EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

Bologna has any number of chic bars if all you want to do is drink, most notably on and around Via Zamboni, in the student quarter. It also has a good selection of osterie , which have been the mainstay of Bolognese nightlife for several hundred years - pub-like places, open late, where you go more to drink than eat, though you can get excellent snacky (if sometimes pricey) food. The Bolognese like to go out late, around 10.30 or 11pm, and most osterie stay open until around 2am. The city also has a good variety of clubs , with music to suit most tastes. Look out for posters advertising events around the university quarter and Piazza Verdi in particular. Bologna's enlightened city council encourages open-air raves by giving subsidies and making entrance either free or very inexpensive - the most well-known being "Made in Bo". They happen on weekends in summer, off Via Stalingrado in the area around the Fiera and the Parco di Nord.

As for the arts and cultural attractions , the city has also tried to curb the general August exodus by mounting a summer arts festival, called Bo Est, with concerts and videos at night in the courtyards of the civic buildings. Ferragosto is an especially good time to be here, when everyone takes to the hills for all-night revelry in one of the parks outside town.

For information the main tourist office in Piazza Maggiore has lists of nightclubs, osterie and forthcoming events. Bologna currently lacks a regular "what's on" guide of its own, but for rock concerts and venues, you could try asking at the Rock Shop, Via Mazzini 146, or looking in the weekly supplement of the national newspaper La Repubblica . Or, if you want to stop by the British Council, Corte Isolani 8 (tel 051.225.142) you can pick up a copy of Talk About , which lists some of the main goings-on around town.