How I stumbled upon the oldest university of the world!

Did you read The Treasure Island as a child? Nope, I didn't either. But I know that the plot revolves around some people searching for a treasure chest hidden deep inside a deserted island. Given the fact that ‘treasure’ means different things to different people, I will not venture to explain my reference to the classic text by Stevenson. But you must also know that we often stumble upon treasures accidentally, that is to say, even when we are not looking for it. You may call it a windfall, a lottery, or a chance visit to one of the oldest universities in the world.

I had no plan or intention of visiting Bologna on my recent trip to Italy. I wanted to see the popular spots, which the travel media has been systematically selling as must-visit holiday havens, such as Milan, Rome, the Vatican, Florence, Venice, and Pisa. Bologna featured nowhere on my travel itinerary. But since I was driving through Italy in a rented car, it made sense to lodge somewhere in between Venice and Florence, for a night to stretch my tired limbs. Looking at Google map, I figured that booking a hotel in Bologna was the best option to reduce the driving time between two geographically distant cities that I dearly wanted to tour. So off I went, and stationed myself at Bologna after a long drive from the Vatican, promising myself an early exit the next morning. I had a long drive to Venice the next day. After a hearty dinner, while I was almost ready to hit the sack, I had this sudden idle urge to check out the history of Bologna on my phone. Just for the heck of it. Bless these clever devices with roaming mobile data, for keeping you well grounded even on remote shores!

And what do I find? I find among many other interesting trivia, the piece of ancient academic excellence that Bologna is famous for - the University of Bologna. It is one of the oldest in the world. Older than even Oxford and Cambridge! The University was probably the first university in the western world and is even now the crucial point of reference in European culture. Over the years, as other seats of learning emerged in the scene of global culture, Bologna has modernized its teaching and research.

Founded arguably in1088 it has housed as students great personalities like Dante, Petrarch, Guido Cavalcanti, Guido Guinizelli, Thomas Becket, Pico della Mirandola, Leon Battista Alberti, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Cavendish, Marconi, and Umberto Eco, to name a few. Even today students from all over Italy and many from Spain flock to the place to seek the best of training.

As I parked my car and started walking toward the university campus, the deserted halls and parking struck me as peculiar, it suddenly dawned on me that I had chosen the wrong day to visit the campus – a Sunday! Not to be daunted by this faux-pas, I kept walking toward what appeared to me as the University center – a rectangular clearing marked by a church on one side and flanked brick red buildings on all the other. The path to the center was through a narrow alley laced with pillars on both sides and arched roofs. The central campus looked like an elongated courtyard surrounded by pillars and graffiti. For a university that was almost a thousand years old, the campus had a surprisingly urban look.

Like any other college in the world, Bologna looked like a hot seat of student politics with wall arts carrying slogans for and against parties. There was also chalked folk art on walls, vivid colors depicting legends from the past. My absolute ignorance of Italian pained me at that point as I had no clue what I was looking at other than familiar replicas of flags, the sickle, the hammer, rope. Impressions of unfamiliar faces looked back angrily at me, perhaps chiding me for daring to stand at a place, the immense significance of which, I had no clue of. Hand bills plastered the pillars, informing in advance of dramas and debates to take place. The stark contrast of the archaic red pillars to my right and the angular white concrete ones to my left was testimony to a culture that blended its history well with its present.

A scattered group of students hung around aimlessly on staircases by the side of the aisles, smoking cigars, drinking beer. A café stood open announcing their daily spread of Italian snacks in a standing black board. People sat in chairs outside, indulging in the Sunday relaxation. I crossed the main door to the University with a bold white marble plaque shouting Alma Mater Studiorum – the motto of the institute in black engraved font. The massive wooden doors were tightly shut. The Palazzo Poggi looked like an abandoned preserve of frescoes. Via Zamboni, the main hub of the faculties wore a similar vacant look. Bicycles and motorbikes were lined up beside the road. I spotted Italy’s biggest library, Biblioteca Sala Borsa. I was amazed to see it open with a few students thronging the doorway. I asked if there was anything worth viewing as a relic from the times of Petrarch or Dante?

The disinterested look in their eyes disappointed me – I was not fortunate to have bumped into people who cared for history as much as I did. After trying very hard to explain what I was looking for, I gave up. And instead decided not to run after the tangible treasures after all. Sitting down on the stone dices that lined the narrow alley in between the pillared corridors, I took a deep breath and tried to feel the vibe of a past that was so different from my own, yet so similar in many ways. I felt a calm descending upon me as I thanked the freak addition of Bologna into my Italian retreat.

Here I was sitting miles away from home, at a place, which had seen the stalwarts of science and arts pass by. Here was a place that could teach me a thing or two about European civilization and history. Here was a place that still throbbed with the presence of all this richness bundled into a time-travel only dreamers like me could undertake. I don’t remember for how long I had been sitting there, but suddenly the hunger pangs brought me back to reality and also nudged me to hurry up. For Venice was waiting for me. Venice with all its aquatic gullies and golden gondolas. I bid goodbye to the exquisite Bologna and set off.

As I was negotiating a sharp swerve out of the campus, a building emerged straight upfront – Hotel Academia! And I decided that Bologna was alright in cashing in the hotspot of its academic lineage. Even the hoteliers knew how to align their nomenclature. Before I sign off, here are some interesting facts about the University of Bologna: The University has about 85,000 students in its 23 colleges. It was the first to use the term universitas for the students and masters. It has 33 departments in all. 

And if you are interested to know more about the place, you can always count on Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Bologna

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