Parma - Italy

Parma – Italy

Post published:17 April 2016
Post category:Europe Italy Southern Europe

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Byzantine Chrysopolis: The Golden City

After a busy program the day before visiting the cities of Ravenna and Ferrara, today was more quiet for a smaller city, and mostly because we could not count with the entire day since we needed to return to Bologna airport in the afternoon to get the flight back to London. In any case, another weekend and another success with the plan we had in mind that worked very good and now we can cross another three cities in one go off the list.

While the city is known for its beautiful monuments across a nicely preserved medieval core, when we think of Parma, we have in mind something else of course. First, the indisputable Parma Ham, one of the top delicacies in the whole of Italy itself comes from this region; and the Parmigiano-Reggiano, the true Parmesan cheese. But it is not only about these 2 delicacies, it is for the large amount of restaurants serving some of the best dishes we’ve ever had in Italy, all of which non expensive, nor touristy places. only for its food and a relaxing sightseeing walk through the city it was a very worthy day what we planned.

To visit the city, half a day is more than enough. It is not big and the historical core is very compact with all the sights at walking distance from each other hence no need to plan longer. For us coming here after breakfast from Bologna, 100 kilometres east, and leaving back to Bologna after 15.00pm in good time to make it to the airport was well enough; otherwise any longer as an entire day and you will end up without places to visit. (more…)

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Ferrara - Italy

Ferrara – Italy

Post published:16 April 2016
Post category:Europe Italy Southern Europe

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City of the Renaissance

Continuing our tour for today after visiting the city of Ravenna and at only 70 kilometres to the north we arrived in Ferrara. Another jewel city in Italy, and UNESCO World Heritage Site listed as: “City of the Renaissance, and its Po Delta”. While Ravenna, although of the same size as Ferrara in population number it seemed smaller, and with the fact of having less to see bearing its 8 UNESCO buildings, here in Ferrara you will need to plan a bit more time to be able to visit all the sights since the city is more grand and with many more elegant streets and buildings all around.

Ferrara is also an important tourist centre, where majority of visitors are day-trippers from “nearby” touristy-on-mass Venice or Bologna with Modena and Parma. It is a very worthy city to visit and with the more and more trips we are continuously doing where we are “running out” of destinations it is great to see how many hundreds of secondary cities are all over across Europe still to visit; so this will still keep us going for some years.

The good side of smaller cities like Ferrara, yet packed with history and sights, is that you won’t need long time for visiting it as opposed to larger cities where you will need minimum the entire weekend. This was for us already the second city we visit today after Ravenna, and I can ensure you there was good time for both cities without rush; but what made the difference in saving us a lot of time commuting between the cities was having a rental car. It is anyway possible to do the same by train or bus Bologna to Ravenna, Ravenna to Ferrara, and back from Ferrara to Bologna in the night if your base is there as was our case and all in one day. (more…)

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Ravenna - Italy

Ravenna – Italy

Post published:16 April 2016
Post category:Europe Italy Southern Europe

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Seat of the former Byzantine government in Italy

Another weekend starting with a flight to Bologna, the nearest international airport to Ravenna, our first of the three cities planned this time, all of them UNESCO World Heritage sites. A bit exceptional in the case of Parma which we would visit the following day, since it is the first city in Italy to be awarded UNESCO’s Creative City for Gastronomy. From the beautiful city of Bologna it’s 84 kilometres to the east to Ravenna, right by the Adriatic coast of Italy; and it’s the perfect start of the day to later continue visiting the city of Ferrara, 78 kilometres northwest along the beautiful drive by the coast for the first section.

Ravenna is a very small city, and as such, easy to visit quick without hassle hence why it is worth to include other places nearby to complete the day. The main reason to visit this city are the eight early Christian monuments inscribed in the World Heritage List. And since the old city centre is very compact, half a day visit is good enough for seeing everything.

Other than the important monuments, the city itself is as of any Italian city, nice and beautiful, with plenty of cafes and restaurants serving great and inexpensive food. Finding a good place it not difficult at all; all of them are great, and none of them seemed to be any tourist trap. After all, the city is quite overseen by tourists, so do not expect to see here hordes nor groups as you would expect in other cities. (more…)

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Bologna - Italy

Bologna – Italy

Post published:19 December 2010
Post category:Europe Italy Southern Europe

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The Learned, the Fat and the Red

Again the time has arrived for a last trip of the year. Many so far, to incredible places and countless pictures and memories, so let’s add with another one to Bologna, and considering how near is Modena, both would be the plan for this weekend. Making it all possible thanks to the bargain flights, although nowadays nothing to compare to these “almost fore free” flights once Ryanair had some years ago. Still, cheaper than three pints in a normal bar in London that’s what we paid this time.

Days before our arrival it has been snowing quite heavily, therefore we prepared ourselves to cope with the weather and for the freezing temperatures. Thankfully we could land on-time right in the middle of a blizzard which, luckily for us, stopped once we were outside of the airport. We cannot say the same for our returning flight the day after… flights were severely disrupted, delayed and cancelled. I must say I was only lucky by chance at only 2 hours delay, but managed it back home.

The city, 7th largest in Italy has also one of the largest and best preserved historical old town centre in Europe. There is always some great architecture and history everywhere you walk, although this is a fact repeated across the entire Emilia Romagna region, which capital city is, as you could imagine by now, Bologna. And if something makes it very unique is the UNESCO World Heritage Site listed incredibly system of porticoes covering no less than 38 kilometres across the entire city. Once can walk under the arches for several kilometres without even getting wet if raining.

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