Region

Emilia-Romagna

Emilia-Romagna's 45 towns in our catalogue split across the Parma, Rimini, and Forlì-Cesena provinces; 21 carry the Bandiera Arancione designation.

45 towns · highest: Sestola 1,020m · smallest: Premilcuore 692 people

45 of 45 towns

45 of 45 towns

Bagnara di Romagna
Province: Ravenna
A 22-meter plain commune in the Bassa Romagna, the only fully preserved medieval castrum surviving in the Romagna lowlands.
Bagno di Romagna
Province: Forlì-Cesena
A 491-meter thermal town at the head of the Savio valley, drawing on springs that have run at 47 degrees since Roman times.
Bertinoro
Province: Forlì-Cesena
A 254-meter Romagna-hill borgo above the Via Emilia, with a twelve-ring hospitality column from 1300 and the slopes that grow Albana DOCG.
Bobbio
Province: Piacenza
A 272-meter Trebbia-valley town built around an abbey founded in 614, named Borgo dei Borghi by RAI in 2019.
Borgo Val di Taro
Province: Parma
The Cittaslow capital of the upper Taro valley at 411 meters, where the Fungo di Borgotaro IGP porcini has been protected since 1996.
Brisighella
Province: Ravenna
A Lamone-valley borgo at 115 meters under three selenite hills crowned by a fortress, a clock tower, and a sanctuary.
Busseto
Province: Parma
A 40-meter town where Giuseppe Verdi grew up, with a 300-seat opera house in the Rocca he refused to enter.
Canossa
Province: Reggio nell'Emilia
The Reggiano commune holding the ruined castle where an emperor stood three days in the snow to beg forgiveness in 1077.
Castel San Pietro Terme
Province: Bologna
A 75-meter thermal town east of Bologna, its sulphurous waters in use since 1137.
Castell'Arquato
Province: Piacenza
A 224-meter hilltop borgo in the Val d'Arda, kept intact since the tenth century and crowned by Luchino Visconti's 1342 fortress.
Castelvetro di Modena
Province: Modena
A 152-meter hill borgo south of Modena whose checkerboard piazza sits above the slopes that grow Lambrusco Grasparossa.
Castrocaro Terme e Terra del Sole
Province: Forlì-Cesena
A pairing of two towns: a ninth-century fortress on a hill and Cosimo I de' Medici's planned Renaissance garrison town on the plain below, founded 1564.
Cervia
Province: Ravenna
The Adriatic salt town with 827 hectares of working saline, planned in 1697 around a grid of salt workers' houses.
Cesenatico
Province: Forlì-Cesena
An Adriatic fishing port whose canal was redrawn on commission from a Borgia patron, with ten historic sailboats moored as a floating museum.
Collecchio
Province: Parma
A Parma-cintura town on the Via Francigena, known today for a dairy multinational's headquarters and a football club's training ground.
Comacchio
Province: Ferrara
A canal town on thirteen islets, with brackish lagoons that hold three hundred bird species.
Compiano
Province: Parma
A 519-meter walled borgo over the Taro, ruled by the same family for 425 years.
Corniglio
Province: Parma
A 690-meter Parma-Apennine commune inside the Tosco-Emiliano park, with a thirteenth-century Rossi castle and the Lagdei plateau above.
Dozza
Province: Bologna
A 190-meter painted borgo above the Sellustra valley, where contemporary artists have repainted the house walls every two years since 1960.
Faenza
Province: Ravenna
The city that gave its name to faïence, with a tin-glazed maiolica tradition since the fourteenth century and the world ceramics museum since 1908.
Fanano
Province: Modena
A 640-meter stone-working town set among Monte Cimone, Libro Aperto and the upper Frignano peaks.
Ferrara
Province: Ferrara
A Renaissance capital planned on a grid rather than grown by accident, small enough to cross by bicycle in twenty minutes, and ringed by walls that still stand whole.
Fiumalbo
Province: Modena
A 935-meter stone village in the Modenese Apennines on the Tuscan border, at the confluence of two rivers under Monte Cimone.
