The city of Bologna is located in a strategic geographic position in the heart of Italy, just middle way from Milan and Florence.
Bologna is also the main city in the Emilia Romagna Region and it is surrounded by beautiful plains, hills, woods and the Apennines. The Province spreads out in 60 Municipalities and has a grand total of around 1 million inhabitants. About 374.000 live within Bologna Municipality.
Every part of the city is full of history. Its well–preserved historical city centre is among the largest in Europe.
The 40 Kilometres of “porticos” (the arcades) together with the red brick of its buildings give Bologna its unique character. Bologna is also well known for its medieval towers, especially the Two Towers, the hallmark of the City. They are in the very city centre and represent the last proof of the almost two hundreds house–towers dominating here in the Middle Ages.
The main square, Piazza Maggiore, is considered the ideal place for strolling and meeting friends, surrounded by buildings that testify the coexistence of many powers throughout the city's history: Palazzo d’Accursio (now City Hall) and Palazzo del Podestà; Palazzo de’ Notai and Palazzo dei Banchi (home of the guilds); and the Basilica di San Petronio, dedicated to the city's patron saint, which bears witness to the city's religious side.

Bologna is where the first and most ancient University of the Western world was established, in 1088. A cosmopolitan city, sensitive to the quick changes of contemporary society, Bologna was the European City of Culture in the year 2000. Moreover, in 2006, the City was appointed by UNESCO “Creative City for Music”, a title which recognises its unique value in terms of cultural creativity.
The town affords a rich and varied cultural scene, thanks to the local institutions as well as a multitude of small and medium-sized associations that work with them.
The Municipality of Bologna promotes a number of cultural activities and initiatives, co-ordinates the Museums and Theatres systems as well as the network of libraries and cultural associations.
Every year, the City Bologna organises various cultural events that, besides re-establishing the role of the square as vital centre of a city through free shows open to everybody, pay special attention to the role of young people, to new technologies and to the forms of communication that characterise the contemporary art. In 2005 the City inaugurated Bè, the Summer programme of cultural events promoted by the City of Bologna, that every year has an extraordinary success.

Alongside its cultural tradition, Bologna is a commercial city: it is one of the most important business cities in Northern Italy. The main reason is that Bologna is a crossroads of goods and people, thanks to its role as a transportation hub: the main rail and highway junction in Italy, together with a fast-growing, international Airport (4,3 million passengers in 2007).
Bologna's future plans include investments of about €1.5 billion over the next several years to expand the airport and to build a new train station with high speed tracks, tram lines that will run partially underground, a suburban railway network and an elevated monorail connecting the train station to the airport.
The work would be in tandem with another €5 billion being spent in and around Bologna on national infrastructure projects, as new highways, and with the new residential district that will host the University of Bologna's engineering department (about €1.2 billion).

The City of Bologna in the ECCAR Association
Bologna joined the European Coalition of Cities against Racism (ECCAR), in 2004, an initiative launched by UNESCO to establish a network of cities interested in sharing experiences in order to improve their policies to fight racism, discrimination and xenophobia.
The Coalition produced the 10 Points Plan of Action, a document that suggests some examples of practical actions that city authorities might take in order to fight all forms of discrimination in the various areas of their competence, such as education, housing, employment as well as cultural and sport activities.
The City of Bologna, is also member of the ECCAR Steering Committee and was appointed as Italian lead City for the Coalition.