https://www.ilrestodelcarlino.it/bologna/cronaca/com-e-bologna-giornalista-biggers-a3ce4e86

He lived in Bologna for a long time , arriving in 1989, following his future wife Carla, who came to study under the Two Towers. Then Jeff Biggers , an American journalist, writer, and historian born in 1963, moved back to America, but every year he spends a lot of time here with his family. He knows the city very well, and a few weeks ago he presented the book he wrote with his dear friend, director Andrew Davis , who was also presenting The Fugitive in the square. One of Biggers's peculiarities is to look at Italy from new perspectives, and he will do so in his next book dedicated to the Learned, which should be released in 2026 and will be titled The Last Train to Bologna . A tribute to the great history of Bologna, which he discovered 36 years ago, when he arrived in the city on the last train from Prague, for love. A Bologna that also leads him to reflect on overtourism.

Biggers, how did you stumble upon Bologna's overtourism? "Last year I read an article by Bolognese journalist Ilaria Maria Sala, who lives in Hong Kong, for the New York Times, where she talked about her destroyed Bologna, the invasion of mortadella in the historic center, and the housing conflict. I was in Piazza Rossini while I was reading, and there was no one around me. From there I went to Palazzo Magnani, where Baroque art was born with the Carraccis. There was no one there either, and Via Zamboni was empty. I decided to walk around all day, taking notes, and in the end I thought my Bologna was still there, present, with its empty spaces and its full spaces."

A rare feeling for many in the city. "I've lived in Bologna for a long time and have 36 years of notes that will also be included in my book, but how can I be nostalgic for a city I only discovered in 1989? I think of Petrarch, who returned here in 1386 to visit a friend and wrote that Bologna had changed, and so my 'last train' in the title suggests that each of us can claim to know the true Bologna of the past. Even Carducci lamented the housing crisis, just like today, with nearly 6,000 rooms rented via Airbnb and a major real estate crisis. I don't want to be naive, but I believe Bologna needs to be restored, to restore the identity that every street conveys. To say that yes, even if there is a problem of overtourism, the real Bologna exists and must be sought. As a writer, I can take people on a journey through my pages."

Do you think it needs to be explored further? "I experience Bologna as a Bolognese, I wander everywhere, not just in the squares, and that's why I came up with the concept of 'to restore,' but translated as 'to restore,' meaning to restore history, to remember what Bologna is, especially regarding women's history, which needs to be recovered and promoted more..."

Restoration vs. gentrification? "Very apt!"