Laura writes:

Ferrara: a town in northern Italy
For those of you who have already visited Rome, Florence or Venice, don’t think that Italy is just this! Here in Ferrara is something for a curious, modern-day traveler: a city not too eager to jump into the future…and not too provincial to deceive you; more than able to surprise instead. Classy and human: a very special cocktail for the new millennium!

Ferrara is a medieval town of 130,000 inhabitants, situated between Bologna and Venice, where everyone goes around on bicycles. Rhythms are easy and slow, but there is a vibrant climate of creativity.

Itinerary 2:

Ferrara
Ferrara is divided in two halves: one medieval and one renaissance.

My plan is to start with a pleasant walk through the city centre, the old medieval part of the town in the southern quarters, between the Este Castle and the beautiful Cathedral, wandering through the narrow lanes of the ancient river harbour‘s area and the former Jewish Ghetto. It's worth noting that in 1492, when the Jews were thrown out of Spain, the Duke of Este invited them to settle in Ferrara. He knew that Jews were a desirable group, that they were literate and that they would help bring prosperity to the city!

Then the next day we can visit the northern quarters, the so called Herculean Addition, realized in high Renaissance era, dating from 1492. This part includes the city walls, which are suitable also for a bike tour, and the Diamanti Palace (which includes the National Gallery and the Modern Art Museums District), and the ancient Jewish Cemetery.

All this obviously includes some pleasant stops for a coffee or a glass of wine in a cozy garden or a characteristic bar, perhaps some shopping for typical food or ceramics and anything might occur in a small town, like getting a sudden invitation from a friend you might meet on the street!

Itinerary 3:

Ferrara is all about stories: its traditions, its culture, its food and art. We can go around, perhaps meet the last artisans of the old shops in the area of the Jewish Ghetto: the barber, the old tailor and the eccentric artist friend. We can also visit the ceramics workshop and the bar hidden between the medieval lanes! We can experience the bakery where bread is still made in the “Ferrarese way”, climb up one of the towers of the Este Castle and have a coffee there or enter a monastery cloister for a moment to discover an atmosphere that is totally different and unexpected…

We can talk about ancient miracles or about the many famous painters who came here, such as Pisanello, Piero della Francesca and Mantegna. Or we can plunge into a more recent Ferrara: the one of its “Fascist twenty years”, from its Art Nouveau architecture to the Rationalism of the early XX century.

Finally we come to the Ferrara of today, with its 100,000 bicycles, its 600-year-old university, its shops, its people…or even its problems, like managing water in an area with overhanging rivers.

There is certainly plenty to discuss: from the ancient Etruscan city of Spina to the misery of the marshes infested by malaria; from the glory of a European capital city in the Renaissance to the Devolution to the Vatican and the decadence of the papal Legation.

On bicycle(s) or on foot, we can also take an imaginary journey through time, rich in atmosphere, to stimulate the interest and imagination of any visitor eager to find alternative paths to the more classical ones!

Ferrara is more than a City of Art in museums. It's also a place where you can feel and enjoy the atmosphere of the past: from the foundation of the city as an outpost of the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna. We can still see the structure of the first fortalice, the so called Castello dei Cortesi, along the semicircular lanes of ancient encampment. We can discover the tracks of the old town: its noble houses and the churches with Byzantine names, and follow the development of the "linear town" which stretched westward, between the natural barrier of the Volano river (the southern branch of the Po) and the original ramparts.