Emilia

I have passed through this region many times on my way to other destinations, and on some occasions I have visited parts of it as a stop towards other places or on dedicated tours. The Apennine part of Emilia borders Tuscany, and that is why on some occasions it has been an appendage to mountain stays at Abetone (see Pistoia and Province) during the "white weeks". In fact, a step from Abetone at a place called Dogana Nuova, where as a boy I even slept in a hotel, you enter Emilia, and from here in a few kilometres you reach the characteristic mountain villages of Fiumalbo and Pievepelago. The latter I once also reached from the Garfagnana (see the relevant itinerary), along the Passo delle Radici road and passing through Sant'Anna Pelago. At Pievepelago I have been to the Tennis Federation Centre where my daughter trained in summer.

Always in the Emilian Apennines I have been several times to Porretta Terme: as a child for treatment, as a boy to see again these places linked to my childhood, and as an adult once in passing and twice more to accompany my mother to the baths. When I came here with my mother for the cures we stayed in a hotel in a little foothill village called Castelluccio, and from there we organised short excursions, since Porretta offered nothing special apart from the modern spa establishment, a couple of cinemas and a small historic centre split by a stream. One of the most interesting itineraries involved passing through Lizzano in Belvedere and Vidiciatico to visit the Sanctuary of the Madonna dell'Acero and the nearby waterfalls, reached by a path.

Another excursion was to Lake Scaffaiolo, a typical high-mountain stretch of water, and to the Sanctuary of the Madonna del Faggio, reachable directly from Castelluccio, and along the valley-floor road at Riola, where there is a futuristic church designed by the famous Finnish architect Alvar Aalto and, on a hill, a castle you can visit but at the time rather neglected. Going still further down the valley you come to Marzabotto, with archaeological remains and the memory of the massacre perpetrated by the Nazis during the Second World War. Still in the Apennine area, but on quite another side, is Serramazzoni, where I went for work as a reporter at a mountain-bike race, and Borgo Taro, a stopping point on a short break when I was doing my military service in nearby Lunigiana, in Tuscany.

So much for the Apennines — and the rest of Emilia? Piacenza offers a large central square that is a pleasure to visit, while in its province I drove up the road to Bobbio, stopping for work reasons at Rivergaro. Bobbio is an ancient foothill town with a bishop's palace and a couple of fine churches, linked to the memory of St Columbanus and St Anthony Gianelli. Following the road you can cross the Apennine watershed and enter Liguria; returning towards Piacenza you can instead stop at Grazzano Visconti, a scenographic medieval village with shops and restaurants in keeping with the period. Nearby you can take another dip into a slightly less artificial Middle Ages at Castell'Arquato, where there is a hamlet so characteristic and almost untouched that it has often been used to shoot films set in that era. The hamlet is dominated by a castle well worth visiting inside too.

The province of Piacenza has been the destination of visits in recent years on the occasion of business trips. Parma too is beautiful, with a very elegant historic centre and fine palazzi. In front of the Cathedral stands a characteristic octagonal baptistery, while in the park the Palazzo Ducale today houses the famous Carabinieri of the Ris. I had already been to Parma on a school trip as a boy, but I returned recently to stroll through its elegant streets, passing historic monuments such as the Teatro Regio and visiting the Puppet Museum, one of the few of its kind. In the province I had been several years earlier with some friends to Salsomaggiore Terme to watch the final of the Roller Hockey European Championship. Before the match I had strolled through the town's well-kept public parks, and on the way back I stopped for dinner in nearby Fidenza.

Reggio Emilia, Rubiera and Correggio are instead the towns of the province of Reggio where I have been, all for work reasons and visited without particular enthusiasm. Decidedly more beautiful is Modena, also visited on business trips, on one of which, during the press conference presenting a sporting event, I was received in the Palazzo Ducale. In its province I spent a day at Serramazzoni following a mountain-bike race as a reporter, and I have been a couple of times to Carpi for work. Bologna would deserve more careful attention from me; the two times I have been there (on a school trip as a child and for work in 1989) nonetheless allowed me a stroll through Piazza Maggiore and the climb up one of the two Asinelli towers. In the province, a stop at Crevalcore for work reasons is insufficient to form a judgement. A few times I have used Bologna Airport for flights abroad.

Finally, the province of Ferrara presents two splendid jewels: the capital of the same name and the Abbey of Pomposa. Ferrara is dominated by its towered castle surrounded by a moat, once the residence of the Este family; it also has a very fine square overlooked by some of the city's most significant monuments, among which the Cathedral façade stands out. In the province, the Abbey of Pomposa is an austere building of very ancient origins, on whose inner walls the frescoes tell us of its glorious past. A stop at Pomposa enriches the spirit and the culture. I have visited the Ferrara area only in recent years, as an intermediate stop towards other places. For the other provinces of Emilia-Romagna see "Romagna"