Here are some fun facts about Bologna:
-Bologna was founded by the Etruscans around the 8th century BC.
-400 BC, Bologna was conquered by the Celts and was under their control until the Romans took over, 200 BC.
-Bologna is home to the oldest university in Europe, University of Bologna, founded 1088 AD.
-Almost 100,000 students attend the university.
-University of Bologna is the oldest continuously functioning university in the world. (Suck on that, University of Ciaro).
-There are over 40 km of porticos--arched walkways--in Bologna. This stems from a housing crunch in that happened in the 1200s. People expanded the second floors of their houses to increase the space inside. Once the government figured out how to tax it, they started requiring people to build porticos. A few "wanna be unique" nobles paid the city to be allowed to not build porticos on their houses, but for the most part, my walk to school is through porticoed walkways.
Saturday night Brown took the study abroad students on a tour of Bologna and these facts are a paraphrase of what the tour guide said.
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