Jane's recent post on Ravenna prompted this post. We also are going to Ravenna next year, for 3 days, and we want to spend at least another week in Emilia Romagna. As slow travelers, we could stay at Villa Gaidello and use it as a base to see Bologna, Parma, Modena, and possibly Ferrara. On the other hand, I believe that it's impossible to really get any feel for a city when you day-trip in, so we could spend maybe 3 days in Bologna, 3 days in Parma, and a couple of days at Villa Gaidello. I would love any suggestions and advice, including hotels in Bologna and Parma in case we decide to go that route. I've done some research, and the ones most often recommended are the Roma in Bologna and the Button and Torino in Parma. Thanks.
[This message was edited by Ann on November 26, 2002 at 03:11 PM.]
Posts: 1503 | Location: Sunset Beach (Haleiwa), Hawaii, USA | Registered: 16 September 2001
quote:I believe that it's impossible to really get any feel for a city when you day-trip in
Well, you're on the right board, at least...! You should find nothing but agreement on that one, although I'd make an almost quibbling exception: if I wander in to the same city on repeated day trips, usually because I've been living somewhere in the neighborhood, I find that after a while, as one might expect, I get an idea of it.
Asfer places in Emilia-Romagna, I've spent a day in Bologna, meaning to spend longer, something like the three days you mention, but detested it and left. This is, however, very much a minority opinion; and after reading all the nice things people on SlowTrav say about Bologna, I'm completely mystified how I could be so wrong: vox pop and all that. Scanning my memory, however, I still dislike what I remember.
I've done the repeated day trip in to Rimini. Rimini is an outlier and probably not in your plans -- although if you're going to Ravenna... I rather like Rimini, but to discover the character of the place you must turn your back resolutely on that beach, which is what almost everyone goes there for, and look at the little town. Oddly, the modest town boasts one of the great jewels of Renaissance art in all of Italy, the Tempio Malatestiano.
The rest of Emilia-Romagna is for now still a blank book to me. I'm considering Parma and Modena on my next trip; the Duomo and Baptistery of Parma by the way have a rather spectacular website to whet your appetite. Or should I confess that the region's culinary reputation is the temptation?
Here is a little insight on a town that we enjoy visiting nearly every time we are in Italy. We use it as a stop over when flying out of Bologna. It's helpful because we have a close friend that lives there who is a professor of anthropology,and archeology, so it becomes a social stopover as well as a magnificent town with a very rich and artistic history. Please see attached quote and link to a helpful website.
Brief description: "Ferrara, which grew up around a ford over the River Po, became an intellectual and artistic centre that attracted the greatest minds of the Italian Renaissance in the 15th and 16th centuries. Here, Piero della Francesca, Jacopo Bellini and Andrea Mantegna decorated the palaces of the House of Este. The humanist concept of the 'ideal city' came to life here in the neighbourhoods built from 1492 onwards by Biagio Rossetti according to the new principles of perspective. The completion of this project marked the birth of modern town planning and influenced its subsequent development." Ferrara to Bologna
Ferrara is indeed a beautiful city. One of the things that make it special are its bicycles, with 2.7 bikes per person! They claim the record for the most urban travel via bicycle in Italy. You will see literally hundreds parked on either side of the train station when you arrive.
For the most part, they are the wonderful, vintage city bike style. In fact you will see very few modern bikes.
If you look carefully, you will note that some of the older ones still have a white stripe painted on the back fender. This was used to make them visible without using lights during the curfew hours of World War II.
The city is small, so you can easily do it all on foot. But cycling around Ferrara is the preferred way to visit the city. And without all the cars, it makes for a nice quiet city as well.
I live in Bologna, and I really like the city. So take the following for what you will, as I am obviously biased:
To enjoy Bologna, you have to either a) get past the gritty aspect of the city, or b) accept the grit as a part of the city's charm. Yes there are a lot of derelicts, bums, druggies, there is a lot of dog poop, trash, and smog.
