Ferrara: A Majestic Medieval & Renaissance Gem

Ruled for many centuries by the d'Este family, the dynasty left a permanent mark on Ferrara, one of regions greatest walled towns. The Este family ruled Ferrara from 1208 to 1598, constructing many of the monuments we see today. Under the Estes, Ferrara became a center of the arts, a city where Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Titian, and Petrarch, among others, spent time under their patronage. The noble family took control of the town under Nicolo II in the late 13th-century, holding power until 1598, when the family was forced by the papacy to move to Modena.

Leonello d'Este, Lord of Ferrara by Pisanello 

Ferrara's 12th-century Duomo is a spectacular Romanesque-Gothic hybrid with a gorgeous soaring interior and featuring elaborate reliefs on the exterior depicting scenes from the Last Judgement. Located in the heart of the city, on Piazza Cathedrale, and overlooking Ferrara’s main marketplace, the historical centre of Ferrara is UNESCO’s World Heritage Site. An historical jewel, Ferrara is an extraordinary example of an intact Renaissance urban plan, with beautifully preserved medieval and Renaissance quarters. Under Ercole I, Ferrara was rebuilt, creating one of Europe's finest Renaissance cities.

Ferrara's Romanesque Cathedral

Exterior detail

Interior of the Ferrara Duomo during Mass

A small family vignette in the Duomo

Exterior detail of a lion outside Ferrara's Duomo

Palazzo Municipale with its gorgeous archway to Piazza Municipale

Statue of Ercole I in the main square

A family outside the Duomo on Piazza Cathedrale, 

with the market in the background

A pampered puppy and two Farranese chatting outside the Duomo 

and the Weekend Farmer's Market

Ferrara's outdoor Market beside the Duomo

My friendly Grissini guy at the Ferrara Market

We bought three kinds of Grissini but the Finocchio, or fennel flavoured one, was the tastiest

Cured meats, dried sausage and prosciutto were on display at one stall

Traditional Italian culinary confections were also displayed in their glory at the market

One of the most spectacular buildings in Ferrara is the monumental Castello Estense. With its moats, towers and battlements, the castle was the Este family's dynastic seat, and looms menacingly over Ferrara's town centre. During their time, the d'Este family presided over one of Europe's leading courts, but combined their roles as enlightened Renaissance patrons with blood-crazed despots. Nicolo III, for example, had his wife and lover brutally murdered, and Alfonso I married Lucrezia Borgia, descendant of one of Italy's most notorious families, while Ercole I attempted to poison a nephew who plotted to overthrow him, and eventually had him executed. 

The medieval Castello Estense in Ferrara, surrounded by a moat and 3 draw-bridges

One of the Castello Estense drawbridge entrances

A medieval well in the castle's interior courtyard

A castle that was meant to frighten the Ferranese into submission, 

it was also a sumptuous home for the Este dynasty

A dank dungeon in the basement of Castello Estense

If a prisoner was lucky, he might get a small window

Jewish families were well established in Ferrara as early at the 1380s, giving form to one of the liveliest Jewish communities in Western Europe. Distressingly, Ferrara's maze of twisting cobblestone streets in the ghetto witnessed the persecution of its Jews once fascist Italy was officially at war with Nazi Germany in October 1943, a tragedy that was documented in Giorgio Bassani's semiautobiographical book and Vittorio De Sica's film, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis.

Vittorio De Sica's film The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

The paramount feature of the completely flat landscape of the province of Ferrara is water. To the north is the river Po, to the south the river Reno, to the east the Adriatic Sea and in between a large fertile plain, once nearly completely submerged. Traditional cooking from Ferrara draws inspiration from this outstanding combination of rivers, land and the sea. Its cuisine is a great combination of noble and popular culinary customs. In this city, even bread is special, unmistakable in its shape and known as the "coppia ferrarese". It is protected by the IGP status. Highlights of Ferrara cuisine are eels and salama da sugo, a special dressed-pork product of Renaissance origin. We made a bee-line for one of Ferrara's finer restaurants, L'Ocan Giuliva, known for its refined local cuisine.

L'Oca Giuliva, tucked away in Ferrara's medieval quarter

The sophisticated and modern interior with beautiful market vegetables 

featured on each table

Coppia ferrarese, the braided bread of Ferrara

The coppia ferrarese, Ferrara's famous local bread, is described as "that divine piece of bread made of two rolls, tied like a ribbon in the middle, each with its ends twisted, forming a fan with four points. It's the best bread in the world." 

A bottle of aqua frizzante to start our meal

A delicious Sangiovese from Emilia-Romagna

The menu at L'oca Giuliva

An amuse-bouce of Zuppa di Ceci, a local chickpea soup

Cappelacci di Zucca ai Ragu

Zuppa di Fagiole e Maltaglioti

Faraona al Forno, Roasted Guinea Hen with a mustard and honey sauce

Salome da Sugo with mashed potato

For over five centuries, Salama da sugo, a pork sausage, has been the hallmark of the salumerie in the city of Ferrara. It has a strong, yet elegant flavour, which sets it apart from all other Italian salumi. The cuisine of Ferrara, once ruled by the House of Este, is quite different than the rest of the regional cuisines of Emilia Romagna and the Salama da sugo is a dish that recalls the feasts of the Renaissance courts. It's made with pork neck, pork belly, neck fat, liver, and tongue. The meat is ground and seasoned with salt, pepper and red wine, as well as cloves and cinnamon. It's usually served on a bed of mashed potatoes, puréed pumpkin or with Coppia ferrarese, the braided bread of Ferrara.

