Unsolved mysteries

In a city of towers, the smaller ones gain little attention. This one belonged to the Catellani family, who used it as a warehouse in the 1200s. That's what an Italian-language plaque erected by the city of Bologna says, but like most accounts of the Middle Ages, it is speculative and incomplete. Was it ever inhabited? Was it lighted from within, and how? Did the Catellanis peer out from the top to look for enemies? What are all the fist-sized holes for? Ventilation? Support of wooden beams?

Hard to show the entire tower because the streets are so narrow. About six stories tall.

I am not even certain I want to know the elementary ABCs. If you learn what the abbreviation JPEG stands for, is your appreciation of the photo format deepened? Not at all! What life was like before the printing press can only be known by those who lived it, and they tell few tales. Bologna and Cairo are the most mysterious places I have visited, and both are best experienced by giving your imagination free rein and savoring them slowly.

The Torre Catalini is at Alleyway Spirito Santo 1.

This post is dedicated to my father, an intellectually curious physician and armchair historian who died four years ago today. Under his direction, our family read out loud to one another the Diary of Father Kino and Dumas' "The Three Musketeers." In Paris in the mid-1970s he delved into a book of French history that had Francois I on the cover, and I swear he made it halfway through :). I miss him.