“In Bologna, instead of architectural uniformity, we see prevalently fluid urban development and every architectural entity is an expression of it. This urban unity is evident not only in the layout of the city fabric, but also in the uniformity of the building material: a terracotta that partakes of the blazing sun of the Emilian plain and the porticoes that give the city its university-like air and its great charm.

The porticoes are ubiquitous; they form an open-air interior and reveal a backdrop of civility. And not only do they link each house to the next but also the house to the street, bridging the almost inevitable divide between private and public life. They also redress a problem typical of modern town planning by creating safe pedestrian walkways. In keeping with Bologna's spider's web-like urbanistic development and in synchrony with the character of its inhabitants, the porticoes culminated splendidly in the 18th century with that of San Luca, “a great architectural artefact, made part of nature with scenographic prowess, for the civil benefit of the entire population” as Bacchelli says.

It is a commonplace notion to say that cities are a reflection of their inhabitants; in this sense, then, Bologna does not exhibit any divides between structures and customs, between surface dressing and ways of life, or between the “faces” of stone and the faces of men. The porticoes, the wide-open spaces, the colour and the city layout, which underlie its urbanistic development, and the politicised and civilised, cordial men with a taste for life, result in admirable coherence”.