Street art

Mostly playful and juvenile, without the polish and ambition of Porto, yet still one senses that important urban psychodramas are being played out on the ochre walls of Bologna. A mask falls away from a modern-day Madonna living two lives. Unlock your brain and start thinking for yourself, urges a hollow, floating head on Via Manzoni, his eyes, mouth and skull open, providing a kind of hieroglyphic blueprint for doing so. Stickmen cops shoot at one another because ... well, there's a backstory there surely.

The impulsive brushstrokes of the neighborhood tribalist are found here in great numbers of course. As in Amsterdam, Brussels and almost every major Western city, they become almost invisible after a couple of days.

More accomplished works can be found on the rolling shutters shopkeepers pull down at night, many on the city's west side.

A marimba-playing boar by Andrea D'Ascanio, aka Sardomuto. He's from Sardinia.

The next four are by Alessandra Senso Odoni, formerly of Milan. She's now working in Berlin. Really appreciate it when street artists autograph their works!

One of the world's most acclaimed street artists, Blu, lives in Bologna, but has expunged all his works from the city's walls to prevent them from being included in a museum exhibit.

Lest we forget, the city also has a good deal of two-dimensional devotional art that has been exposed to the elements for I don't know how long.

Via Barberia.

Via Val D'Aposa.