Bologna cannot be faulted for not being able to capitalize on its age. Northern Italy went through an awful lot of tumultuous history between 1450 and now that

Bologna cannot be faulted for not being able to capitalize on its age. Northern Italy went through an awful lot of tumultuous history between 1450 and now that England didn't experience: it was cut up into lots of little fiefdoms, dominated by several external powers, and generally kept under constantly changing iron thumbs.