In the spirit of spooky season (yes, October, I’m looking at you), I thought it was the perfect time to share one of my favourite eerie destinations: the endlessly intriguing city of Bologna, Italy. Bologna isn’t just Italy’s food capital; it’s also the cradle of Western medical education. But in an effort to solve the riddles of the flesh, Bologna’s scholars peeled back skin and superstition alike, turning the human body into a map of knowledge, beautiful puzzle, and even death was a teaching tool. It is understandable why the sounds of scalpels and scholars continue to reverberate throughout the city. So come with me, as I peel back the polite skin of Bologna to reveal the guts and bones beneath, sometimes quite literally…
Getting to Bologna from Florence
Not many people stay in Bologna, and more than likely you’ll be arriving for your morning day trip from either Florence or Milan. From Florence, the journey to Bologna Centrale takes about 35–40 minutes, which is barely enough time to finish your cappuccino. From Milan, the train ride to Bologna takes just under two hours, an ideal window to unwind and recharge before diving into your next adventure. Book your train tickets from Frecciarossa or Italo and ensure you book it ahead of time as fares are significantly cheaper when purchased in advance and tend to rise the closer you get to your departure date.
Trains run frequently throughout the day, but if you’re planning this tour in October, aim for an early morning departure to maximize daylight hours, especially if you want to squeeze in all the anatomical marvels and end with a wander around at dusk. Even if you’re only in Bologna for the day and food isn’t your main focus, it would be a crime to leave without tasting the city’s legendary cuisine, and discovering firsthand why this region is known as Italy’s food capital.
Once you arrive at Bologna Centrale, it’s a 20-minute walk or a short taxi ride to our first stop. Comfortable shoes and curiosity are your only must-haves. Several stops on this tour are closed on Sundays and Mondays, so plan your visit for another day of the week to ensure you don’t miss out.
Bologna, A City of Brains, Bones, and Bold Discoveries
By the late Middle Ages, the University of Bologna was the oldest in the Western world, having been founded in 1088. It was a big draw for scholars, scientists, and surgeons from all over the world. But you might be wondering, why? Bologna was among the first cities in Europe to formally allow the dissection of human beings for educational purposes, owing to the Church’s relative tolerance in the area and the city’s strong academic tradition.
During the Renaissance and Enlightenment, Bologna became the center of anatomical advancement because of its unrestricted approach to scientific inquiry. The city’s most renowned professors, like Mondino de’ Liuzzi, whose anatomical manual from the 14th century became a mainstay of medical education for centuries, attracted students from all over Europe.
With the creation of incredibly intricate wax anatomical models, Bologna’s contribution to medical innovation had grown by the 18th and 19th centuries. These sculptures, which blurred the boundaries between science and sculpture, were created by artists such as Ercole Lelli and Anna Morandi and served as more than just teaching aids. These wax wonders and Bologna’s standing as a center for anatomical curiosity are preserved in the city’s medical museums, which carry on their legacy today.
Collezione delle Cere Anatomiche “Luigi Cattaneo”
Now, if you thought wax museums were just for movie stars, think again. Hidden on the second floor of the Università degli Studi di Bologna, Dipartimento di Scienze Anatomiche, the Collezione delle Cere Anatomiche, named after Luigi Cattaneo, a professor of human anatomy at the University of Bologna and a passionate scholar of pathological anatomy, houses over 1,000 wax models!
Each one was created between the 18th and 19th centuries, designed to document diseases and anomalies in terrifyingly accurate detail. Tumours, conjoined twins, malformed babies, and pathologies you didn’t know could befall the human body were made using real cadavers as reference, and some even contain actual preserved tissue and bones. These wax figures were crafted to train medical students, but today they mostly train visitors in the fine art of squeamish fascination. It’s science! It’s art! It’s mildly horrifying! Perfect for a Halloween adventure…
Among the highlights are wax models of parasitic infections, skeletal deformities, and various stages of syphilis. These exhibits are not for the faint of heart, but they show how art, science, and the morbid curiosity that drove the Enlightenment period intersected in a fascinating way. Think of it as an educational version of a Renaissance horror show!
Admission is free, and the museum opens at 9 a.m but closes at 1 p.m., so be sure to make this the first stop on your tour.
