Emilia-Romagna: mosaics and engines

Emilia-Romagna is the region where the two trips people ask for most, Ravenna mosaics and Ferrari factories, already have a combined ticket, and both come with conditions worth reading before you buy.

Ravenna: eight monuments, one ticket for four

Eight buildings from the 5th and 6th centuries make up the early Christian World Heritage listing: Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, San Vitale, the Mausoleum of Theodoric, Sant'Apollinare in Classe, the Archiepiscopal Chapel of Sant'Andrea, the Arian Baptistery and the Neonian Baptistery.

The Ravenna Mosaici ticket covers four of them: San Vitale, Galla Placidia, Sant'Apollinare Nuovo and the Neonian Baptistery. It costs €14.50⁵ full, €11.50⁵ reduced and €2 for ages 6 to 10, free under 6 and for licensed guides. From March 8 to November 2, 2026 the monuments open 9:00 am to 7:00 pm.

Two of the four need a booked time slot: Galla Placidia, which is small and dark and takes a handful of people at a time, and the Neonian Baptistery. Ticket desks are at Sant'Apollinare Nuovo and the Archiepiscopal Museum. Sant'Apollinare in Classe and the Mausoleum of Theodoric sit outside the center and outside the combined ticket.

Two Ferrari museums, one pass, a 48 hour clock

The Musei Ferrari Pass costs €38 for adults from September to May and €42 from June to August, €12 for under 19s traveling with family. It covers two separate museums in two separate towns: the Enzo Ferrari museum in Modena and the Ferrari museum in Maranello.

The condition is the clock. Both visits have to happen within 48 hours of each other, so you can't split them across a long loop. The Modena museum is a 5,000⁷ sq m aluminum shell built around the house where Enzo Ferrari was born, open daily 9:30 am to 7:00 pm in spring and fall, 9:00 am to 7:00 pm in summer, 9:30 am to 6:00 pm from November to March, closed December 25 and January 1.

The Lamborghini museum at Sant'Agata Bolognese is separate. It opens 9:30 am to 6:00 pm with last entry at 5:00 pm from October 1 to April 30, and 9:30 am to 7:00 pm with last entry at 6:00 pm from May 2 to September 30, and it's the departure point for the production line tours.

Modena, where the tower needs booking and the cathedral does not

The Ghirlandina is 89.32⁹ m tall and has been part of the World Heritage listing with the cathedral and Piazza Grande since 1997. You can't walk up on impulse: entry runs in booked groups of no more than 25 people every 45 minutes, €6 full and €4 reduced.

Parmigiano Reggiano has been in the EU register since June 21, 1996 and is the Italian food denomination with the largest retail turnover, €3.96³ billion in 2025. Its production area starts here, which is why dairy visits are sold as a Modena day trip rather than a Parma one.

Ferrara, the delta, and how the region connects

The Ferrara listing, inscribed in 1995, isn't a single old town. It covers 46,712¹⁰ hectares with a buffer zone of 117,649¹⁰, taking in the walls, the Este castle, the cathedral of San Giorgio and the reclaimed land of the Po delta. Ferrara is usually described as the first city planned as a whole in the Renaissance, through the Addizione Erculea.

Bologna Marconi handled 11,138,013¹¹ passengers in 2025, and the fastest direct high speed train from Milan reaches Bologna in one hour and four minutes. The region recorded 40,782,820¹ overnight stays in 2024, 8.75%¹ of the Italian total, a figure carried largely by the Adriatic beach strip rather than by the art towns. The seven World Heritage listings are set out at UNESCO sites in Emilia-Romagna.

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