Emilia-Romagna and area - 2 weeks
 

We will be traveling to Emilia-Romagna (and neighboring areas) for 2 weeks in the middle of November (15 nights total).


We will be flying roundtrip through MXP.


We will have a rental car from landing through takeoff.


The major cities of interest (could be a base or day trip, no particular order): Bologna, Parma, Mantova, Ferrara, Modena, Verona.


The minor cities of interest (day trips only, no particular order): Ravenna, Dozza, Faenza, Piacenza, Cremona, Reggio Emilia,


Obviously, I don’t expect to visit all of the cities/towns that I’m interested in.


Our daily interests are mainly food, wine and wandering through a city/town or driving in the countryside. We enjoy architecture (historical buildings, churches, etc.), local shops, bustling piazzas, and parks.


We neither enjoy art in the traditional sense nor museums.


Based on our interests…


Which 3-4 cities would you choose as bases?


Which 2-3 day trips would you consider must-sees?


Thank you.

I could give Modena a miss, enjoyed Ferrara for town life, love Ravenna not only for its world class mosaics (which it sounds like won't interest you) but for its lovely walkable antique center (no cars), its good regional food, its reasonable accommodation, aperol spritz and aperitivi hour on the Piazza del Popolo. If there's any place in the region to check out contemporary and ancient art, this is it.

Bologna is great for food and wine as you no doubt know; check to see if there's a convention in town since that drives up prices of lodging. Capello Rosso is well located lodging but there are other attractive options.

Verona, IMO, is the most attractive town on your lists; in your shoes I would stay there--again, very walkable, good food and wine, two lovely piazzas (del Erbe, in the center, and the area around the Roman arena.

We were in Milan a few Novembers ago and it was quite chilly; be sure to check weather reports.

Remember that cars generally can't go into the antique centers of towns, so you'll need to look for parking. Or, consider trains to go from city center to city center in some cases.

One more thing, if you're up near Verona anyway, Vincenza is not far and might feed your interest in architecture . (and Palladio).