Bologna is a fascinating city. Large enough to never be boring, yet small enough to never feel overwhelming, it sits roughly at the tripoint between Milan, Venice and Florence, but receives only a fraction of the tourists. It gets stereotyped as a city of communists, students and pasta obsessives – which it is – but it’s also a dynamic, forward-thinking city with a beautiful historical core and a quality of life that ranks as one of the best in Europe.

In many ways Bologna is a city for everyone: the businessman, the student, the retiree, the foodie, the artist, the scientist, the start-up hipster, the nature lover, the dandy. People come to the city from all over to study and then stay to work and start families.