The secret garden < Giardino Segreto > is a charming apartment in a place full of charm and history. Located inside the third circle of the walls of Bologna, it is near Porta Maggiore. The house preserves traces of its ancient past: wooden beams, a wrought iron railing with spear points and, in the garden, the recent discovery of an hidden environment (today underground), perhaps used for military purposes as the apartment borders with the Casa del Capitano, the commander of the military garrison set up to defend the door. The < Giardino Segreto > is a studio of about 45 square meters (484 sq. feet) recently completely renovated and equipped with all the comforts to ensure a truly unique experience. In the studio there is an entrance court (mq), a veranda (mq) and the garden (mq) Description of the apartment. Preceded by a small private courtyard at the entrance, the apartment opens onto a corridor that ends in a corner-studio available for guests to work on the computer or relax listening to the music (stereo at their disposal). From here you access a small sitting room including a sofa to watch TV: the sofa bed turns into a Queen Size bed (160 x 200 cm, 62.9 "x 78.7") or the two beds (each 80 x 200) cm, 31.4 "x 78.7") can be split on request to be presented two days before the arrival of the guests and one of the two placed in the living room. The TV allows free access to all Italian digital channels and to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. From the sitting room you access the sleeping area, characterized by parquet flooring and custom cherry wood furniture, comfortable hypoallergenic Queen Size mattress (160 x 200). From the sleeping area, you can access the entrance hallway and the bathroom, which is equipped with a shower (80 x 140 cm, 31.4 "x 55.1"), water closet, bidet, and sink. From the sitting room you enter the living room, featuring more custom hand-made cherry wood furniture by the same craftsman who also made comfortable wardrobes and the kitchenette available to the guests. Behind a large dining table, you find the kitchen area complete with induction hob, fridge, dishwasher, Nespresso coffee machine, microwave, toaster. Privacy: please, note that guests can only access the bathroom from the sleeping room (see the apartment‘s map).
The green space.
From the living room you go to the veranda, which overlooks the garden through a large glass and an access gate: this Jardin d'Hiver can be seen as an informal area for lunch or as a reading space, and in winter it is heated by a infrared heater. The closet on the veranda hides the washer-dryer. Finally, from the veranda, you can access the exclusive garden of about 40 square meters (430 sqf), with plants typical of the historic gardens of Bologna: the ortensia, the aspidistra, the calla, the rhododendron, the lilac, different types of ferns, the rincospermum, the ivy and the American vine. At the end of the garden, the old brick paving with chairs and table allows you to relax and enjoy the delicacies of the Bolognese cuisine. The garden also features a slice of an ancient pine that today serves as a meditation trunk.

Appliances and services available to guests:
independent heating
Dorelan Queen size mattress
Cloud TV Sony 55 "with free access to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video
Free wi-fi
70s stereo composed of amplifier, cassette deck
Bosch dishwasher
Hoover washing machine
Miele refrigerator
Samsung microwave and ventilated oven
Nespresso coffee machine
Russell Hobbs American coffee machine
Russell Hobbs electric boiler
Electrolux induction hob
Toaster
Armored door and security gates
Welcome drink: a bottle of local wine
Anti-smoke detector and fire extinguisher

How to reach us.


From the airport of Bologna:
by taxi: about 30 minutes, average cost 20 euros (
by bus (BLQ): departure every 11 minutes, cost 6 euros, stop Ospedale Maggiore then bus 19 stop Torleone (about 40 minutes); or stop at Central Station, then bus 25 to Torleone stop;
with the people mover (under construction, scheduled departure from 2019);

From the train station:
bus 25, (see above) about 15 minutes);

From the bus station:
bus 27, Torleone stop (12 minutes);

By car:

Tangenziale exit 11, towards the historic center. The is in a Restricted Traffic Zone (ZTL), to enter it is necessary to pay toll. Tip: park near Porta Maggiore, without entering ZTL.

Area. Overview of the neighborhood.


