When I first moved to Bologna for university, fourteen years ago, I had just graduated from high school. Google Maps had just launched, and it lacked many of the features that we love most. Well, smartphones weren’t even around yet!
I came from a countryside town about 200 km away, and I wasn’t really familiar with living in a small city.
I remember that it took me months, if not years, to discover all the popular areas in the city, the coziest streets, the places with the most magical atmosphere, and the best scenic places on the nearby hills.
Finding your directions in one of the biggest medieval city centres in the world, full of winding roads and dead-end streets, can be a daunting experience. And some of the best places to eat, drink or enjoy gelato are so well hidden, that you actually have no chance whatsoever of stumbling upon them by simply taking a random walk.
Life would have been much easier if I could just navigate my new host city with the tip of my finger.
Which is why I’m so enthusiastic about adding new places to the map, marking duplicates or wrong listings so that other users won’t get confused, correcting the location of the best spots for foodies in town, adding minor tourist attractions and making sure opening times and official URLs are always up to date. I think of it as a way of making my city - Bologna - even more friendly and more open to visitors, be it for a weekend, a week or - as in my case - 14 years and counting. 