3 Best Sights in Emilia–Romagna, Italy

With one ticket, you can visit the Pilotta museums. The Galleria Nazionale contains masterpieces by Correggio, Leonardo da Vinci, and Bronzino. The Baroque Teatro Farnese, built in 1617–18, is made entirely of wood—though largely destroyed in a 1944 Allied bombing raid, it's been flawlessly restored. In the Archeological Museum see Etruscan, Roman, and Egyptian artifacts; the Palatina Library houses more than 500 religious manuscripts; and the Bodoniano museum covers printmaking.

Housed in a 1930s palazzo and displaying over 400 mainly Italian modern works amassed largely by collector Giuseppe Ricci Oddi (1868–1936), this gallery hit worldwide headlines for the mysterious and labyrinthine saga surrounding centerpiece painting Portrait of a Lady by Gustav Klimt (1862--1918). After viewing the vivacious expressionistic canvas and learning about the theft, forgery and reappearance of the Austrian lady 23 years after her theft in 1997, you can join those who like to speculate over the curious, clandestine turn of events. Not be overshadowed, the luminous paintings and sculptures largely spans Romanticism through Expressionism, with works by De Nittis, Grosso, Pellizza da Volpedo, Larsson and Boccioni.

Bologna's principal art gallery contains many works by the immortals of Italian painting; its prize possession is the Ecstasy of St. Cecilia by Raphael (1483–1520). There's also a beautiful polyptych by Giotto (1267–1337), as well as Madonna with Child and Saints Margaret, Jerome, and Petronius (altarpiece of St. Margaret) by Parmigianino (1503–40); note the rapt eye contact between St. Margaret and the Christ child.