Smart Guide Italy: Bologna & Emilia Romagna: Smart Guide Italy, #19
By Alexei Cohen
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About this ebook
Smart Guide Italy is packed with advice and tips that will help newcomers and veteran travelers get the most from their visit to Italy. Along with background information to all major cities and monuments readers will discover great places to eat, sleep and enjoy the dolce vita.
Smart Guide is an independent digital travel publisher with 25 guides to all of Italy's cities and regions. Each title in the series provides insights to the most important monuments and useful information for eating, drinking, and having a good time in Italy. Smart Guide also offers an online accommodation service that allows travelers to enjoy local hospitality, lower their CO2 impact and save.
Other Guides in the Smart Guide series include:
Cities & Regions:
Rome & Lazio / Florence & Tuscany / Genova & Liguria / Turin, Piedmont & Aosta / Milan & Lombardy / Trentino-Alto Adige / Venice & Veneto / Bologna & Emilia Romagna / Le Marche / Umbria / Naples & Campania / Abruzzo & Molise / Puglia / Basilicata & Clabria / Sardinia
Multiple Regions:
Northern Italy / Central Italy / Southern Italy / Italian Islands / Italy
Cities:
Northern Italian Cities / Central Italian Cities / Southern Italian Cities / Grand Tour: Rome, Florence, Venice & Naples
Alexei Cohen
I fell in love with Italy while watching the movie La Strada in the basement of my university library. Since then I have met and married an Italian, written and edited several guides and enjoyed a lot of pasta, wine and gelato. I live with my family on the outskirts of Rome and cultivate my passion for Italy a little more everyday. Moon Rome, Florence & Venice is my latest book and a result of months of exploration. I look forward to sharing what I have discovered and meeting travelers in Rome to swap stories over a cappuccino.
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Titles in the series (27)
Smart Guide Italy: Florence & Tuscany: Smart Guide Italy, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Guide Italy: Milan & Lombardy: Smart Guide Italy, #2 Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Smart Guide Italy: Venice & Veneto: Smart Guide Italy, #4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Guide Italy: Grand Tour Rome, Florence, Venice and Naples: Smart Guide Italy, #6 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Guide Italy: Umbria: Smart Guide Italy, #12 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Smart Guide Italy Northern Cities: Milan, Venice, Turin & Genova: Smart Guide Italy, #9 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Guide Italy: Trentino-Alto Adige: Smart Guide Italy, #10 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Guide Italy: Rome & Lazio: Smart Guide Italy, #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Guide Italy: Naples and Campania: Smart Guide Italy, #5 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Guide Italy: Turin, Piedmont and Aosta Valley: Smart Guide Italy, #7 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Guide Italy: Abruzzo & Molise: Smart Guide Italy, #14 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Guide Italy: Basilicata & Calabria: Smart Guide Italy, #15 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Guide Italy: Genova and Liguria: Smart Guide Italy, #8 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Guide Italy: Le Marche: Smart Guide Italy, #13 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Guide Italy: Northern Italy: Smart Guide Italy, #11 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Guide Italy: Sardinia: Smart Guide Italy, #18 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Guide Italy: Bologna & Emilia Romagna: Smart Guide Italy, #19 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Guide Italy: Sicily: Smart Guide Italy, #17 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Guide Italy: Central Italian Cities: Smart Guide Italy, #20 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Guide Italy: Italian Islands: Smart Guide Italy, #23 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Guide Italy: Southern Italy: Smart Guide Italy, #22 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Guide Italy: Central Italy: Smart Guide Italy, #21 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Guide Italy: Southern Cities: Smart Guide Italy, #25 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Guide Italy: Italy: Smart Guide Italy, #24 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Guide Italy: Rome Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Guide Italy: Puglia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmart Guide Italy: Florence: Smart Guide Italy, #27 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Smart Guide Italy - Alexei Cohen
Smart Guide Italy: Bologna & Emilia Romagna
Published by Smart Guides
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2013 Smart Guides
Discover other titles in the Smart Guide series:
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Smart Accommodation:
Smart Guide has teamed up with over 5,000 bed & breakfasts, self-catering apartments and small hotels in order to provide travelers with convenient, reasonably priced accommodation in the best locations throughout Italy. To view all our accommodation options visit our website and choose the one that’s right for you. Enjoy the journey!
Smart Answers:
Travel requires making choices. If you have any questions regarding your trip to Italy write to us and we will get back to you within 24 hours. If you have any comments or suggestions that will help improve future editions we’d love to hear them.
