We will be in Emilia-Romagna (base-Bologna) for 4 days at the first of November. I have not decided whether or not to rent a car yet, but are there any "don't miss" towns or sights in Bologna we need to visit?

I can't help but I'm interested in the responses. I hope to visit Emilia-Romagna in the fall of 2010. While we really like traveling by train and bus, what I've figured out is you can get buses from the smaller towns to the major center, you can't get them across the hill country east and west south of the major cities... Modena and Bologna for example.

Look into these: Modena, Parma, Ferrara and Ravenna (superb mosaics!).

As for buses, they tend to radiate out from provincial capitals - provinces are subdivisions of regions, e.g., Emilia Romagna is a region, Ferrara is a city and a province.

Base at Bologna, it is very convenient to visit towns and cities around by trains, as they are cheap and frequent, as my experience this year.

Thanks!