Bologna is sometimes called La Rossa (“the Red”), a nickname rooted as much in its terracotta-and-brick architecture as in its tradition of left-wing and anti-fascist politics. It is also a university town, where those warm, terracotta-coloured walls serve young creatives as an inviting public notebook for stencils and scrawls and paintings and tags.

Here are a few examples spotted last month, from depictions of a happy smoker to a sad monkey, and a few things that playfully fit somewhere in between. I managed to identify most of the artists but the keeper of the sad monkey remains anonymous. Any ideas? Let me know.

Photos from 28 September 2026.