Via Zamboni

Via Zamboni, one of the city's main east-end radial streets, connects the Two Towers to the University and the Porta San Donato. Originally it was called Strada San Donato; the renaming honoured Luigi Zamboni, a law student at the University who distinguished himself as a spy and soldier against the pope in the tumults that accompanied the French Revolution. Before his death in a papal prison, it is claimed Zamboni invented the red-white-green tricolore that would become the Italian flag.

Among the noble family compounds in the area during the Middle Ages was that of the Bentivogli, the family who would rise to become Bologna's tyrant bosses. They built their great Renaissance palace on this street, setting the scene for Via Zamboni to become the most fashionable corner of Bologna. The Bentivogli were expelled in 1507, but in the decades that followed, as Bologna enjoyed its last flush of Renaissance prosperity, this street filled up with more imposing palaces. The University was already here, and narrow Via Zamboni became the place where dons and dukes rubbed shoulders.