Emilia Romagna is a beautiful region, one of 20 regions of Italy. It stretches almost the entire width of the famous Italian boot and is located between the diverse and green northern Italy and the beautiful Tuscany . This vast province is home to approximately 4.5 million residents and has an endless selection of things to do and see.
Emilia Romagna - Bologna
Bologna, it is the capital of the province of Emilia Romana. A big and bustling city, on the weekends the streets are full of people, tourists and locals, the roads become pedestrians, street artists appear in every corner and the atmosphere is amazing! If the name Bologna rings a bell in your stomach, maybe it is because it is the capital of Bolognese – the successful sauce that you put on the pasta, gnocchi, tortellini, lasagne and more. And in general, the city is known as “the fat Bologna” and draw the necessary conclusions by yourself. We came to eat! This is the district that brought us prosciutto, mortadella, lasagna, tortellini… and we will get to the rest later in the article.
Another name of the city, with an obvious reason, is the “Red City”. It is called that due to the construction in red bricks and the color of the red and charming roofs of the city, but all around you can see impressive buildings in all the colors of fire, orange and yellow and they all blend together with the ancient buildings and create a unique atmosphere for the city. It is also impossible to miss the fact that everything is full of arches upon arches: small, large, intersecting, single or adjacent to each other in sequence and creating pleasant corridors for walking. They are called Portico and they are the ones that earned the city the prestigious title of UNESCO. The thing that caught our eye the most – at every corner where you raise your head you will come across a tall and crooked tower. Yes, crooked! Sometimes it leans a little gracefully and sometimes it looks like it is threatening to fall.
מתלבטים איזה מלון הכי מתאים לכם? רוצים עזרה בתכנון הטיול?
לייעוץ שלחו לנו מייל ונעזור לכם בבחירת המלון והמסלול המושלם לחופשה שלכם!
What should you do in Bologna? Besides food, there is much more…
Piazza Maggiore – the largest and central square in Bologna. Right next to it you will also find Piazza del Nettuno with a statue of Neptune at the top of a famous and well-known fountain that you will recognize by the amount of tourists who sit on it and take pictures.
Le due Torri – a pair of leaning towers that are the definitive symbol of the city. The name of the taller one is Asinelli and the name of the smaller one – Garisenda, they are called that probably because of the name of the families that founded them. If you want to look at the Red City from above, you can climb to the top of the leaning tower. Not easy for those who are not in shape, but definitely a nice experience!
Canale delle Moline – the canal system in Bologna was dug to connect the city to the waters of the Po River. Although most of this system is hidden under the city, sometimes a small piece of canal is exposed and you will recognize it by the love locks. Here too, as in every cute bridge in Italy, you can close a lover’s lock with your names.
Via delle Pescherie Vecchie – a small alley with markets, artisan and merchant shops, cafes and restaurants. If you choose to go shopping or have a lunch break in them, you will feel like any local who has passed or lived here for over 400 years. The tiny underground market stalls are full of goodies and the restaurants are charming and delicious.
Università di Bologna – we also visited the University of Bologna which was actually the first in the world. The different buildings are scattered throughout the city, but the central and famous building is simply beautiful, full of murals, decorations, reliefs and class! You can pay €3 to see two of the most impressive interior rooms – the beautiful library and the anatomical theater full of beautiful wooden reliefs and in the center the demonstration table of the medical studies.
Recommended hotels in Bologna
Recommended hotels near Bologna
Palazzo di Varignana – A 5-star spa hotel, located only 25 km from Bologna. An excellent choice for those who want both to enjoy pampering facilities and to be close to the city.
Country House Oliveto sul Lago – A charming and ancient farmhouse, with a pleasant atmosphere and relaxing views.
Where to eat in Bologna? All the recommended restaurants and places.
First of all, it is appropriate and even mandatory to mention FICO Eataly World. This is a theme park for true “foodies” and also for people who just want to fully exhaust the Italian food experience. In the complex you will find more than 40 places to eat and have snacks, children’s areas, shops and markets, theater, cinema and more. Also great for the cold and rainy winter days.
Da Nello Restaurant – a restaurant with amazing traditional food founded in 1948. The cuisine is typical local but changes according to the season and the chef’s recommendations.
The small market Mercato di Mezzo is a perfect solution if each of you wants to eat something in a different style. It is small but varied, everyone can find what they like and then sit together in the common eating area on one of the two floors.
Parma - a perfect destination for Parmesan lovers
Besides the views of the vineyards around it and the peeking fortresses, the architecture, the churches, the works of art and the calm and wonderful atmosphere, Parma is also the mother of the beloved cheese – Parmigiano Reggiano. We decided to stop for a moment and delve into the cheese taps that we like to spread generously over all the foods from the moment we landed in Italy. The whole area is full of dairies and farms that produce the wheels of cheese faithfully to the sources and tradition, and if you visit one of them, you will learn about the cheese that dates back to the 9th century and understand how it goes through a special process that starts in the milk tanks, goes through cooking and separation from the cheese water, salting and aging. Besides the flavors (of course they let you taste), we also have to point out that blocks upon blocks of cheese wheels are just insanely photogenic.