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
INTRODUCING EMILIA ROMAGNA
History
TOP STOPS
PLANNING
BOLOGNA
Sights
Entertainment and Events
Shopping
Sports and Recreation
Food
Accommodation
Information and Services
Getting There
Getting Around
PO RIVER VALLEY
Piacenza
Fidenza
Parma
Modena
Ferrara
Faenza
ADRIATIC COAST
Ravenna
Cervia
Rimini
Po Delta
FOREWORD
Emilia Romagna is Italy’s breadbasket and home to some of the greatest culinary innovations of all time. Tortellini, parmegiano and prosciutto are all good reasons to visit this mouthwatering region but if you need more persuasion like art, history and culture you’ll find that too in Emilia Romagna. It’s a region that sets the standard in hospitality, where people aren’t in a rush and take the time to share the finer things in life with friends and strangers.
The region’s central position along the Italian peninsula makes it a convenient stop for travelers arriving from Rome or Milan. Cities and towns are well connected by road and rail, and the long coast provides plenty of options for relaxing and exploring nature. A week here will make you reconsider any stereotypes you might have had about Italians and leave both your stomach and mind better off.
If you haven’t already reserved a place to stay you may want to browse our accommodation options. Smart Guide provides hundreds of convenient bed & breakfast, farmhouse and small hotel offers throughout the region. It’s a cozy and convenient way to meet locals, keep your carbon footprint low and save.
Enjoy the journey!
Alexei Cohen
Series Editor
INTRODUCING EMILIA ROMAGNA
Emilia Romagna is truly a hidden gem. Still relatively untouched by the mass tourism that draws art lovers to Tuscany and nature lovers to Umbria, this central Italian region has both artistic and physical beauty in abundance, and beckons quietly with much of the best of what Italy is all about. This is the region that gave birth to famed neo-realist film director Federico Fellini and noble burial to the father of Italian poetry, Dante Alighieri. Renowned for good food and food sensibility, it is home to the European Union’s authority on food safety. It is also one of Italy’s wealthiest regions, with extensive livestock and dairy farming along the Po Valley as well as a large food industry (Barilla pasta is based here). Both Lamborghini and Ferrari cars are made in Emilia Romagna.
The region’s wealth becomes self-evident in the capital of Bologna. In the Santo Stefano area of the city’s vast historical center, nearly every other palazzo was formerly a noble’s residence, many of them still housing prestigious art works. Bologna also boasts Europe’s oldest university, with museums dedicated to archeology and anatomy. Tasteful boutiques and good places to eat and drink line the city’s extentive porticos.
If Bologna is a great college town, it’s the region’s smaller cities—Ferrara, Ravenna, and Modena—that showcase why small and medium-sized towns are largely considered the best places to live throughout Italy. The main mode of transportation in these towns, Ferrara especially, is not the car, nor even the eponymous Italian scooter. It’s the bicycle! And not even the modern-day mountain bike, but bikes with 20 or 30 years on them with a basket in the front (convenient for running errands) and a baby seat in the back for carrying tots. These cities’ historical centers are well preserved and elegant, and treasure troves of art.
People flock to Ravenna to see the 5th century Byzantine mosaics—UNESCO World Heritage sites—or pay homage to Dante’s tombstone. Parma, another medium-sized city, is synonymous with good food and music, and it enjoys Italy’s highest standard of living. Since 2004 it has been the headquarters of the EU food safety authority, EFSA. For centuries it has groomed Italy’s severest opera public. Wellbred Italians know that Milan’s La Scala is not the real heart of the Italian opera scene. If La Scala, with its fur coat VIP crowd, is about opera- goers, Parma is about the opera itself. The public at the Teatro Regio di Parma comes to listen and show their approval or disapproval, namely by booing or applauding until red in the palms.
Emilia Romagna is also about enjoying the proverbial good life and Italians’ generosity oozes out of this bountiful territory. The food is consistently top-quality here and the people make it taste even better. They won’t let you rush a meal and you won’t want to, whether it be a wholesome plate of tortellini con brodo (tortellini in broth) in winter, or a light hostaria meal of thinly sliced meats (like mortadella and coppa di Parma) and parmesan cheese accompanied by a glass of Lambrusco. Come to Emilia and you’ve entered the gateway to Italy’s real dolce vita.
History
In prehistoric times (roughly 10,000 years ago), Emilia Romagna was one vast forest. Following deforestation, various settlements have been traced to the area, from the Neolithic period through the Bronze Age. In the 9th century b.c., the Villanova farming and shepherding culture emerged, civilizing the area and effectively ending its prehistoric age. The Etruscans founded the city that