How do I get there? Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) was offering Stansted-Bologna from 1p plus taxes (also known as £34 return) last week, but that gets you to Forli, a 36-minute train ride from the centre. British Airways (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com) has fares from about £53, flying to Guglielmo Marconi, four miles from town.

But why should I go? Because it’s La Grassa, the Fat One, the oh-my-god-I-can’t- eat-another-thing-but-go-on-pass-me-that-prosciutto one, where you can eat like a medieval duke at medieval prices... which is appropriate, because it’s the medieval dukes who are responsible for most of Bologna’s towering architecture. Towers were the sports-car penis extensions of 15th-century Emilia-Romagna. The bigger your tower, the bigger your tower — so Bologna has lots of them. Spend the nights stuffing your face with wondrous tortellini, and the following days climbing towers to work it off.

And, believe it or not, that’s not all. Thanks to a top-notch university, there are plenty of top-notch bars. And there’s shopping: Bologna is replete with your standard super-fash boutiques, but it really comes into its own on the deli front. Maybe you should go through the red channel with all that parmigiano stuffed in your suitcase?

But where do I stay? If you’re feeling swanky after that cheap flight, there’s the newishly renovated, nearly five-star, 35-room Hotel Corona d’Oro (00 39 051-236456, www.bolognarthotels.it/corona; doubles from £160), housed in a beautiful mansion, parts of which date back to the 14th century. If you want to stick to the budget theme, try Hotel Accademia (Via Belle Arti 6; 232318, www.hotelaccademia.com) in the lively university quarter. Rooms start at £40 and some of them have tiny little balconies, so you can pretend you’re in Verona.

But where do I eat? Oh, come on! This is Italy... you can’t go wrong, what with all that fresh tortellini, gnocchi, taglione and quadrettini. To go extra right, though, try the Trattoria Anna Maria (Via Belle Arti 17a; 266894), where all the pasta is made on the premises, and plates start at just £4. Just up the road, the Trattoria Belle Arti (Via Belle Arti 6f; 267648) is also wonderful, and wonderfully good value, as is Serghei (233533), on Via Piella.

But what do I do? As Italy’s urban centres go, Bologna’s Piazza Maggiore is arguably second only to Venice’s San Marco. You could wander around it with the mad people and pigeons all day long, but you’ve also got those towers to climb.

If you’re brave, try the 318ft Torre degli Asinelli; for £1.60 you can struggle up its 498 creakily terrifying wooden stairs for a view of the terracotta roofs. No, really, it’s worth it. Open 9am-6pm, daily.

Also essential is the University Museum (Via Zamboni 33; free entry), which has many interesting bits and pieces, not least a scaled-down model of San Petronio’s astronomical clock, and a particularly gruesome room full of wax wombs, which were used as study aids by 18th-century medical students.

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