>> up

A few kilometers away from the city stands the Valli di Comacchio, 11,000 ha of salt marshland brinked by raised embankments that provide home to the lagoon characteristic fauna and flora. Two particularly suggestive points are the peninsula of Boscoforte and the le Saline salt-flats where a healthy population of flamingos can be admired in the right season.

The Po Delta Regional Park is the district largest regional park and occupies a considerable part of the Emilia Romagna territory. The Park is divided into six different zones, each with its own attractions of wildlife, landscape, history and culture.
Visitors can explore the Park extraordinary beauty along various itineraries laid out for automobile, bicycle, and foot.

Ferrara, This ancient alleys and sumptuous palazzi of this magic city are steeped in the history and splendour of the Nobles Estensi and the Renaissance. Ferrara has been declared World Heritage by UNESCO for the protection of its unique monuments and architecture.

Ferrara began its municipal and cultural development towards the end of the 14th Century, when it was further graced by the addition of today Duomo (the Cathedral), constructed in Romanic-Gothic style between the 12th and 14th Centuries holding numerous frescoes, paintings and sculpture by Garofano, Guercino, and Bastianino (16th Century) together with numerous other monastic centers.

Ferrara can be neatly divided into two distinct architectural styles: the Medieval area that runs from the Castle along Via della Giovecca, Via delle Volte and Porta d’Amore, and the Renaissance area that includes Street Ercole I d’Este (know as "degli Angeli" long ago) that leads to the ring that closed the daunting, splendid walls in ancient times.

The city symbols are the Castello Estense (Este Castle), begun in 1385 as a fort and completed in the 16th Century astride the two areas above, an architectural treasure with its Medieval Tower of Lions, subterranean dungeons, gothic chambers on the ground floor, and spacious halls with frescoes by Bastianino, Girolamo da Carpi and the Filippi father and sons (16th Cent. Game Room); Palazzo dei Diamanti presents an interrupted geometric facade of stone worked to diamond shape.

Ferrara can be explored by simply strolling through its streets, the actual annals of Renaissance time and culture, that amply suggest the city glorious past even today.
History stands on every corner, in its sumptuous palaces and winding Medieval alleys, and comes alive once again in the colours and music of the annual pageant of Palio di San Giorgio.

A truly special atmosphere reigns in the city center, where the rhythm of life is cadenced by the passing of hundreds of bicycles amidst the shores and coffee shops.

>> up

The Abbey of Pomposa is a complex of buildings that forms one of the most illustrious Benedictine Monasteries of the Middle Ages: the Basilica, the Refectory, the Chapter Room and the Court form the Abbey heart. The majestic Bell-tower was added in later epoch.

The Benedictine friars founded the Abbey in the 7th Century a.C, and by the Year 1000, the Abbey enjoyed wide prestige in the region and the Abbot was held in great consideration. The Benedictine monks remained until the start of the 16th Century, when the entire monastic family moved to Ferrara. The Abbey passed into private hands and was dedicated to agriculture before being declared a National Monument in the previous century.

The Abbey has hosted many numerous guests over the centuries, from Barbarossa to Dante Alighieri. Constructed over the years in a mixture of Romanic and Byzantine styles, its treasures include masterpieces of both the Ferrarese and Bologna Schools of art.

.

>> up

The Castello Estense della Mesola (Mesola Este Castle) was built in the latter half of the 16th Century at the behest of Last Duke of Ferrara, Alfonso II, in honour of his third wife, Margherita Gonzaga. Final residential "pearl" occupied by the Nobles Estensi, the Castle is distinguished by an austere elegance. Located at the center of an immense royal game reserve, the Castle was once protected by a 12-kilometer ring of walls, not a stone of which remains today. Its annex structures set in semi-circle around the Castle have survived, and now serve as characteristic shops and restaurants today.
The Castle houses the Environmental Education Center and the Library, and often provides the setting for special exhibitions around the year.

>> up

The Bosco della Mesola
The 1058-hectar Gran Bosco della Mesola, also called Boscone, represents the widest pinewood area in the province of Ferrara and also the most significant from the naturalistic point of view: the most prominent example of “ Coastal Plane Thermophilic Woods”, proof of the ancient forests vegetating in old times along the Adriatic coastline, probably grown in the High Middle Ages on the dune curbs formed by the Po of Goro and the Po of Volano.
Because of its high vegetal importance, which presents both termophilic species, typical of the Mediterranean climate, and hygro-mesophilic species, but most of all for the variety and peculiarity of its fauna: first of all the population of the indigenous bucks (the last group of the ancient bucks of the Padania region), the Bosco della Mesola has been Natural Park since 1977.
Visits are allowed within a public area of 100 hectares, where tourists shall choose the best tour among those advised, since they have various time and miles coverage.
Tourist, having a basic country-excursion equipment shall hike or bike along the inner paths. Picnics are allowed within the Park area. Visits shall last as long as tourists want within the opening hours of the Park, that is from 8.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m during Fall and Winter, and from 8.00 a.m. to 6 a.m. during Spring and Summer.
Special Visits guided by the State Rangers in the areas not allowed to the public (Corte Ducale, Stradone Maestro, Taglio della Falce, Parco delle Duchesse, Stradone di Mezzogiorno), are organized during Easter Mondays, 25th April and 1st May.
In addition, during the opening period, open-top-car guided tours shall be arranged to visit the entire area of the woods . For more information ask the Tourist Info Office in Mesola (tel. 0533/993358) which also has naturalistic guides.

>> up

The Small Valleys of Ostellato
The Small Valleys of Ostellato are just halfway between Ferrara and the sea. It is a humid area of extraordinary importance, remains of the Mezzano. The valleys, appointed as “Faunal Protection Oasis” by the Provincial Administration in Ferrara, are managed by the Sorgeva Coop which are in charge of developing tourism and the productive and environmental activities.
They cover 300 hectares of the territory, and spread between two canals which are their natural borderlines, a strip of water and land which pushes toward Comacchio and its valleys.

>> up

Thanks to strategic location, Ravenna, a small city with a naval base on the Adriatic coast defended against attack from land by its lagoon, became the capital of the Western Roman Empire and for this reason lived a period of extraordinary artistic flourishing together with the birth of Christian iconography in the 5th Century and its courtly art made it direct descendent of Rome. Its artistic splendour attracted many nobles, and above all, many different cultures that made her a monumental city of international fame now protected as a World Heritage.
Many religious buildings hold excellent works of Oriental beauty and mystique (exquisite mosaic work in golf leaf and lapislazuli …), the most famous being the Basilica Ursiana with its five naves erected beneath the Vescovo Orso Bishopric, the Basilica of St. John the Evangelist (425), the Church of Santa Croce and the Mausoleum of Galla Placida.

One of the most striking expressions of renewed Imperial Byzantine grace and grandeur is the Basilica di S. Vitale, with its precious marbles, mosaic-work depicting the Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora, classically elegant capitals etc. Ravenna reached her maximum splendour in the period following the re-conquest of Italy by Justinian, Emperor of the East.
S. Apollinare in Classe, consecrated in 549, offers the fortunate visitor a glittering, gem-studded cross set above in the starry sky of the apse, and the brilliant mosaic-work composing the Transfiguration of Christ on Monte Tabor that gives the astonishing effect of embroidered fabric and carpet.

>> up