Bologna is very interesting town, and it reminds me a blend of Milan and Florence. The Piazza Maggiore with all the historical buildings with S Petronio basilica and Fountain of Nettuno is worth visiting and seeing. Other nice places of quite large center of Bologna are the area around the towers – Torre degli Asinelli, the University area and the churches of S Stefano, S Domenigo and S Francesco.

However, the feature nominated for inscription is not historical center of Bologna but its Porticoes. They are almost everywhere in the center. They are of diverse age, size, shape, color, material and style. The most interesting examples can be found around Torre degli Asinelli, around S Stefano, in Strada Maggiore (PHOTO) and also directly in the Piazza Maggiore and the Quadrilatero district, but I do not know what exactly is nominated as TWHS. However, the world longest porticoes, which is mentioned in the nomination indeed, is located outside the historical walls of Bologna: It starts just behind the Porta Saragozza and goes ca. 3.5 km towards Basilica Madonna di San Luca, which is located on the top of green hill that is nicely visible from train in direction to Modena. The portico is merged with houses, of course, in the part closer to town, but it is a free-standing structure once it goes uphill to the Basilica. I must say I was not such an enthusiast to follow it and reach the sanctuary. It was quite hot day in June. I wanted spend my time in the city center and not walking in this very long but austere structure. I would expect that it is pretty the same during all 3500 meters.

Even though I liked Bologna and all the Porticoes were quite nice and interesting, I am not sure if they have any OUV. My opinion is that the measures like length or age of anything should not justify the inscription. Furthermore, you can find porticoes in many more cities all around the world and even in Emilia region (Modena, Ferrara).

Updates: In June 2021, the site got rather negative evaluation and deferral by ICOMOS. The main objection was that the original proposal was a seemingly randomly chosen catalogue of porticoes and it was not clear how the nominated components have been selected. The next nomination should not be a catalogue but an organic structure expressing the OUV.

I am very curious about the future with the proticoes...

Finally inscribed in an absurd way, because Italy should propose the site modifications, and the advisory body mission should take place. At the moment I have to give the porticoes only very low evaluation, even if I like Bologna. It may change after the "improvement" of the site in the future.