Hmm! well I tried right at the start of my latest campaign and they wouldn't sell it. Perhaps I just didn't have enough money at the time.
The situation there is rather weird atm, as I am allied with them and the city was just put under seige by an amphibious assualt force from the Byzantine. I thought I'd let it fall and then liberate it as I need to start a war with the Byzantines anyway as I have to eliminate their faction. But on the second turn of the seige they suddenly agreed terms and ordered a ceasefire, so atm I have a massive HRE Army and a massive Byz army both camping in Bologna.
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