Museo di Palazzo Poggi
The Palazzo Poggi might sound like a posh villa, but inside what you’ll find is a treasure trove of weird and wonderful science collections. The building itself dates back to the 16th century and was initially constructed as a noble residence. But in 1711, the Senate of Bologna acquired Palazzo Poggi to serve as the home of the newly established Institute of Sciences and Arts, a visionary project spearheaded by Luigi Ferdinando Marsili.
Nearly three centuries later, its grand halls, adorned with some of the most astonishing frescoes by celebrated artists Pellegrino Tibaldi, Nicolò dell’Abate, and Prospero Fontana, showcase the Institute’s original scientific collections.
Hours and Admission
The museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday, with weekday hours running from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm and extended hours on weekends and holidays until 6:00 pm. Just keep in mind it’s closed on Mondays, so plan your visit accordingly. Tickets cost €7 for adults and €4 for students, seniors, and other eligible groups.
The museum features a myriad of different themed rooms dedicated to geography and navigation, military architecture, physics, natural history, chemistry, but of key interest to us on our macabre tour are the rooms devoted to human anatomy and obstetrics. Giovan Antonio Galli, a physician from Bologna, was a fervent supporter of the use of surgical instruments, clay figures, and anatomical wax models as teaching aids. He understood how critical it was to close the gap between obstetrics theory and practical application.
One of his most significant contributions to medical progress was championing the education and training of midwives. While doctors and surgeons possessed scientific knowledge, it was often midwives, frequently lacking formal education, who assisted during childbirth, relying solely on hands-on experience. Galli’s museum aimed to unify these worlds, offering a groundbreaking teaching tool for a more holistic approach to maternal care.
Inside the room dedicated to obstetrics, you can peruse lifelike models demonstrating childbirth in all its painful, perilous forms. The setting, ornate baroque halls with frescoed ceilings, makes the scientific content even more surreal. It’s like walking through a cabinet of curiosities curated by a gothic scientist. Wax babies twist and turn in ways that would make a midwife perspire, so don’t miss the birth complication models.
Also, the houses inside this museum are a stunning collection of works by Anna Morandi Manzolini. Anna Morandi Manzolini was a groundbreaking Italian anatomist and wax sculptor from Bologna. After training with her husband, she rose to prominence for her lifelike anatomical models and, following his death, became a lecturer in anatomy at the University of Bologna, a rare role for a woman in the 18th century. Her detailed waxworks, especially of the brain and sensory organs, earned her acclaim across Europe. Blending science and art, she challenged gender norms and left a lasting legacy in medical education.
You can even see a wax self-portrait of Anna Morandi Manzolini inside the museum. Dressed in silk and holding a human brain mid-dissection, she asserts her place in a male-dominated field. Though time has worn the bust, its impact endures, a powerful tribute to a woman who once captivated Bologna with her anatomical demonstrations and continues to teach through her image.
The crowning glory of the museum is the Venerina, a wax Venus in a reclining position, who offers her internal organs to the interested spectator, and is one of the highlights. She is equally heartbreakingly beautiful and eerie.
La Montanara
If the days sights haven’t taken away your appetite, it’s time for a well-earned break from the anatomical oddities and cryptic corners of Bologna. Make your way to Trattoria La Montanara, a cosy, no-frills spot beloved by locals and just the right dose of comfort after a morning of wax figures and whispers from the past. Here, you’ll trade bones for broth with a steaming bowl of tortellini in brodo, a delicate, handmade pasta floating in rich, golden consommé. Or go straight for the city’s namesake with tagliatelle al ragù alla Bolognese, the hearty, slow-cooked meat sauce that put Bologna on the culinary map. It’s wise to book in advance, as this gem fills up fast, especially during autumn, when everyone craves something warm, traditional, and utterly soul-soothing.
Basilica of Santo Stefano, The Seven Churches
As we wind our way into the center of the city, we pass by the famed Basilica of Santo Stefano, better known as the “Seven Churches.” The name is derived from the fact that the church was originally conceived as a complex of seven interconnected religious buildings. The idea was to create a symbolic representation of the places associated with the Passion and death of Christ in Jerusalem, essentially, a miniature Holy Land for pilgrims who couldn’t travel that far.
Santo Stefano is a maze-like complex that seems built for a gothic novel. Beneath its presbytery lies a solemn crypt, home to the relics of Saints Vitale and Agricola. Amid stone columns and the stench of centuries, it’s peaceful, chilly, and just too ideal for a moment of reflection. Relics, bones, and the sounds of hushed prayers from centuries ago can all be found inside these crypts.
