Today we share a passage dedicated to the porticoes written by Alfredo Testoni (1856-1931), a prolific writer of reports about his own Bologna. A poet and playwright, he is famous for having written Il cardinale Lambertini, which gave him great success and became a movie in which a masterful Gino Cervi plays the role of the Bolognese bishop.
I cannot imagine Bologna without porticoes. They are one of the main attractions for visitors to our city and one of the greatest conveniences for the citizens themselves, who are rightly fond of them.
From the Pavaglione, which is still the favourite promenade of ladies and young men in the "wandering hour of vermouth" [...], to the Piazzola, which has been removed from via Malcontenti and has taken up residence along the portico flanking piazza Otto Agosto; from the portico of the Gabella, a favourite meeting place of the merchants who on Saturdays leave the Stock Exchange premises unpopulated, to that of the Baraccano, which every year welcomes - sad abode! - the poor people left homeless, the porticoes represent, one might say, a large part of Bolognese life.
The long chain of arches which unfolds through our beautiful hills up to the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca appears original and pleasant to foreigners, who look out of the train windows, almost acknowledging them as one of the Bolognese specialties. And it was right, in my opinion, to demand the porticoes to be built on the sides of the new Via dell'Indipendenza which leads from the railway station to the city center. And it is a good thing to preserve the porticoes, not only so that they can be admired by those who come to visit Bologna, but for us, people of Bologna, who are people attached to old habits.
We crowd together during the day under the narrow porticoes and we see each other, we greet each other with enthusiasm, almost as if we were acquaintances who meet along the passageways of a house; and at night, there under the porticos, we, unrepentant night owls, walking slowly, feel more absorbed in our reveries…
Alfredo Testoni, I portici, in Ricordi petroniani, Bologna, Cappelli, 1941, p. 19
The passage is included in the useful collection of literary testimonies on Bologna entitled Bologna. Parole e immagini attraverso i secoli, a cura di Valeria Roncuzzi e Mauro Roversi Monaco, Bologna, Minerva, 2010, p. 171.
Photo credits: Wildlab Multimedia for Bologna Welcome