone. This day runs whatever the numbers, so a single traveller is enough to hold it. Lunch is not inside the figure.
| Starts from | Bologna, Italy |
|---|---|
| Hours | 09:30 to 14:30 |
| Runs when | runs whatever the numbers |
| One person pays | from $144 |
| Part of | Emilia and the Apennines |
How the morning actually runs
You meet at 09:30 at the mouth of one covered street and stay inside a single span for the first half hour: how a column takes the weight of the vault above it, what the brick is made of, where a base has been cut out and pieced back in. After that the walk moves outward through five arcades of different centuries, one wide enough for a loaded cart, one so narrow that two people pass sideways. The mason stops at repairs he can point at, some of them his own and some a hundred years older. Around midday the walk crosses two squares in the open, then returns under cover. The day ends at 14:30 beside a covered market, which is where most people want to be at that hour.
What your legs are in for
Five hours, almost all of it on foot, on brick and stone polished by four centuries of use and slick when wet. Distance comes to about six kilometres, flat for most of it, with one climb of roughly eighty steps where the covered street starts to leave the city behind. There is nothing to scramble and no ladder anywhere. You do stand still for long stretches while something is explained, and a number of people find that harder than walking. Shoes with a real sole matter more here than fitness does. If steps are a problem, write that down when you name the day and the climb can be dropped without costing you the point of it.
What sits inside the figure
From $144 per person, the figure holds the mason's time from 09:30 to 14:30 and the walk itself, which uses public streets and needs no ticket. It does not hold food, drink, anything you decide to go into afterwards, or the bed you sleep in that night. Nothing is paid to this office at any stage. The company that runs the day invoices you under its own name once dates are fixed, and this office is paid later by them, so we never see a card number and never hold one. If the mason is ill, the day is moved or dropped, and since your money never came here in the first place there is nothing for us to send back.
Awkward things people ask about this day
- Will the day run if I am the only person booked?
- Yes. This one carries run mark one, which on this site means it runs whatever the numbers, and that is a decision the company on the ground has already made rather than a favour. A single traveller has held it before. What changes with numbers is the shape of the talk, not whether the morning happens. Name your date and it stands.
- Can you book my flight into the city as well?
- No. No leg of any day is carried by this office through the air or over the sea, and it holds no contract with any carrier that does so, so we cannot sell you a seat or advise you on one. We book the day and, if you want, the beds around it. Getting yourself to Italy, and any paperwork that comes with it, sits entirely with you.
- What if it rains for the whole morning?
- Then you are in the driest place in the city, which is close to the reason the day exists. Around thirty eight kilometres of street here are covered. Two crossings are in the open and take a minute each. Wet weather does make the old paving slippery and it does darken the vaults, so photographs come out flatter. The morning is not moved for rain.
The other five days near this one
Two days that look close on a map are not always joinable in one week, and the office will say so plainly instead of selling you the pair anyway.
-
from $176 per person needs four -
from $158 per person runs whatever the numbers -
from $204 per person private only -
from $172 per person needs four -
from $166 per person needs eight
Hold this day and add others to it
Booking a day here means the office holds your place with whoever runs that day on the ground, and their invoice reaches you directly once the dates stop moving.