Travel To Emilia Romagna

Throughout history Emilia-Romagna has been one of Italy's most prosperous regions thanks to its geographical position and rich agricultural resources. Its territory consists of a wide plain south of the Po River, and a more mountainous area near the border with Tuscany, with the peak of Monte Cimone. It is not surprising that the region is famed all over the world for its magnificent produce and culinary delights and that many of its cities rank at the top of the national listing for the quality of life, with Modena and Reggio Emilia often competing for the title of Italy's wealthiest city.

Bologna is the capital of the region and one of Italy's most vibrant cities. It is a city with an ancient history and its town centre still has vestiges of the old Roman town as well as the remains of the earliest circle of the medieval walls. It was also known as a city of towers, and although most of them were dismantled at the beginning of the 20 th century, towers are still a distinctive feature of Bologna's historic city centre together with some 40 kilometers of porticos (covered walkways). The city is also home to the world's oldest university, founded in 1088, and since then a major international focus for students and scholars alike. Other important cities are Parma, Ferrara, Modena, Faenza, Fidenza, Reggio Emilia, Ravenna and Rimini.

The region is also a powerhouse of the Italian economy, with famous names like Ducati, Minarelli, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Maserati, Italjet and Malaguti. It is the area that generated the clusters of small and medium-size enterprises that expanded to the whole North East of Italy - a model of economic development that is today studied and copied throughout the world.

Emilia Romagna is also Italy's largest producer of wheat, sugar-beet and fruit and among the important resources is also the breeding of pigs, cattle and poultry, with intensive and modern systems, at the basis of the production of world-famous 'prosciutto' and Parmesan cheese. The food sector is flourishing and Emilia Romagna is the region that holds the record for the highest number of European quality endorsements in Italy. It is alsoi the home of hand-rolled pasta made with eggs, the famous tortellini, tortelloni, lasagne and tagliatelle . Equally famous are the Bolognese meat sauce, or ragù , mortadella, the typical Bolognese cutlet, Parmesan cheese and Parma ham crescentine, tigelle,. The region also produces excellent Balsamic vinegar, produced especially in the province of Modena… as you can see the list is rather long!

The best Emilian wine is perhaps Lambrusco, a sparkling, joyous red made from grapes grown in four DOC zones in the Modena, and Reggio Emilia provinces. In Romagna, wines are made primarily from the native Sangiovese, which is the king of Romagna's wine, Trebbiano and Albana grapes. It is worth noting that Albana di Romagna, became Italy's first DOCG white wine in 1987.