Bologna the Turrita is one of the most beautiful and fitting nicknames in Italy. Imagine a medieval skyline that almost resembled a small brick Manhattan: between the 12th and 13th centuries, in the heart of the oldest university city in Europe, tall, narrow, proud towers sprang up everywhere.
In its heyday, there were about 100 of them, serving as symbols of prestige and power, but also as veritable private fortresses: from up there, the enemy was watched during feuds, stones or arrows were thrown, and above all, it was a way of showing “I'm richer and stronger than you”.

Unfortunately, time, collapses, fires, lightning, wars, and especially the nineteenth- and twentieth-century demolitions (to make way for wider and “more modern” streets) have caused the vast majority to disappear. Today, about 22 authentic medieval towers remain. Each one has its own unique storey, often linked to legends, betrayals, love, collapses, or miraculous rescues.