Ferrara and Modena: 1995 and 1997 on the UNESCO list

Ferrara and Modena are two separate UNESCO sites in Emilia-Romagna: Ferrara's Renaissance city with the Po delta since 1995, and Modena's cathedral, Torre Civica and Piazza Grande since 1997, where the Ghirlandina tower is climbed only by booking.

Ferrara: 46,712 hectares, city and delta

Ferrara's site, "Ferrara, City of the Renaissance, and its Po Delta", covers 46,712¹ hectares with a buffer zone of 117,649¹. It takes in the historic center, the walls, the Castello Estense, the Cathedral of San Giorgio and the reclaimed lands of the delta.

It was inscribed in 1995 and extended in 1999 to add the delta, which is why the area is so large for a city listing. Much of that area is reclaimed delta land, not streets.

The urban core of the argument is the Addizione Erculea, Biagio Rossetti's expansion of the city, which is why Ferrara is considered the first Renaissance city laid out to an overall plan.

Modena: the Ghirlandina, 89.32 meters, 25 per turn

The Ghirlandina is 89.32² meters high and is climbed only by booking, in turns every 45 minutes with a maximum of 25 people, for €6 full and €4 reduced (2026).

It opens 9:30 am to 7 pm from April to September and 9:30 am to 6 pm from October to March. The number of steps is not published on the official page, so it isn't given here.

Twenty-five people every 45 minutes is a small allocation for a tower on a main square, so the booking is the first thing to arrange, not the last.

Seven UNESCO sites in one region

Emilia-Romagna has 7 UNESCO sites (2026). Ferrara and Modena are two. The others are the early Christian monuments of Ravenna, the porticoes of Bologna, the evaporite karst caves of the northern Apennines, the theater system of central Italy, and the ancient beech forests shared with six other regions.

The two on this page make a contrast rather than a repeat: a whole Renaissance city with its delta in one, a single square with its cathedral and tower in the other. The mosaics are at Ravenna and the porticoes at Bologna.

In Modena, the Museo Enzo Ferrari opens daily

The Museo Enzo Ferrari in Modena is a 5,000⁴-square-meter aluminum building built around Enzo Ferrari's birthplace, and it opens every day (2026).

Hours are 9:30 am to 7 pm in April, May, September and October, 9 am to 7 pm from June to August, and 9:30 am to 6 pm from November to March. It closes only on December 25 and January 1.

It is in the city, unlike the Museo Ferrari, which is a separate site in Maranello about half an hour's drive away. Both are covered at Motor Valley museums, and the region at Emilia-Romagna and UNESCO sites in Emilia-Romagna.

↑ Contents