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Via del Pratello, Bologna

An attic on via del Pratello, for two people.

One bedroom under the roof, restored by Delia, who lives twelve minutes away. The street is quiet all morning and full of osterie by seven.

€140a night

  • Two nights minimum
  • Check-in after 15:00

The day, hour by hour

The attic room, roof beams overhead and the bed made up under them
Lemons in a bowl on a sunlit kitchen counter
07:00The table

Morning light on the kitchen table

The Pratello runs east to west, so the first sun comes down the whole length of it. In here it reaches the table before it reaches the floor.

The moka is on the shelf by the hob, a Bialetti older than most people who use it.

Nearby, at this hour

Mercato delle Erbe opens its stalls at 7:00, nine minutes up the road.

A table laid for breakfast, sun across the cloth

The street sleeps late

Nothing is open. The portico holds the light low and even, and the only thing to look at is the metal: the shutters along via del Pratello are painted by the artists of Arti Povere Pratello.

09:00Shutters down
The portico of via del Pratello in the morning, light running down the arches
The sitting room, brick and a window onto the street
What is on the street
No banks and no boutiques. Osterie, trattorie, craft shops, vintage clothes, a barber, a social centre, the Europa Cinema.
Into the centre
Piazza Maggiore is eight to twelve minutes on foot.
13:00Under the portico

Why the street has a roof

A Bolognese portico at midday, ochre plaster and low arches
62 kilometres of portico, UNESCO listed in 2021. The ones on the Pratello are the low, plain kind, built for an artisan borough outside the walls.

Bologna's porticoes began as attics. People who could not build higher or wider pushed the top floor out over the street on the ends of the ceiling beams, then propped it with columns when the weight told them to. The first record is from 1041.

Casa Delia is that top floor.

15:00Check-in

Delia meets you at the door

After three, in person. Fourth floor, four flights, no lift. She will show you which way the window catch turns, because it turns the wrong way.

The bedroom, an iron bed made up in linen under the slope of the roof

What is in the flat

Sleeps
Two. One bedroom, one bathroom with a shower.
Kitchen
A table for two, a gas hob, the moka. No dishwasher.
Floors
Walnut boards. They creak in the hallway.
Bed
Unbleached linen, changed between stays.
Books
A shelf of paperbacks left by other guests.
Television
None.
Wifi
Throughout. The password is on the fridge.
Summer
Fans, no air conditioning. It gets hot up here in August.
Paperbacks stacked on a shelf
17:00The roofline

What the window looks at

Coppi, the curved tiles, in every shade of oxidised red. Then chimneys, then two bell towers that do not match.

Bologna from above, terracotta roofs to the horizon
01The great campanile
Finished in 1402. 48.5 metres, five bells.
02The small tower
1260, against the transept of San Francesco. One bell.
03Flying buttresses
Around the apse of the same church, which is rare in Italy.
19:00The shutters go up

Then the street opens

About thirty places fill 600 metres: osterie, trattorie, two pizzerie, the cinema. People stand under the portico with a glass until late.

The street at dusk, trattoria signs on
A narrow street in the evening, a bar sign lit
  • via del Pratello
  • via Paradiso
  • via Pietralata
  • via de' Coltellini
  • via del Borghetto
  • via Calari
  • via San Rocco
  • via Santa Croce
  • via della Grada
  • via De' Marchi
  • piazza San Francesco

Said plainly

On a Friday it is loud under the window well past midnight. The bedroom faces the courtyard, not the street.

25 April

The street closes for Pratello R'Esiste, the biggest Liberation Day party in the city. The stage goes up in piazza San Rocco.

The street at night, the lamps on over the cobbles
01:00Quiet

And then it stops

By one the street has emptied.

Under the paving there is water. The Canale di Reno still enters Bologna through an iron grating called la Grada, covered over in 1957. One open stretch is left, behind the church on via Calari, two streets from the door.

Practical

€140a night, for two

Two nights is the minimum, so €280 is the smallest booking there is.

Bologna's tourist tax is charged on top and is a percentage: 10.5% of the nightly rate, capped at €7 per person per night, first four nights only. Under 14s do not pay it.

Minimum stay
Two nights.
Check-in
After 15:00, from Delia, at the door.
Check-out
By 11:00.
Who it fits
Two people. One bedroom, one bed.
Paying
Half to hold the dates, half when you arrive.
Cancelling
More than seven days ahead and there is nothing to pay.

House rules,written by Delia

  • 01Take a book off the shelf if you want one. Leave one if you can.
  • 02If you cook, open the window. The extractor is old and honest about it.
  • 03After eleven, keep the courtyard windows shut. The people below start early.
  • 04No smoking indoors.
  • 05Two people sleeping, not four. It is one room under a roof.
  • 06If something breaks, say so. Delia would rather come round than hear about it on the last day.

Ask Delia

Tell her the nights you want

There is no calendar on this page. Write down your dates and she will say whether the flat is free.

  • €140 a night, for two
  • Two nights minimum
  • Check-in after 15:00, out by 11:00
  • She answers in English or Italian