Recommended hotels in Parma
Where to visit Parma?
Parking in the center of Parma called Parcheggio Goito costs €2 per hour. You can park your car there and go for a walk in the sweet city. Piazza del Duomo – this is the square with the famous cathedral, the baptistery and the bishop’s palace. There are all the important medieval monuments that Parma has to offer. The whole square is surrounded by a different atmosphere from the rest of the city, the area gives an ancient experience, as if going back in time.
Piazza Giuseppe Garibaldi – this is the place where the ancient forum used to be, which later moved. In order to reach the dimensions of today’s square, dense neighborhoods were destroyed over the years and the area expanded. The square today is beautiful, crowded and surrounded by lovely places to sit, eat, drink and soak up the atmosphere. The shopping lovers will connect from there to the shopping street – Strada Garibaldi. From this street you can turn to beautiful alleys decorated with fashion stores.
Palazzo Della Pilotta – a huge complex within the historic center of Parma containing palaces from the 16th century. In the complex you will find the National Gallery (with paintings by Da Vinci, El Greco, etc.), the Farnese Theater, the National Museum of Archeology, the Palatine Library (which contains about 1,600 ancient Hebrew writings) and the Bodoni Museum.
Teatro Farnese – used to be the court theater of the dukes. Recently, concerts and opera performances have been staged there. The theater has been working since 1618. A ticket to the Palatine Library, the French Theater and the National Gallery will cost you €12.00 and if you happened to visit the city on the first Sunday of the month you will earn free entry 😊
If you have time left between the Parmesan and the beautiful streets, you can visit the city market in Piazza Ghiaia, you can also visit the cute Castello di Felino (which requires a short drive, so only if you have a car) and you can also visit Torrechiara Castle.
Parmesan factory - where can you experience the process?
In the Parma area there are many factories that you can visit and get an impression of the cheese production process and of course enjoy tastings.
Here are 3 recommended places for you –
Where to eat in Parma? Restaurant recommendations
If you’re done walking around the charming city, gulping down the colorful and beautiful streets, maybe it’s time to rest and eat something. The street via Luigi Carlo Farini is full of restaurants and cafes, everything smells and looks delicious but we sat in two lovely restaurants that serve some of the tastiest Italian food you will ever eat.
A few minutes drive from Parma, is Trattoria Antichi Sapori. It serves traditional food alongside innovative cuisine, adapting to the changing seasons and investing in the freshest ingredients and a winning combination of flavors. warmly recommended.
Another recommendation for a great osteria in the center of Parma called osteria dei servio, where we ordered minestrone soup that was perfect, tortellini filled with cheese and delicate and amazing spinach, spinach pasta in an excellent parmesan sauce, steamed vegetables seasoned with olive oil and fresh herbs, and everything was perfect.
Modena
Halfway between the Bolognese of Bologna and the Parmesan of Parma, sits Modena which specializes in balsamic sauce! Make room in your suitcase, because here comes the authentic balsamic to bring home with you as a gift! Modena, like Bologna, is full of buildings in yellow-orange-reddish colors. In the center (on the UNESCO site) you will find the cathedral and the cobbled square (come with comfortable shoes – highly recommended!), a beautiful bell tower and a nice covered market where we bought fruit and food to take with us. In the city we also find the Duke’s Palace – Palazzo Ducale, and in an impressive synagogue. Mostly it’s fun to walk around the beautiful streets between the boutique shops and the wonderful smells coming from all the restaurants and cafes.
Recommended hotels in Modena -
מלונות מומלצים במודנה –
Ferrari Museum
If luxury cars excite you, Enzo Ferrari, the manufacturer of the beautiful car, is a native of the place, so you can visit the Ferrari Museum. The entire district received the name “Vehicle Valley” due to the production of the luxury vehicles that are produced there. Besides the Ferrari, also the Lamborghini, Ducati motorcycles and the Maserati showroom (side note: the first symbol used by the Maserati brothers was inspired by the Neptune Fountain in Bologna!).
Dozza
Dozza is a charming town of artists, where a festival takes place once every two years where artists from all over the world paint murals on the houses, which makes the town colorful and interesting and is a great setting for photographs. We arrived in the town in the evening, we combined the visit with dinner in an excellent restaurant and then we took a walk around the two main alleys in the town and were impressed by the many wall paintings.
The name of the highly recommended restaurant where we ate is Osteria Di Dozza and the fact that the waitresses hardly knew English gave us a stamp that the place is not commercialized and probably most of those who dine there are locals. We ordered tortellini filled with cheese in a butter and sage sauce that was amazing, a thick vegetable and grits soup that was fun on such a chilly winter evening, a local pie with cheese-filled dough served alongside warm mushrooms and a salad that was quite unnecessary (as vegetable lovers, we had a lot of trouble finding a pampering and rich fresh salad in Italy). For Italians, salad is not part of the meal, if they already eat vegetables it usually comes as antipasti or steamed vegetables so don’t expect too much from your Italian salad 🙂 The name of another recommended restaurant in Dozza is La Scuderia. It is advisable to book a place in advance, because it is almost always full of customers who received a recommendation from someone like us 🙂