BUT there is a ton of energy in this city. A real palpable pulse that you can feel every night. The city is young, the city is as lively as any place I have visited yet. It is set in buildings and architecture hundreds of years old, but it is very much, as the Italians say, the youngest city in Italy. Why is very simple: it houses the oldest, and one of the largest universities in Europe. 100,000 people attend the University of Bologna, 80,000 of them living in the city.
So if you are adventerous, enjoy having a good time at night, and are able to accept the city for what it is, you'll have a great time. There is a lot of great history here, many very interesting 'touristy' spots that a visitor would have a great time visiting. Off the top of my head, those would be (from the most obvious to the less): duomo di San Petronio, Piazza Maggiore, the buildings surrounding the piazza (including the Archiginnasio, and the palazzo), San Luca (the church on the hill, visible from the downtown), the civic museum (housing an impressive display of Etruschan goodies, including a tomb), the Santo Stefano church complex, the basilica di San Francesco, and the medieval museum.
Other areas of interest, if you are that adventerous type, would be the university quarter, and especially Piazza Verdi. To get a real grasp on the communist undercurrent of Emilia Romagna, you really don't have to go any further than this area (roughly defined as Via Zamboni, which runs west to east, and the area around it, spreading outwards north and south for a few blocks to Strada Maggiore and Via Delle Belle Arti). Piazza Verdi is also interesting for it's assorted 'punkabestie', the Italian word for 'gutter trash'. These are basically your burnouts of society, young and old, addicted to drugs, alcohol, with very little positive going on in their lives. Not all of Italy is beauty, history, monuments. This is a very real part of Italy as well.
Anyway I will stop rambling now. I don't know much about hotels here, but I do know a good bit about the amazing restaurants in Bologna. If anyone's curious about those, or anything else Bologna related, feel free to reply with questions.
Peace, Rar
[This message was edited by Pauline on January 13, 2003 at 02:42 PM.]
Welcome, Rar, and thanks for your help. I'm looking forward to our stay in Bologna and would love some restaurant suggestions -- where YOU go, not where the tourists go. Possiamo parlare un po' d'italiano, so don't worry if the menu is in italian. And could you let me know what kind of neighborhood Via Avesella is, if you know -- I found a B&B there which looks really nice. Mille grazie, or "mahalo nui aloha," as we say in Hawaii.
Posts: 1503 | Location: Sunset Beach (Haleiwa), Hawaii, USA | Registered: 16 September 2001
Rar, how interesting that this post should be here on this particular night. I just had dinner with a friend who will be staying in Bologna for a week or two in January - he was going to stay in hostels but I told him he could find something better for not too much money. He said all the hotels he had found on the internet are around $65 for a single - I find that hard to believe, and then found this timely thread here on Slowtrav.
I'll look for links here and if anyone has tips for a single person checking out Bologna (he wants to go to school there) let me know. He does sound for a pretty famous jazz band here, so music is as important as where he stays (I think.)
I go to Bologna several times a year, so I'd really like to know where to eat for moderate prices but immoderate flavors. As to traveling this area, read H.V. Morton's "A Traveler in Italy." It's a good thing in and of itself, but even more it is a plan for exploring E-R. Many years ago a friend and I did his itinerary. We missed out on things like the white oxen that had disappeared after the 60s, but by off-piking, we got a great taste of a great area that has provided foods and culture to Italy for centuries. Ferrara was my friend's favorite and lunch at Molino Rosso her so-far-best-meal-in-Italy experience. She ate bollito misto and hasn't gotten over it yet, and that was about 1984. She is coming for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow and so I hope to blow Molino Rosso out of the water with fresh truffles.
