A flickr's eye view of The Renato Dall'Ara Stadium

Photos on flickr with the tag ' stadio dallara'

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Don't worry if you're not particularly a football fan. There are plenty of other reasons to go to the Dall'Ara stadium. First off, by taking a walk from the Porta Saragozza gate of the city, along Via Saragozza towards the stadium, you'll get a glimpse of a very different Bologna. It's one of the few leafy districts in the city, nudged into the foothills of the appenines, and graced with various different villas and the expansive portico that runs all the way up to the Santuario della Madonna di San Luca (the longest covered walkway in the world, apparently).

Next up in the list of reasons to go to the stadium is undboutedly a sense of history. There's, perhaps, no better spot, to take a step back into Italy's totalitarian past. It should be remembered that Mussolini was born in Emilia-Romagna (in the town of Predappio, near Forli, where the dictator is buried), and so it's unsurprising that Bologna was an early stronghold of the fascist party structure. In 1926, just four years after the march on Rome, local party big-wig and one-time friend of Mussolini, Leandro Arpinati effectively kicked off the Fascist experiment in harnessing the power of sport to political ends. In that year he created an association, under party-control, to build the Littoriale stadium - the stadium which would later become the Renato Dall'Ara of today. It was the first in a series of stadiums built nationwide (in cities including Florence, Milan, and Rome), and a necessary step towards the creation of the national football league Serie A.

Arpinatti was convinced of the social function of sport, in a cross between a modern-day version of Juvenal's Panem et Circenses, and a more active, militaristic vision that sought to instill sporting passion into healthy young fascist bodies preparing them for the military. Arpinati was head of both the Olympic committee and the football federation of Italy, and during his tenure managed to bring both the Olympics and the World Cup to Italy, for a fascist propoganda coup.

The Littoriale stadium was also the first in a series of experiments with Fascist architecture. Designed with multiple tiers, arches, and entry points, it took direct inspiration from the Roman amphitheatres of the past. Fascist theorist Giuseppe Di Finetti could have been talking directly of the Littoriale when he outlined the place and function of the fascist stadium in society:

"It is only as a prominent building in a settled urban landscape that the stadium becomes that 'secular assembly' that the ancients undoubedly wanted and that we contemporaries would justly want to create; there it can become a focus of life no less than the theatres and the buildings dedicated to the arts. Only a mental apathery can be hostile to the urband idea of the ancients."
[Football and Fascism(pg 93) - Simon Martin, Berg publishers]

The stadium was inagurated with an international match between Spain and Italy in 1927, with heads of government from both states present. Meanwhile, Bologna FC, founded in 1909, coincidentally went through a particularly good spell of results, winning national championships six times between 1924 and 1941 (they've won Serie A just once since then).

After the war the stadium passed directly into the ownership of the city council (comune), as is the case with the majority of Italian stadiums. In 1983 the stadium was renamed the Stadium Renato Dall'Ara, commemorating Bologna F.C's famous president who led the club to victory in the sixties, though he tragically died just days before Bologna drew with Internazionale Milan to win the scudetto

The stadium was rennovated for the 1990 world cup, where it was scene to the fastest goal ever scored in the competition, when to much embarassment Davide Gualtieri of the tiny Republic of San Marino scored within the first nine seconds against England. It wasn' to last, though, as the English team went on to win the day 7-1.

Going to a game in Bologna

Despite the much publicised problems in Italian football, going to a game in Bologna's Renato Dall'Ara stadium is still an easy, cheap, and fun way to spend a sunny afternoon (as the stadium is largely uncovered, the winter matches might best be avoided!). Tickets can be bought at the box office, though you'll need valid id. It's advisable to get tickets in advance, to avoid lengthy queues at the stadium. A list of ticket outlets can be found here (don't be surprised that most of them are bank branches - it's quite common to purchase football tickets through banks in Italy, for sponsorship reasons). At the time of writing (April 2008) Bologna FC are in Serie B, with a good possibility of promotion to Serie A next season.

Concerts

The Dall'Ara is often the venue for open air concerts as well - though in recent years the preference has been to stage large events in the Parco Nord amphitheatre on the outskirts of the city. Artists that have played the Dall'Ara include huge Italian solo artists Vasco Rossi and Luciano Ligabue. Check ticketone for concert information.

How to get to The Renato Dall'Ara Stadium?