Emilia–Romagna
We’ve compiled the best of the best in Emilia–Romagna - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
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1. Basilica di San Vitale
The octagonal church of San Vitale was built in AD 547, after the Byzantines conquered the city, and its interior shows a strong Byzantine influence. The area behind the altar contains the most famous works, depicting Emperor Justinian and his retinue on one wall, and his wife, Empress Theodora, with her retinue, on the opposite one. Notice how the mosaics seamlessly wrap around the columns and curved arches on the upper sides of the altar area. School groups can sometimes swamp the site from March through mid-June.
Via San Vitale, Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, 48121, Italy0544-541688Sight Details
Rate Includes: €11 combination ticket, includes 4–5 diocesan monuments -
2. Camera di San Paolo
This was the reception room for the erudite abbess Giovanna da Piacenza, who hired Correggio in 1519 to provide its decoration: mythological scenes are depicted in glorious frescoes of the Triumphs of the Goddess Diana, the Three Graces, and the Three Fates.
Via Melloni 3, Parma, Emilia-Romagna, 43121, Italy0521-287195Sight Details
Rate Includes: €6, Closed Tues. and Wed. -
3. Castello Estense
The former seat of Este power, this massive castle dominates the center of town, a suitable symbol for the ruling family: cold and menacing on the outside, lavishly decorated within. The public rooms are grand, but deep in the bowels of the castle are dungeons where enemies of the state were held in wretched conditions. The prisons of Don Giulio, Ugo, and Parisina have some fascinating features, like 15th-century graffiti. Lovers Ugo and Parisina (stepmother and stepson) were beheaded in 1425 because Ugo's father, Niccolò III, didn't like the fact that his son was cavorting with his stepmother. The castle was established as a fortress in 1385, but work on its luxurious ducal quarters continued into the 16th century. Representative of Este grandeur are the Sala dei Giochi, painted with athletic scenes, and the Sala dell'Aurora, decorated to show the times of the day. The terraces of the castle and the hanging garden have fine views of the town and countryside. You can traverse the castle's drawbridge and wander through many of its arcaded passages whenever the castle gates are open.
Piazza Castello, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, 44121, Italy0532-419180Sight Details
Rate Includes: €12, Closed Tues. -
4. Galleria Estense
Modena's principal museum, housed in the Palazzo dei Musei and located just a short walk from the Duomo, has an impressive collection assembled in the mid-17th century by Francesco d'Este (1610–58), Duke of Modena. The Galleria Estense is named in his honor and contains masterpieces by Bernini, Correggio, El Greco, Tintoretto, Velázquez, Veronese, and Salvator Rosa among others. The Biblioteca Estense here is a huge collection of illuminated manuscripts, of which the best known is the beautifully illustrated Bible of Borso d'Este (1455–61).
Largo Porta Sant'Agostino 337, Modena, Emilia-Romagna, 41121, Italy059-2033125Sight Details
Rate Includes: €8, Closed Mon. -
5. MAMbo and Museo Morandi
The museum—the name stands for Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, or Bologna's Museum of Modern Art—houses a permanent collection of modern art. All of this is set within the sleek minimalist structure built in 1915 as the Forno del Pane, a large bakery. Seek out the powerful Arte e Ideologia section for Guttuso's Funerali di Togliatti (1972), a charged symbol of pride and pain for many Bolognesi and Italiani. The work of Bologna's celebrated abstract painter Giorgio Morandi (1890–64), known for his muted still life paintings of domestic objects and landscapes, can be viewed at the Museo Morandi here. The fab bookshop and MAMbo Cafè complete the complex.
Via Don Minzoni 14, Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, 40121, Italy051-6496611Sight Details
Rate Includes: €6 permanent collection; €6 temporary shows, Closed Mon. -
Recommended Fodor’s Video
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6. Mausoleo di Galla Placidia
The little tomb and the great church stand side by side, but the tomb predates the Basilica di San Vitale by at least 100 years: these two adjacent sights are decorated with the best-known, most elaborate mosaics in Ravenna. Galla Placidia was the sister of the Roman emperor Honorius, who moved the imperial capital to Ravenna in AD 402. This mid-5th-century mausoleum is her memorial. The simple redbrick exterior only serves to enhance by contrast the richness of the interior mosaics, in deep midnight blue and glittering gold. The tiny central dome is decorated with symbols of Christ, the evangelists, and striking gold stars. Eight of the Apostles are represented in groups of two on the four inner walls of the dome; the other four appear singly on the walls of the two transepts. There are three sarcophagi in the tomb, none of which are believed to actually contain the remains of Galla Placidia. Visit early or late in the day to avoid the school groups that can sometimes swamp the Mausoleo from March through mid-June.
