Strada Maggiore is one of the seven streets that radiate from the Two Towers and the best surviving stretch of medieval Bologna. The unbroken porticoes on both sides give a covered walk for nearly a kilometre, past the Museo Davia Bargellini, the Casa Isolani (with its tilting wooden beams), Santa Maria dei Servi, and a string of patrician palazzi.
The street was the old Roman road east toward Ravenna, and the alignment hasn't changed since. Walking it slowly is a free, undemanding way to see the medieval city as it actually was — the proportions, the brick, the way the porticoes change height as different builders contributed.