I will be spending a few days in Bologne, Italy in July and want to know of some fun (i.e. not the standard tourist) things to do? Any ideas?

if bologne is in the south, then it might be boring. You can taste a lot of wine, and there’s also many public beaches in southern and central Italy, maybe even nude ones. Maybe you can go fishing or depending how long you’re gonna be there, make some Italian friends to show you around.

also, Italian mcdonalds serves wine, so you can get trashed at mcdonalds :)

I was there ten years ago and enjoyed strolling the streets, windowshopping (they have these beautiful porticoed streets) and exploring local markets. I also enjoyed traveling to nearby villages in Tuscany, such as San Gimignano (less toursity than Sienna-although that may have changed in the past 10 years).

Certainly you should look for some parties up the hills, in summer there are many.
Bologna is well known for the university so expect lots of students going around.
For a brief guide of restaurants-places to go at night you can check http://2night.it/v2/bologna/index.html that has a quite comprehensive list of cool places to be in the city and nearby places.

And, sorry for double-posting, don’t even dare to step into a McDonald’s!
Italians have maybe the best restaurants in the world, so once in your life-time leave aside your BigMac and enjoy a handmade plate of Lasagne or Tortellini (that’s something you cannot miss, specially in the Bologna-Modena and generally Emilia Romagna area)