OUR STORY

Discover all the events and activities we have carried out so far in our Event History

Succede solo a Bologna was born on 9 September 2010 and was legally established on 21 February 2011 by its founding members. Starting in 2012, it was officially registered with the LFA and APS (Associazione Promozione Sociale).

We are a non-profit, apolitical, non-partisan, and secular cultural association with the goal of enhancing and promoting the cultural, artistic, and architectural heritage of Bologna, both as a city and as a province. Our purpose: to rediscover, preserve, and promote the cultural heritage of Emilia Romagna’s capital and much more. From its dialect and history to its customs and culinary traditions. From its art and architecture to its monuments, music, and more. All done through a specific local marketing strategy that includes events, guided tours, publications, research projects, and other local projects.

We believe that all local culture and folklore should be preserved and shared, especially that of the city and its surrounding areas. We believe we can spread our love for Bologna to all its inhabitants and those who wish to keep its traditions alive. Over our first 10 years as an association, we promoted, organized, and managed events that support our mission, on our own as well as in collaboration with third parties. These events include exhibitions, shows, festivals, meetings, concerts, musical activities in general, tourist activities, experimental projects, and local promotional activities, for a total of about 25 events each year. They range from recreational activities, such as Strabologna, Fotorama, and San Lòcca Day, to more cultural events, such as the “Guido Zucchi” Literary Competition. We also provide more than 20 types of guided tours in exchange for voluntary donations. Our association also manages certain monuments in Bologna and across the province, in addition to carrying out civil initiatives related to the city, such as the crowdfunding project Monuments Care, Sgura Bulåggna, Bologna and Music, Social Live Tour, Guided Tours in LIS (Italian Sign Language), research projects, and #WelcomeToBologna for the promotion of the territory. Furthermore, we have published 14 books on the history, traditions, monuments, and dialect of Bologna, as well as articles related to Bolognese history and culture.

We have since built a team of 54 people (including 30 volunteers) who work every day to create new events and carry out Succede Solo a Bologna activities. In addition, we have more than 2600 cardholding members who have decided to support our projects.

Here are our main activities:

• Guided tours

We organize tours with authorized guides on fixed dates as well as on request for the most famous monuments and sites in the city and surrounding area, with hundreds of customizable itineraries to suit every need.

Management of monuments

We manage various monuments and points of interest in and around Bologna, devising and coordinating tourist itineraries that allow visitors to experience places that, in some cases, have been closed for years. The final objective of our initiatives is always to maintain and restore the sites we manage.

We manage the following monuments:

• San Luca Experience: we have created a new tourist route where visitors can admire a view of Bologna and the surrounding hills from the dome of the Sanctuary of San Luca. Furthermore, we have arranged visits to the Sanctuary Crypt, which had previously been closed to the public for centuries.

• Basilica di San Petronio: we coordinate guided tours and events in the Basilica di San Petronio and the Chiesa dei Celestini, with tours of the Basilica as well as its attic, bell tower, and historic organs.

• Conserva di Valverde: also known as “Bagni di Mario”, Succede solo a Bologna manages the organization of guided tours within this Renaissance-era water collection system, built to supply the Neptune Fountain.
  Prendiparte Sky Experience: we have created a new experience inside the Prendiparte Tower, making it possible to reach a panoramic view where visitors can admire the historic center of Bologna from a height of roughly 60 meters.

• Bentivoglio complex: we manage the Bentivoglio complex, consisting of the Bentivoglio Castle, Palazzo Rosso, and Mulino Pizzardi, where we organize guided tours.
  Crypt of San Zama: we organize tours inside the Crypt of San Zama, an early Christian basilica that lies in the basement of a former Military Hospital in Via dell’Abbadia.
• Tours of the “Renato Dall’Ara” Stadium: we organize tours inside the Dall’Ara Stadium, where you can visit the hospitality areas, pressroom, and the team changing rooms before finally taking the field through the tunnel like a real player.

Our association has created and participated in several crowdfunding projects, including:

Monuments Care: an ongoing crowdfunding project through which Succede solo a Bologna takes care of various monuments and tourist attractions throughout the city of Bologna and its province.

Io Sostengo San Petronio: a crowdfunding project that stretched from January 2016 to January 2017 in order to raise funds for the Basilica’s restoration works