Bologna Travel Forum

what time the shops close?
I am coming after 5 days.

Bashir, I have been trying to remember the times that places closed in Bologna from when I was last there...it was dark while we were walking by the open stores...but, then, I was there in late November, not in May ;-)

It used to be that places were open from say, 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., then closed for lunch, then reopened at 3:30 or so and stayed open until 7:30 or 8:00.

But so much of life has changed in Italy, with Italians in the cities tending to adopt the more European timetable. For example, you will now see places with the sign in the window saying something like "orario continuato" (open all day), meaning that they don't close for lunch. And Italians now have shopping malls (arrrgh, how American! ;-) ) which are open till 8:30 or 9:00 - but these don't tend to be in the city centers for obvious reasons.

What kind of shop are you looking for?

Bill

In main pedestrian streets.

Shops : electrical appliances, roasted coffee, clothes, and Italian foods. So many varieties!

Thanks Bill for helpful guides to my posted questions in Italy.

Well, I looked at the Italian Yellow Pages (phone directory for businesses), and picked a few clothing stores at random...and they tended to be open from from 9 or so in the morning until anywhere from 12:45 to 2 in the afternoon, then they reopened at 3:30 p.m. and closed again at 7:30 p.m. - with some variation.

Some shops were closed on Thursday afternoon, one was closed on Monday morning, most of them may be closed on Sunday, and so on.

If you want to try it, go to http://www.paginegialle.it/pg/cgi/pgsearch.cgi?ts=1&l=2 and enter "clothing" or whatever, and "Bologna"...enter your hotel address as well, if you have it...note that there is also Italian, French, Spanish, and German, if one of those is easier for you...

Bill

That is a great link. Thanks a lot Bill.