This program is dedicated to Emilia Romagna, a region crossed by the Po river and the Apennines, and bathed by the Adriatic. This fertile land has a lot to offer, breathtaking scenery, artistic treasures and majestic monuments. Our tour guide will accompany you in a unique experience, to discover Ravenna capital of the mosaic, Ferrara, Renaissance city, Modena with its Romanesque architecture and Langhirano, homeland of Parma ham. This trip will be an enchantment for your eyes but also for your taste buds. Its gastronomy is certainly the one that attracts the greatest number of people. Tortellini pasta, Parma ham, Parmesan and Modena balsamic vinegar are known all over the world. You will enjoy exquisite dishes with these local products and many more in gourmet restaurants, wineries and farms.

RAVENNA, CAPITAL OF MOSAICS. We will arrive in Ravenna and meet with our Tour Leader to discover the city of mosaics. We will penetrate through its treasures gathered amongst early Christian and Byzantine monuments, where the works of art of the creative genius of mankind synthesizes the artistic and cultural meeting of the East with the West. Our guide will show us mosaic decorations that do not find comparison elsewhere. Starting from the Mausoleum of Galla Placida we will continue to the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, Sant’Apollinare in Classe and the baptistery of the Arians. We will admire its mosaic dome with the Baptism of Christ. After visiting the Archbishop’s Chapel with a collection of antiariani mosaics, we will conclude our tour with the Mausoleum of Teodorico of 520 A.C. and the Basilica of San Vitale, the peak of early Christian art with the representation of Teodora and her maids. Lunch will be at a restaurant with typical food from Romagna and the afternoon will be dedicated to an archaeological discovery underneath the Church of Sant’Eufemia and the Collection of Dolls, Toys and Puppets. You will then accomodate in reserved rooms at the hotel. Dinner and overnight stay.

FERRARA, CITY OF RENAISSANCE. After breakfast we will leave for Ferrara, home of great artists such as Piero Della Francesca, Jacopo Bellini and Andrea Mantegna. We will find ourselves in the city that in the thirteen century became one of the most important river ports on the Delta of the Po and reached its maximum splendour with Ercole d’Este, surrounded by renaissance palaces, where the architect Biagio Rossetti lavished his creativity to represent the power of the Este family. We will visit the Palace of Diamonds and the Cathedral of San Giorgio. We will enter in the Delizie, the places of recreation of the court where, between banquets and hunting, the management of riches and affairs took place. Lunch will take place in a restaurant with ferrarese style macaroni and sauce salami with potato puree. The afternoon will be dedicated to the discovery of further cultural atmospheres and places filmed by Michelangelo Antonini, described by Barzani, not forgetting the pictorial glances of De Chirico. Dinner and overnight stay in the hotel.

MODENA, CENTRE OF ROMANIC ARCHITECTURE. After breakfast we will go on an excursion to Modena to follow an artistic itinerary that collects the Romanic architectural testimony, recognised by the UNESCO heritage. Before entering the city, we will stop at the Benedictine Abbey of Nanantole, founded in 752 by the Lombard Anselmo. We will descend into its wonderful crypt supported by sixty columns, it is the biggest in Europe. Here we will find ourselves in a wonderful and fascinating place, where people such as Charlemagne, Ferderico Barbarossa and Matilde of Canossa wrote history. Walking through the historic city centre of Modena, under its porches between boutiques and antiques shops, we will reach the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta and San Geminiano with works of relevance on the façade by the sculpturer Wiligelmo of the XI century. The architect Lafranco designed its stylistic solutions that preserve the stories of the Bible in a book engraved in stone. We will enter in the cathedral between two fantastic column-bearing lions, perceiving all their symbolic force in guarding the sacred place and Christ, they are defined as “the lions of the tribe of Judas” in medieval iconography. We will stop for lunch at a typical Emilian tavern and we will visit the Civic Tower, about eighty-eight metres tall, known as the Ghirlandina. We will go through its door and feel as if we are in a watchtower of the thirteenth century as it used to be a surveillance garrison of the coffers of the city. In Piazza Grande we will find the Palazzo del Comune where, amongst halls with pictorial decorations, tapestries and coffered wood ceilings, we will feel wrapped in the historic atmosphere of Modena. We won’t miss the Bucket, the historic trophy of the battle of Zeppolino that the people of Modena took from a well in Bologna and still jealously preserve as a memory of the victory. Dinner will be in a vinegar farm to taste tortelloni and other dishes typical of the tradition with their famous balsamic vinegar. Overnight stay in the hotel.

LANGHIRANO, HOMELAND OF THE PARMA HAM. Breakfast and departure for Langhirano, the homeland of the famous ham of the Val Parma. We will discover the culture and the production of this excellent Italian gastronomy with a tasting in a ham factory under the shade of the Medieval Castel of Torrechiara that, with its halls, was used as a location for historical films. After a toast in a winery of Parma’s Hills we will be ready for the departure.

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