Ferrara

Ferrara is the Renaissance dreamed in brick: a World Heritage city where the Este dukes reshaped a medieval town into one of Europe’s first planned districts, wrapped in nine kilometres of intact walls you can walk or ride. Moated castle, frescoed palaces, quiet bicycles and a deep Jewish history make it unlike anywhere else in Emilia-Romagna.

Why visit

Ferrara holds a distinction few Italian cities can claim: UNESCO inscribed “Ferrara, City of the Renaissance, and its Po Delta” on the World Heritage list in 1995, precisely because the city itself — not a single monument — is the artwork. Under the Este dynasty, and above all in the great urban expansion of 1492 designed by Biagio Rossetti, medieval lanes and Renaissance avenues were woven into a single coherent plan, one of the earliest examples of modern town planning in Europe. The result today is a city that feels composed: a moated brick castle at its heart, a cathedral square that has kept its medieval face, a quarter of diamond-cut stone palaces opening onto wide, tree-lined streets where bicycles outnumber cars. Add the Salone dei Mesi frescoes, a national gallery of Ferrarese painting, and one of the oldest continuous Jewish presences in Italy, and Ferrara becomes essential rather than optional.

Character and history

The Este family rose to power in the 13th century and ruled Ferrara until 1598, when the line died out and the city passed to the Papal States. Their court became one of the brilliant centres of the Italian Renaissance: the poets Ariosto and Tasso wrote here, and painters such as Cosimo Tura, Francesco del Cossa and Dosso Dossi forged a school of unsettling, luminous originality. Power had a hard edge too. The Castello Estense was begun in 1385 after a popular revolt convinced Niccolò II d’Este that a fortress next to the palace would be prudent; its towers and moat still anchor the centre. The walls, raised mostly between 1492 and 1520, never fell to a siege and were never swallowed by sprawl, so they now form a green ring around the city, a park of ramparts and gates. Ferrara’s Jewish community dates to the Middle Ages; the ghetto was instituted in 1627 and endured until the 19th century, and the city’s memory of that history is carried today by museums and restored synagogues. Giorgio Bassani and Michelangelo Antonioni both drew on this city; Savonarola was born here.

What to see

Begin at the Estense Castle, where the ducal apartments, kitchens and prisons tell the story of the family that shaped the city; the ticket office inside also serves as the main tourist information point. Next door stands the 12th-century Ferrara Cathedral, its marble porch crowded with carved scenes, with the Cathedral Museum nearby. On the elegant Corso Ercole I d’Este, the Palazzo dei Diamanti — its facade a block-work of more than eight thousand diamond-point stones — contains the National Picture Gallery of Ferrara, the essential introduction to the Ferrarese school, and hosts major international exhibitions. Across town, Palazzo Schifanoia, an Este pleasure palace, shelters the Salone dei Mesi, the zodiac-cycle frescoes by Francesco del Cossa and Ercole de’ Roberti that are among the masterpieces of 15th-century painting. The Renaissance City Walls of Ferrara deserve an hour of anyone’s itinerary, ideally by bicycle. For a deeper thread, visit the National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah (MEIS), opened in December 2017, which narrates over two thousand years of Jewish life in Italy, and the Synagogues and Jewish Museum of Ferrara in the old ghetto streets. Lovers of quieter places will find Casa Romei Museum and the House of Ludovico Ariosto reward a slow afternoon.

How to experience

Ferrara is best experienced the way locals live it: on two wheels. Bikes are the natural pace of the flat city, and the circuit of the walls makes a loop of green and brick that no other Italian centre can match. Mornings suit museums — the castle and the picture gallery — while late afternoon belongs to wandering the medieval quarter, the Via delle Voli overhead arches, and an aperitivo near the cathedral. If you visit during the Palio di San Giorgio in May or the Buskers Festival in August, the city stages itself in period costume and street performance. Take a day for the Po Delta: the wetlands south of the city are part of the same World Heritage inscription, and Comacchio makes the natural base for lagoons, eels and flamingos.

Practical planning

Ferrara sits in the Po plain about forty-five kilometres northeast of Bologna, with frequent direct trains from Bologna, Ravenna and Padua; the station is a fifteen-minute walk from the castle. The centre is flat and compact — a bicycle rental shop waits on the station square and many hotels lend bikes to guests. Museums keep different closing days, typically including Mondays, and opening arrangements vary with the season and exhibition calendar, so confirm on the castle and civic museum websites before travelling. The city bakes in July and can fog in winter; May, June and September offer the most pleasant light. Food to seek out: cappellacci di zucca, salama da sugo, and the wines of the Bosco-Eliceo hills. One caution for drivers: much of the centre is a restricted traffic zone.

Nearby places

Comacchio, half an hour away across the delta, is the obvious companion: a little Venice of canals and bridges at the edge of the lagoons. Ravenna’s mosaics lie within easy reach by rail, and Bologna connects in under forty minutes.