Macchiato e biscotti

Ferranese biscotti

Among Ferrara's fresh pastas are cappellacci, tortelli di zucca and pasticcio di maccheroni; other stars in the kitchen are mussels, clams, oysters and frogs. The province also produces an abundance of vegetable and fruit including the asparagus of Mesola, the garlic of Voghiera, pears, rice and pumpkins, the strawberries and water melons of Ferrara, which are the best in the world. To end the meal, pampepato, mandorlini del ponte, topino of Comacchio and the ricciolina or tagliatelle cake are all regional favourites, but after a rich a delicious meal, a macchiato and biscotti were the perfect finish to a fine Ferranese meal.

Comacchio: 'Little Venice' on the Po River Delta

The Po River Delta, declared a Unesco Heritage site thanks to its natural ecosystem, is located between the provinces of Ferrara and Ravenna, and is the largest nature reserve in Emilia-Romagna. A spectacular unspoilt and protected natural environment of wetlands, agricultural fields, woods and forests, the Delta offers the ideal habitat for an incredible variety of fish, including eels, sea bass, wetland prawns, water birds and even flamingos. Just inland from the many beach resorts on the Adriatic coast, and nestled within the Po Delta Nature Preserve, is the small town of Comacchio, which used to be completely surrounded by water, earning it the sobriquet - "Little Venice."

The bridge to Palazzo Bellini, the Old Hospital of St. Camillo

One of those wonderful gems that you don’t read much about in guidebooks, Comocchia is a tiny fishing town built on 13 islands, with a culture deeply tied to the land and the sea. Comacchio is surrounded by canals, ponds and the Po River Delta, all connected by a series of beautiful bike paths, hiking trails and handful of picturesque waterside restaurants. Comacchio is a very sleepy and untouristy town. There's virtually no traffic, as the canals make road travel just about impossible, crossed only by a series of charming narrow stepped bridges.

A narrow stepped bridge over one of Comacchio's network of canals, 

earned the town the nickname, "Little Venice"

A picturesque canal with a local fishing boat

It's not hard to see why Comacchio is called 'little Venice'

Bicycle rental shops provide a popular way to explore Comacchio and the small roads that traverse the Po River Delta system

After the Estense era in Romagna, Comacchio became part of the Papal States, and in the 17th century they contributed to its urban rebirth with buildings, churches, and bridges including the town's famous Trepponti Bridge. To this day, Commachio's character is defined by water, a network of canals which supplant the roads, bridges connecting quarters, and terraces of houses that conceal their 'androni', the long corridors that lead to their interior courtyards.

One of the small hidden residential canals in Comacchio

Small bridges connects the quaint streets of tiny Comochio

Comacchio's more popular restaurants all serve their regional specialty - eel

Waterside cobblestone paths thread throughout Comocchio

An inviting doorway along one of Comocchio's back streets

The famous Treponti Bridge that spans the intersection of five canals

One of the small red brick towers on top of the Treponti Bridge

Built in 1634, Treponti Bridge is the symbol of Comacchio, a beautiful bridge that spans the intersection of five canals. It has five flights of steps and a couple of small towers and is a great place to relax before heading off for a meal at one one of Comacchio's picturesque waterside restaurants, and enjoying a dish of grilled eel, the towns famous specialty, one of the most important eel-producing regions of Italy. 

Flamingos are one of the common wetland birds of the Po region

Tasty but uniquely unattractive, eel is the celebrated catch of Commachio

The eel has found its natural habitat in the wetland marshes of Comacchio, here it can live and reproduce. There are 48 different eel dishes that range from a delicate risotto to the grill where the eel releases all that intense flavor that make it a gastronomical rite that is difficult to resist. For the first two weekends of October every year, Comacchio celebrates their annual Eel Festival, Sagra dell’Anguilla. The main feature of this event is the chance to sample the delicious recipes prepared, with eel and other fish caught locally, by the fishermen themselves, as well as taking guided visits around historical centre of Comacchio aboard the traditional boats called “batane.”  

On a chilly March afternoon, a brave and determined Italian family 

rented a 'batane' for a tour of Comacchio's canal system

The town of Camocchio even reached 'silver screen' status when Sophia Loren played a worker in an eel factory in the film La Donna del Fiume – or the Woman of the River. The film shows Sophia at the height of her beauty proudly displaying a can of pickled Camocchio eels!

Sophia Loren played a worker in a Comacchio eel factory 

in the film La Donna del Fiume

An original poster for La Donna del Fiume 

Just a few miles east of Comacchio, along the shore of the Adriatic, is the thriving fishing community of Porto Garibaldi. A popular destination for tourists in the summertime because of the area's lidos, or beaches, the town is equally well known for it's avenue of fish shops, or pescheria, selling the freshest and most spectacular selection of local fish and seafood. We came home with two dozen enormous mantis shrimp for just over 6 euros, unheard of in North America. Sautéed with a little olive oil and garlic over a bed of fresh tagliatelle, the notion of 'La Dolce Vita' has never seemed closer to home.

Port Garibaldi, which lies just east of Camocchio on the Adriatic, has an avenue 

of fabulous fish shops selling the most spectacularly fresh seafood

Gorgeous fresh scallops with the roe still attached

Local Comacchio prawns look a little odd, but are sweet and delicious

Local fisherman still farm the inland tributaries of the Po River

Traditional fishing nets, used since Roman times, are still used along the canals 

of the Po River delta, to catch local fish and seafood

Larger fishing trawlers are also used to harvest the regions rich waters