Silently hyped by hipsters and foodies, ignored by the rest. Beautiful Emilia-Romagna in Italy is known to most people somehow but at the same time, no one really knows it.
Especially those coming from Germany and other parts of Europe are crossing the region on their way to Tuscany or the Amalfi Coast. Maybe you notice Bologna as you pass by, but that’s basically it.
Some of you may have already spent their vacation on the region’s beaches but unfortunately totally ignored the cities and the culinary art. (we’re not excluding ourselves here)
Emilia-Romagna is internationally known for its cuisine; so to speak it’s one of the last refuges for original Italian cuisine. There are many Michelin-starred restaurants in the region. However, you don’t have to spend an enormous amount of money to dine royally. But we’ll get more specific about that in another post!
Together with our family, we spent the long Easter weekend (at least in Germany a long one) in beautiful Emilia-Romagna. In order to not gain too much weight and because it’s really beautiful, you should take a closer look at the region and its medieval cities and villages.
Bologna, my city!
One thing that was overly present during our trip was the song ‚Bologna‘ from the Austrian Band Wanda. Earworm Level 5000! Every time you thought it’s over, one of your co-traveller would start buzzing again. (Maybe even our Non-German speaking readers will give the song a chance. It’s amazing.)
Despite the constant self-caused acoustic torture during our trip, we experienced Bologna as a really beautiful city with a great vibe. You won’t find a bike concentration this high anywhere else in Italy (at least in our perception). The reason might be Bologna being a student town and one thing usually leads to another.
The main sight of the city is the Piazza Maggiore with its cathedral. If you have time, climb up one of the famous Towers. Up there the view over the town must be amazing. The many arcades are also rare to find in other cities.
But as we were hungry, we headed straight to the cities‘ food boulevard always followed by the ‚Tante Ceccarelli‘ earworm. At ‚Salumeria Simoni‘ we ordered a delicious antipasti platter and ate it with a lot of Amore! By the way: The famous Ceccarelli store itself offers (like many other stores in town) many delicacies of the region. And they all look so yummy. It’s crazy!
Of course, it felt like we spent not enough time here. Jan and I already think about returning for a weekend and have a closer look at the city.
In conclusion: we have a lot of Amore for Bologna!
Ravenna
After seeing beautiful Bologna, the other cities couldn’t really keep up with the great sister. Whereby we were actually on a food tour in Emilia-Romagna and reduced sightseeing to a minimum. Afterwards, actually, this was the right decision as the Old Towns looked quite similar.
We came to Ravenna because of he famous octagonal Basilica de San Vitale built in the 6th century. It’s famous for its mosaics and one of Italy’s most famous early Christian buildings. Even if you’re not really interested in churches, this one here is really impressive.
Church Sant’Apollinare in Classe
We really don’t want to bore you, but this one’s also special and worth seeing.
The Sant’Apollinare church in Classe, a suburb of Ravenna is also famous for its mosaics.
Marina di Ravenna
Thank God the church sightseeing is over. Afterwards, we headed to Marina di Ravenna, where we treated ourselves with a few drinks at MO.WA bar to digest all the culture impressions.
It’s a great bar and the atmosphere was amazing – especially on a Sunday evening!
Ferrara, Parma, Modena
We’re keeping short on these three cities. Don’t get us wrong, they’re all amazing and cute and so on. But in the end, they look quite similar. There’s nothing spectacular happening.
If you have time, make the detour here. However, you won’t miss out on something.
Worth mentioning is the beautiful castle in Ferrara built in water.
Comacchio
Quite the contrary happened in Comacchio. It’s a small town in the province of Ferrara, which looks like a little version of Venice and we fell in love with it. Comacchio is famous for its ‚Trepponti‘ bridge and honestly, it’s really photogenic.
On a sunny Easter Sunday, Comacchio becomes busy with Italians having a great day. The region is famous for its eel dishes, which you can try in one of the many restaurants here.
Torrechiara
18km south f Parma, you’ll find the impressive castle Torrechiara. Unfortunately, it was closed when we arrived. It was even worse when we found out that the recommended restaurant ‚Taverna del Castello‘ was also closed.
WE messed up our visit here, but YOU will defintely plan your trip better and see this impressive castle and try the restaurant.
San Giovani di Persiceto
Our accommodation was located near this village and we actually didn’t have it on our radar. One of the restaurants, we picked out for our trip is in this village. So we merely came with culinary intentions.
After a huge meal, we made an after-dinner walk through the city and realized what a little cute gem this place is. At night as well as during daytime.
As you can see, there’s enough to see in Emilia-Romagna and we only scratched the surface of the region.
In order to keep this post short and sweet, we made an additional one regarding the cuisine of the Emilia-Romagna!
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