The Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy, extends from the Apennine Mountains in the south to the Po River in the north. Like most of Italy, it has it’s fare share of medieval cities, rich regional gastronomy, seaside resorts and a big beautiful feature city – in this case, the capital, Bologna. It also contains the little Republic of San Marino (the smallest independent State in Europe) , which we could see sitting atop Mount Titano from the outskirts of our town, Cesena. Emilio-Romagna is a lot more low-key than other Italian regions and has far more of a locals feel (except for Bologna). We visited in mid June when the school holidays were in full swing and families had fled to their favourite beach clubs on the Adriatic coast so we enjoyed many of the small mediaeval towns to ourselves.
Big bold Bologna
Bologna is the ‘golden child’ of Emiglia Romana, it literally glows gold at night thanks to the sandstone used in the buildings, the en-tous-cas and ochre paint and the creamy marble and terracotta tiles lining the porticos. It is a vibrant, youthful city thanks to its prominence as a university town (it has the oldest University in Europe established in 1080). It’s also a very picturesque town with one of its most redeeming features the 40 kilometres of porticos (portici) that snake around the town creating beautiful shadows, framing the glorious shops and protecting people from sun and rain.
Bologna put on an extra special show when we visited as we were lucky enough to see the Tour de France cycle race whizz by. We stumbled across the race on our walk from the car park to our apartment (Bologna has a ZTL zone which requires a permit to drive and/or park in the central zone so we parked on the outskirts and walked in). As we entered the gates of the old town we saw a lot of police cars, policemen and crowds lining the street, waving flags. We soon figured out that the Tour de France was about to pass through and after a bit of a wait, we saw the leaders pack speed by followed by the peloton peddle furiously through the city streets to the cheers and horns of the bystanders.
It was super hot when we visited end of June and we waited for the sun to go town to really explore the town. And my goodness does this town come alive at night – in summer it just glows in the twilight for hours with sun light gradually replaced by candles and fairy lights to give it a very magical feel.
We walked along the golden porticos, explored all the beautiful churches and statues, and enjoyed a bowl of the local specialty dish – Tortellini with Ragu and a Coteletta Bolognaise (the sauce comes from Bologna – hence the name) in the main Piazza Maggiore. We strolled along hipster Via del Pratello in Saragozza which was teeming with students drinking, smoking joints (they sell marijuana in vending machines dotted along the portico), and playing music and we admired the open gallery of street art with some very colourful characters painted onto roller doors, walls and pipes.
Cute and cosy Cesena
Our base for our week in the Emilio-Romagna region was Cesena where we had a home-exchange apartment about 20 minutes walk from the old medieval town. Cesena is off the tourist-track and despite having a great history of art and culture it is very quiet with its residents fiercely proud of their town. We found this out on our first day when we stopped at a little cafe in Palazzo del Ridotto, and our daughter went inside to order. The waitress asked where she was from and when she replied “where are you from? Jaz replied, “Australia,” she said ‘ but we have never had Australians here before – not in Cesena, what are you doing here’? It seems that Cesena is a real locals place and not for tourists (which we loved!). This was reinforced when my daughter and I called into a shop and tried on a couple of items and when the owner found out we were mother and daughter from Australia they fussed over us in true Italian-mamma style, squeezing my daughter’s arm and blowing kisses saying Bellissimo, Bellissimo – they even wrapped a belt around the dress she tried on saying this is a gift for you, you are so beautiful. We escaped with just 1 dress, (1 free belt) and one pair of shorts, backing out as they kept thrusting more clothes on us.
The entrance into town (from our direction) was through one of the ports of the Rocca Malatestiana, the medieval fortress that wraps around the town, and then a nice stroll along Portico lined cobblestone streets past the Music Academy where piano and violin music wafted out and up to the park that has a display of wrought Iron lamps and balustrades from over the centuries. We love the porticos as they provide structure, navigation and much needed shade and in Cesena they are painted pastel orange, green and yellow. There were many significant, ancient buildings along the street we walked along – like the old Roman theatre (amphitheatre) now a Music Academy proffering fine tunes through their open windows, and the home where one of the Popes used to live (Popes Pius VI and Pius VII were born at Cesena in 1717 and 1740, respectively) and parts of the Rocca Malatestiana, the medieval fortress built to protect the town in 1381–1450. It’s surprising how many notables were born or passed through this little town including Leonardo da Vinci who stayed in Cesena in 1502 and helped overhaul the forts and improve the town defence.
