After police shot and killed Francesco Lorusso, a 24-year-old far-left militant, on March 11, 1977, the city erupted in street clashes that lasted for days. Still, there was bloodshed in Bologna during those Years of Lead. Home to some of the world’s finest food and wine and brimming with cultural treasures, the city has been described as the perfect combination of hedonism and communism. It is also called Bologna la rossa, or Bologna the Red, as the city has long been a stronghold of the Communist Party. Home to the world’s oldest university, the city is known by locals as Bologna la dotta, or Bologna the Learned. Until Bologna, the most infamous of these was the kidnapping and murder of former prime minister Aldo Moro by the communist Red Brigades in 1978.īologna, capital of the prosperous Emilia-Romagna region in northeastern Italy, was - and remains - a hotbed of political activity. Terrorism from both the far right and far left was commonplace during these deadly decades, in which some 12,000 attacks claimed hundreds of lives. The period from the late 1960s through the 1980s was one of social and political turmoil in Italy known as the anni di piombo, or years of lead. What is less clear is whether, or to what extent, the bombing was part of a clandestine, Europe-wide right-wing state terror operation. It is clear that right-wing extremists including neo-fascists, Italian secret service agents and rogue outlaw Freemasons carried out the attack. To this day, it is uncertain exactly who is behind the deadliest terrorist attack in modern Italian history. On the sweltering morning of August 2, 1980, a powerful explosion blew apart the central train station in Bologna, Italy, killing 85 people and wounding 200 more. Beppe Briguglio, Patrizia Pulga, Medardo Pedrini, Marco Vaccari – – CC BY-SA 3.0 Ruins of the Bologna station west wing after the bombing.