Posts: 2771 | Location: Umbria | Registered: 13 September 2001
Ann/Decobabe.. not sure about that neighborhood, but I can ask my roomate. As far as restaurants, my fav's are a trattoria called 15, Via Mirasole 15, a great little trattoria that is VERY popular with the locals (try the crescentina!), I recommend making reservations; da Gianni on Via Clavature, great food, not pricey but not cheap; Nikola, at Via Oberdan and Via Marsala, great food and economical; Cantina Bentivoglio, on Via Mascarella, if you like jazz music (food's decent, jazz is better). The most famous spot in Bologna might be Diana, on Via Indipendenza, an expensive spot with reputedly great food, but also snobby waiters.
My favorite pizza place is a little take out spot in Piazza Aldrovandi, called Pizza Aldrovandi. It's run by a really friendly guy, and the pizza is superb (so are the prices). Other good spots for pizza is the Trattoria/Pizzeria Napoli on San Felice, and La Mela, just east of Piazza Maggiore in the brickwalk old town area. Those two being more of a sitdown restaurant type of place, that offer other dishes also.
Shannon.. hotels arent cheap in Bologna. 65 dollars might be the going rate (I wouldnt know though, sorry!). And jazz music is somewhat big here, there are a few jazz clubs that are pretty popular.
Decobabe.. bollito misto is actually more of a Veneto dish, but then Ferrara is right on their border.
Typical E-R dishes/foods are (first five being tipica Bolognese) lasagna, mortadella, ragu, tortellini, crescentina (a Bolognese take on the piadina, very very delicious, eat with prosciutto and salame and cheese as an antipasto), basalmic vinegar (Modena), prosciutto crudo (Parma ham), coppa (Piacenza), reggiano parmigiano (Parmesan cheese). Regional wines are mainly Barbera (light red) and San Giovese (heavier red, comparable to Chianti). I'm sure ya know most of this though since you are a regular of E-R but I figured it might be helpful for others.
I, too, like Bologna. My wife and I have flown into Bologna a couple of times now, for vacations in E-R and Le Marche. The airport is relatively small and easy to manage, and there's a convenient and inexpensive bus shuttle from the airport to the city center and the train station.
I haven't eaten at any of the restaurants Rar mentions -- not yet, anyway. Good posts, thanks! We've had good luck at every place we've tried in the old city. Rar's description of Diana's is right on -- we ate there once. The food was OK, nothing great, and yes, the staff were a bit snotty.
I think that â¬65 is very reasonable for Bologna. Anything under â¬100 for a double is a good deal, IMO. Keep in mind that it's a busy, commercial city, and has frequent trade fairs. (We've had to time our vacations around those fairs, when rooms are even more expensive and almost impossible to get.) The hotels do a booming business, so book ahead if possible.
[This message was edited by Mikey on November 27, 2002 at 08:35 AM.]
Another quick followup, to respond to Ann's original message.
In Oct/Nov '01, my wife and I spent 2 weeks in E-R, 5 days in Bologna, 2 in Modena, 3 in Parma, and 3 in Ravenna. We traveled between cities by train, and within cities by bus and by walking. We stayed in hotels in city centers.
It was a great trip, in every way. Parma is a fabulous place, with an incredible museum and the Farnese theater. Ravenna's mosaics are wonderful, and be sure to take a bus out to Classe to see the mosaics there. Theodoric's Tomb is a favorite place, too.
I don't think you have to worry about avoiding 'touristy' places in any of these cities, because there are not many tourists. We always asked hotel staff for restaurant recommendations, and were never disappointed. These seem to be active, energetic places, not dependent upon tourists.
Hi Ann, I'm a big fan of Villa Gaidello, having stayed there 3 times, but I wouldn't use it as a base to see E-R. I think you'd be happier in a city like Parma or Modena where there is a little more to do. Don't miss staying at Villa Gaidello one night though, and feasting on the dinner. We based ourselves in Busseto for 3 nights one year and visited Cremona, Montova and Parma from there. Tommaso
Posts: 495 | Location: San Diego, Ca. | Registered: 27 November 2002
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