Cesena also has many squares. Our favourite was Piazza del Popolo (one wall is the Rocca Malatestiana) with the beautiful white marble Fontana Masini as well as many restaurants that spread chairs and tables out in the evenings. We ate out in town a couple of nights and our favourites were the aperitivos at Babbi where they served up two big platters of snacks with our Aperol Spritz order – one fully Gluten Free platter for our daughter who has coeliac disease! Our pick for dinner was Roovida in the Piazza del Popolo for amazing wood fired pizzas sitting under the glowing sky watching the Italian families flood the square – it was such a lively place..
The beaches of Cesena
It was pretty warm when we visited Cesena in June and we thought we’d explore the nearby beaches. Now I am from Australia and Aussies have a rule that you never travel overseas for a beach, still I was hoping for a bit of sand and water to swim in and sadly this is not the place! The Riviera Romagnola, as the 90 kilometre stretch of coastline around Ravenna, Forlì-Cesena and Rimini is referred to are dominated by private beach clubs with only a few scraps of gritty-dirt providing access to the rather soupy, warm, shallow water. There’s a ‘breakwall’ that runs along most of the coastline to reduce erosion of the beaches and this contributes to the soupy feel of the water and in some areas, like up around Ravenna you can see the oil and gas rigs and the floating LNG terminal just off the coast.
We visited the port town of Cesenatico which is about 20kms/30 mins drive from Cesena and found a never-ending run of beach clubs along the coast stretching for miles with out a break each offering a variety of sports, kiosks, lounges, fountains and restaurants. We couldn’t believe how busy they were and it seemed this was how kids in the area spent their summer holidays. We only visited once, one late afternoon, as there were only little scraps of public beach and it was difficult to park. I am sure it is quite lovely in Spring, but I wouldn’t recommend this area in summer. There are a few other beaches north of Cesenatico closer to Ravenna and we, rather ambitiously, packed a Prosecco one evening and drove down for ‘bubbles on the beach’ at the free beach Spiaggia libera di lido di dante – and were a little shocked to find a twig and branch strewn dirt-sand beach which looked out to a series of oil rigs. Not quite the picturesque outlook we’d hoped for!
Santacangelo
We discovered this classy little local town, Santacangelo di Romagna about 20 minutes drive from Cesena but timed our visit poorly as all the beautiful shops were shut for their 4 hour lunch-siesta break. The stores in the small towns all close from 12.30 – 4.30, except restaurants – which made us wonder where the shop keepers spent their break-time if they were not from the area? We still enjoyed this medieval fortified town as it has so much architectural beauty with noble palaces, well-kept village houses, limestone alleys and small squares which has earnt it the title of City of Art (they hold many festivals –the Santarcangelo Festival was just beginning when we were there with an impressive agenda focused on exploring how people from different faiths, cultures, sexualities and demographics can co-exist harmoniously together – an area I am very much interested in!). We walked up to the little church at the top of the village where there were beautiful views and quaint houses many of them available for rent which would make a lovely stay.
A touch of Tuscany with a visit to Florence
We took a day trip to Firenze from Cesena as it was only 90 minutes on the train from nearby Faenza train station. Our first stop in Florence was of course Il Duomo – “Santa Maria del Fiore” where we joined the mad crowds – most following little flags, with earpieces in, bumping in to each other. I forgot how gargantuan and gorgeous this gothic church, dome and tower are. We sipped sodas and stared at Il Duomo for almost an hour admiring the green, pink and white marble and layers of Romanesque and Renaissance filigree, sculptures & arches. All tours inside were booked out so we tagged along behind a couple of tour groups catching titbits of info and finding square after square of religious, artistic & architectural delights. Of course another highlight was seeing the ‘David’ (the original David in the Accademia Gallery of Florence was booked out) but we saw the replica in the Piazza Della Signora along with other famous statues depicting the myths and history of Florence in the Loggia dei Lanzi.
There were endless arrays of colourful leather bags, jackets and gloves, a treasure trove of jewellery on the Ponte Vecchio bridge and cafe’s serving up more Aperols than even Venice. We wandered along the river and off the beaten path finding archways, towers and the cute little ‘bûchette del vino’ wine windows everywhere. It’s a neat system you knock on the little window in the wall and get a wine delivered to sip in the street! They began 400 years ago as a way to sell wine without the need to have a shop or pay tax and enjoyed a resurgence during Covid lockdowns. Another surprise find was the perfumeries, jewellery ateliers and shoemaker workshops – all plying their trades in the age old fashion. What a cornucopia of gastronomy, fine arts, architecture and fashion Florence is!
