I slept remarkably well listening to the traffic through the open window of my corporate hotel, with the air conditioning switched off, and I woke before the alarm at 6:45. After the awful experience that is corporate hotel breakfast – even the coffee and the water for the tea come from a machine, and you always get back to the table realising that you’ve forgotten an item of cutlery or a piece of cheese – I caught the #13 trolleybus just near the hotel, which sped into the centre on an almost clear bus lane.
I wandered around the almost deserted Piazza Maggiore, admiring the wonderful half-finished facade of the church of San Petronio, before walking down the side of the church at the 09:00 opening time to the original University building, which houses among other things the Teatro Anatomico, built in 1636 to show students – and later interested gentry, normally watching in disguise – what human bodies were like when they were dissected. The whole thing is built in spruce, and includes some remarkable statues including the spelati (skinned) figures. Tricky to photograph though because of some quite strong sunlight (it didn’t last) through the windows on one side causing difficult highlights on the sculptures.
On the marble dissecting table was a stupid piece of “art” which consisted of various electrical components fixed together, and a TV playing a looping tape of mechanical things happening, which was meant to illustrate something or other.
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