Via San Vitale, 17, Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, 48121, Italy0544-541688Sight Details
Rate Includes: €11 combination ticket, includes 4–5 diocesan monuments (€2 supplement for mausoleum) -
7. Mercato Storico Albinelli
Locals and visitors flock to this fruit, vegetable, meat, and fish market with good reason. Ingredients are of the finest and of the freshest, and visually the place is a glorious sight to behold. A restaurant inside (outside seating when the weather agrees) serves much of what comes from the market. It's been around in this current incarnation since 1931, and it's pretty easy to see why.
Via Luigi Albinelli 13, Modena, Emilia-Romagna, 41121, ItalySight Details
Rate Includes: Closed Sun. -
8. Museo Fellini
The life and magical cinematic oeuvre of Rimini's favorite 20th-century son, the celebrated film director Federico Fellini, is explored in depth at this wonderfully atmospheric and suitably dreamlike museum, opened in 2021. Spread over three sites—Castel Sismondo, Palazzo del Fulgor, and Piazza Malatesta—and through multimedia, sculpture, iconic film props, costumes, playful installations, and archive material, the exhibits chart the maestro's formative and Italian cinema's golden years. Fellini's artistic friends and collaborators are center-stage, too: screens project clips of Giulietta Masina in La Strada (1956) and Marcello Mastroianni in La Dolce Vita (1960), the evocative music of Nino Rota scores enliven every corner, and there's a Fellini-esque sculpture of a reposing Anita Ekberg. Palazzo del Fulgor, and the cinema immortalized in Fellini's semi-autobiographical love letter to Rimini, Amarcord (1973), has a changing program of Fellini's filmography.
Piazza Malatesta, Rimini, Emilia-Romagna, 47921, Italy0541-793781Sight Details
Rate Includes: €12, Closed Mon. -
9. Palazzo Schifanoia
The oldest, most characteristic area of Ferrara is south of the Duomo, stretching between the Corso Giovecca and the city's ramparts. Here various members of the Este family built pleasure palaces, the best known of which is the Palazzo Schifanoia (schifanoia means "carefree" or, literally, "fleeing boredom"). Begun in the late 14th century, the palace was remodeled between 1464 and 1469. Inside is Museo Schifanoia, with its lavish interior—particularly the Salone dei Mesi, which contains an extravagant series of frescoes showing the months of the year and their mythological attributes.
Via Scandiana 23, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, 44121, Italy0532-244949Sight Details
Rate Includes: €12, Closed Mon. -
10. Pilotta Museums
With one ticket, you can visit the Pilotta museums. The Galleria Nazionale contains masterpieces by Correggio, Leonardo da Vinci, and Bronzino. The Baroque Teatro Farnese, built in 1617–18, is made entirely of wood—though largely destroyed in a 1944 Allied bombing raid, it's been flawlessly restored. In the Archeological Museum see Etruscan, Roman, and Egyptian artifacts; the Palatina Library houses more than 500 religious manuscripts; and the Bodoniano museum covers printmaking.
Piazza della Pilotta 15, Emilia-Romagna, 43121, Italy0521-233617Sight Details
Rate Includes: €12, Closed Mon. -
11. Santo Stefano
University areaThis splendid and unusual basilica contains between four and seven connected churches (authorities differ). A 4th-century temple dedicated to Isis originally occupied this site, but much of what you see was erected between the 10th and 12th centuries. Just outside the church, which probably dates from the 5th century (with later alterations), is the Cortile di Pilato (Pilate's Courtyard), named for the basin in the center. Despite the fact that the basin was probably crafted around the 8th century, legend has it that Pontius Pilate washed his hands in it after condemning Christ.
Via Santo Stefano 24, Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, 40125, Italy051-4983423Sight Details
Rate Includes: Closed during services -
12. Università di Bologna
University areaTake a stroll through the streets of the university area: a jumble of buildings, some dating as far back as the 15th century and most to the 17th and 18th. The neighborhood, as befits a college town, is full of bookshops, coffee bars, and inexpensive restaurants. Political slogans and sentiments are scrawled on walls all around the university and tend to be ferociously leftist, sometimes juvenile, and often entertaining. Among the 15 university museums, the most interesting is the Museo di Palazzo Poggi, which displays scientific instruments plus paleontological and botanical artifacts.
Via Zamboni 33, Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, 40126, Italy051-2099610-museumSight Details
Rate Includes: €7 museum, Closed Mon.
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