Piazza Santo Stefano

Looking down Via Santo Stefano. The piazza is filled at night during the summer with university students sitting in large groups, drinking, playing guitar and talking. The church at the center of the piazza is in fact 7 churches all connected to each other.

San Petronio

The front of San Petronio. It's hard to capture the enormousness of this building, but it is one of the top ten largest churches in the world and would have been even larger if the construction hadn't stopped on it. The church was supposed to have side chapels so the entire building would have had the form of the cross, and it would have been even larger than Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. However, the Pope Pius IV stopped this by ordering buildings to be constructed close by on either side of the church.  I'll try and get a picture of the side where you can see where the extension was supposed to be.

On the steps of San Petronio

Sitting on the steps in front of San Petronio on a beautiful, sunny day.  On the right, you can see the marble finishing of the church, but what you can't tell is that it only goes up halfway. This church was built by the people of Bologna and has a very rich history. Unfortunately, the community ran out of money at the time, and the church remains unfinished to this day.