Bologna, with Its 100 Towers

For various reasons I have always found it difficult to get to Bologna by car so have only recently discovered this beautiful city thanks to the advent of high speed trains! Erudite Bologna (for having the first Western University), Plump Bologna (for its not altogether diet-friendly cuisine), Turreted Bologna (for its many medieval towers, the remains of which are still present) but above all Affable Bologna for its warm and friendly inhabitants, who are always willing to help you with their generous advice. In the heart of the city’s historic center, I was welcomed by Francesco and Letizia Cavazza Isolani into their impressive stately family home, the Palazzo Cavazza Isolani, which overlooks the splendid Piazza delle Sette Chiese and is only a short stroll from the famous Two Towers. The Isolani family, originally from the island of Cyprus, moved to Bologna at the beginning of the 13th century becoming one of the city’s most influential senatorial families in the centuries which followed. Palazzo Cavazza Isolani is located in the center of an architectural ensemble including various other buildings also owned by the same family and is the perfect venue for hosting meetings, conferences, gala dinners and private receptions. The ground floor rooms which date back to the eighteenth-century are richly frescoed, decorated with damask tapestries and furnished with family paintings and heirlooms, including portraits of the Isolani family and the family of the famous King of Naples, Gioacchino Murat, into which the Isolani family married in the early nineteenth century.