01Why Bologna is the base
Bologna is the rail junction of northern Italy, so four of the great cities of Emilia-Romagna and the capital of Tuscany are all within an easy day. Each is a different city with its own character — and none of them is Bologna, which is exactly why they are worth the ticket.
02Ferrara
North, under an hour by train. The city of the Este dukes, with a moated castle in the middle, a Renaissance street plan so complete that it is a UNESCO site, and nine kilometers of walls you can walk or cycle around.
Ferrara is a city of bicycles. Hire one and do the walls.
03Modena
West along the Via Emilia, about half an hour. A Romanesque cathedral, the Ghirlandina bell tower and Piazza Grande together form a UNESCO site, and the city is the home of traditional balsamic vinegar.
Note A cuisine travels a short way here: Modena's baked tigelle and fried gnocco are its own versions of what Bologna calls crescentine.
04Ravenna
East, a little over an hour. Ravenna was a capital of the late Roman Empire and then of the Byzantine West, and it kept the mosaics to prove it: the tiny Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, San Vitale with its portraits of Justinian and Theodora, Sant'Apollinare Nuovo and the Neonian Baptistery.
Dante died in Ravenna in 1321, and his tomb is here. Go early; the mosaic buildings are small.
05Parma
North-west, about an hour. Correggio's swirling dome fresco in the cathedral, the octagonal pink-marble Baptistery, and the vast wooden Teatro Farnese inside the Pilotta palace.
The ham and the cheese that carry the name are made in the countryside around it.
06Florence, over the mountains
The high-speed line tunnels under the Apennines, and Florence is under forty minutes away — close enough for a day, though Florence rewards more. If you are going, the Florence guide gives each of its sights a page of its own, from the Duomo to the Uffizi.