Don’t be shocked if you get cold inside this stone temple, could be the temperature or it could be the ghosts of so many buried below. One of the more eerie features is the sepulchre chapel, which recreates the tomb of Christ in Jerusalem. Pilgrims once crawled inside on their knees, hoping to absorb its sanctity. Today, it adds a sacred strangeness to your wanderings, surrounded by centuries of faith, bones, and whispered pleas. It’s beautifully haunting.
Archiginnasio Palace & Anatomical Theatre
The last stop on our tour is at the inside the heart of the oldest university in the Western world. The Archiginnasio rises like a Renaissance fortress of learning, its long arcades and shadowed staircases still echoing with the footsteps of generations of scholars. Commissioned in 1562 to unite Bologna’s scattered faculties under one roof, this was not just a building but a manifesto, a declaration that knowledge could be housed, ordered, and made permanent. Yet as you wander through its colonnades today, you sense how much slipped through the cracks: whispered oaths, rivalries, forbidden experiments, and the lives of students who passed here and vanished into history.
In the courtyard, under a pale sky, thousands of coats of arms press against the walls like spectral fingerprints. They were painted and carved by professors and students who claimed this space as their own. They are now quiet, fading shards of aspiration and community. The excellent faculties of law, medicine, and philosophy used to congregate in the shadowed halls that are reached by two grand staircases.
The air still smells faintly of waxed wood and old books, as though centuries of lectures and arguments have seeped into the plaster.
But it’s the Anatomical Theatre upstairs that steals the (somewhat gruesome) show. Built in 1637, this amphitheatre was used to teach anatomy by dissecting real cadavers. Look up. The professor’s canopy is held aloft by two creepy, flayed men carved from wood. These “Spellati” proudly show off every muscle and sinew. If you’re feeling faint, grab the nearest pillar. If you’re feeling curious, lean in, but not too close.
The theatre’s design mimics that of an opera house, semi-circular seating, a dramatic central stage (or dissection table), and high wooden walls carved with statues of famous physicians. During its heyday, dissections were public events, attended by students and elite citizens alike, who watched as the mysteries of the human body were literally laid bare.
One of the most striking aspects is the blend of reverence and clinical curiosity. The same room where scholars once peered into torsos now hosts tourists snapping selfies.
Time to Cleanse the Palette
After wandering the hushed halls of anatomical theatres and frescoed lecture rooms, we emerge blinking into the light, or the dusk if you’ve wandered long enough to greet the night sky. Our minds full of history, ghosts, and the weight of centuries pressing close, it’s time to cleanse the palette.
Bologna is lovingly nicknamed La Grassa (“The Fat One”) thanks to its generous culinary heritage and the many iconic Italian dishes that were first created right here in the city.
And one of my favourite things to eat here is mortadella. This smooth, delicately spiced pork sausage dates back to ancient Roman times, but the version we know today was perfected in Bologna during the Renaissance. The name mortadella likely comes from murtatum, referring to the mortar used to grind the meat, or from myrtatum, the myrtle berries that were once used to flavour it before pepper became more common. By the 17th century, mortadella was so revered that its production was regulated by a guild and official decree. Only master butchers could craft it, and it had to meet strict quality standards, a kind of early Italian food certification.
If you’re wrapping up your spooky day in Bologna with something delicious and portable, head to Mò Mortadella Lab for a mortadella sandwich that lives up to the hype. This tiny shop serves up creative takes on the classic Bolognese staple, and while it’s popular at all hours, evenings are usually quieter, making it the perfect stop for a quick, flavour-packed dinner before your train ride home. Their sandwiches are easy to take away, ideal if you’d rather dine on the go. My personal favourite? The one slathered with pistachio cream, it’s rich, savoury, and a little sweet, just like Bologna itself.
As we make our way back to the train station, let yourself take one final wander beneath its shadowy porticoes and softly glowing archways. The city takes on a different character at night, its golden-hued bricks now steeped in mystery, its alleyways whispering secrets from centuries past. Footsteps echo a little louder, and each turn feels like it might reveal a hidden door or long-forgotten tale.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this macabre wander through one of Europe’s most fascinating cities, a place where history, mystery, and anatomy collide in the most deliciously eerie way. Whether you came for the ghost stories, the wax figures, or just the pasta, Bologna never fails to leave a lasting impression, perhaps even a chilling one.
Happy Travels, Adventurers
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