History.


The secret garden is just a few meters from Porta Maggiore, the southern gate of the city of Bologna, located on Via Emilia, a Roman road built in 189 BC by the Roman consul Marco Emilio Lepido. Over the centuries, the gate of Strada Maggiore, Bologna’s main gate since the 13th century, commissioned by Pope Julius II to be fortified in 1507 to defend the city from the south, has seen kings and emperors, popes and chieftains: among all Clement VII and Charles V in the months before the Crowning of the Holy Roman Emperor in Bologna in 1530.


Porta Maggiore defended Bologna with a real fortified citadel, of which part of the walls remained and the Casa del Capitano, which borders the < Giardino Segreto>. From here starts Strada Maggiore, the only street in Bologna to have preserved the ancient Latin name of strata, or paved street, as is clear from the chronicles of 1182. Dante writes of Strada Maggiore in his De vulgari eloquentia highlighting how the spoken language even differed between the Bolognese of via San Felice and those of Strada Maggiore. A few steps away, going towards the Two Towers, Via Fondazza opens on the left. Here, the painter Giorgio Morandi had his studio and home at number 36. Today his house-museum can be visited by appointment from Friday to Sunday (info: At the crossroads with vicolo Malgrado, on the other side of via Fondazza, a plaque tells that in 1455, the tower of the Masone (or Magione), or the mother-house of Bologna’s Knights Templar, was moved here, because it was believed to hide underneath some treasure brought from the Crusades. In 1825 it was then completely landed in, always for the same reason.


Going further along Strada Maggiore, on the left you will find the portico of the Basilica dei Servi, one of the most powerful confraternities of the XIII century, in whose church there is a Majesty of Cimabue of 1280-85. Opposite the church, the Davia-Bargellini Museum introduces the history of the Bolognese applied arts and the rich collection of the homonymous family that built the palace in the first half of the seventeenth century. A little further on, on the opposite side, you can find the International Museum of Music and, following, on the same side Palazzo Sampieri-Talon, with the cycle of frescoes by Carracci and where, later, also worked the Guercino. Opposite there is Palazzo Isolani, well identified with the house of medieval origin supported by tall wooden pillars and a porch on which three arrows are still stuck, which usually snatches tourists. A little further on you can see Casa Rossini, the Bolognese home of Gioachino Rossini, where the words (). Then, a few dozen meters further, you arrive at the Two Towers, the Asinelli one, the tallest in Bologna with its 97 meters and the Garisenda.

The pleasant walk along Strada Maggiore, from the alle Due Torri, is about 1,000 steps and takes about 15-20 minutes.


Nearby.


Restaurants

Scaccomatto, via Broccaindosso (450 meters);

from Silvio, via San Petronio Vecchio (400 meters);

Bar:

Misterlino, right in front of the < Giardino Segreto >, among other things, meeting-point of knitters

Ice-cream parlors: Gelatauro in via San Vitale (650 meters)

Cinema:

Cinema in Rome in Fondazza (50 meters)

Museums:

Museum of the Risorgimento and Casa Carducci, Piazza Carducci (450 meters)

Services:

First Aid of the Sant'Orsola Hospital: 700 meters.

Supermarket: Coop in Strada Maggiore (100 meters)

Post office: Strada Maggiore (110 meters)

Places of worship:
church of Santa Caterina in Strada Maggiore (160 meters);
an-Nur mosque in via Torleone (400 meters);
synagogue in via de 'Gombruti (1,800 meters).

Parking spaces nearby:

Pay and display parking in via Mazzini and in piazza Trento e Trieste;
garage Torleone garage (150 meters);
Ipergomme in via Mazzini (100 meters);
garage San Petronio Vecchio (250 meters)

IMPORTANT note: 1. there is a rental apartment's contract guests are kindly request to sign when they arrive. 2. The Municipality of Bologna collect a Stay Tax of 3-5 euros (depending by the apt rates) to pay at check-in