Fontanellato
Province: Parma
A Parma-plain town built around the Rocca Sanvitale, the moated fortress at its center.
Gualtieri
Province: Reggio nell'Emilia
A right-bank Po commune in the Reggiana lowlands, built around a hundred-meter-square arcaded piazza and the Bentivoglio palace that holds the Ligabue collection.
Imola
Province: Bologna
Bologna's Romagna twin — a medieval brick centro anchored by the Caterina Sforza-fortified Rocca, with the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari (the Imola F1 circuit) wrapping the Santerno river at the southern edge of town.
Longiano
Province: Forlì-Cesena
A 179-meter Malatesta borgo on the hills between Cesena and Rimini, holding a major twentieth-century art collection inside the family castle.
Montechiarugolo
Province: Parma
A Parmigiano-country borgo on the Enza river, built around a fourteenth-century castle that has stayed in the Marchi family since 1864.
Montefiore Conca
Province: Rimini
A 385-meter Malatesta hilltop above the Conca valley, dominated by a fourteenth-century fortress that was once a summer residence of the lords of Rimini.
Montegridolfo
Province: Rimini
A walled borgo of fewer than a thousand residents on the Romagna-Marche border, held alternately by the Malatesta and the Montefeltro through the fifteenth century.
Parma
Province: Parma
A 57-meter Po-plain capital on the Via Emilia, where Correggio painted the Duomo dome and Parmigiano ages in vaults across the province.
Pennabilli
Province: Rimini
A 629-meter Montefeltro borgo between the Roccione and the Rupe, remade as an open-air museum after 1989.
Portico e San Benedetto
Province: Forlì-Cesena
A three-tier medieval borgo at 309 meters on the Montone river, capital of Florence's Romagna territories from 1386.
Premilcuore
Province: Forlì-Cesena
A 459-meter walled borgo on the Rabbi river, an entry point to the Foreste Casentinesi from the Romagna side.
Ravenna
Province: Ravenna
A 4-meter coastal capital of three successive empires, with eight UNESCO mosaic monuments from the fifth and sixth centuries.
San Giovanni in Marignano
Province: Rimini
A walled Conca-valley borgo, granary of the Malatesta state, where the Notte delle Streghe has marked the summer solstice since 1988.
San Leo
Province: Rimini
A borgo of 2,820 residents built on a vertical 583m limestone outcrop in the Montefeltro, 35 km from Rimini, with a frontier panorama over Romagna and Marche from every wall.
Sant'Agata Feltria
Province: Rimini
A 607-meter Montefeltro borgo crowned by a fortress on a sandstone outcrop, host of the national white truffle fair since 1985.
Santarcangelo di Romagna
Province: Rimini
A Via Emilia hill town on the Marecchia plain, with over 150 tufa caves under the centro and a Malatesta fortress on its summit.
Sasso Marconi
Province: Bologna
A 128-meter pre-Apennine town at the confluence of the Setta and Reno, renamed in 1938 for the radio pioneer whose family estate stands in its Pontecchio frazione.
Sestola
Province: Modena
A 1,020-meter Apennine town in the Frignano, with a Lombard-era castle above and central Italy's largest ski domain on the slopes.
Spilamberto
Province: Modena
A 69-meter Po-plain town on the Via Romea, headquarters of the Consorteria that has certified a DOP product since 1967.
Vernasca
Province: Piacenza
A Val d'Arda commune in the Piacenza Apennines, holding the walled village of Vigoleno and one of the most compact castled borghi in Emilia.
Verucchio
Province: Rimini
A spur over the lower Marecchia valley, cradle of the Villanovan civilization and birthplace of the Malatesta lordship of Romagna.
Vignola
Province: Modena
The cherry-and-castle town on the Panaro at 125 meters, where a fortress and a self-supporting 1500s spiral staircase mark the skyline.

The Sunday letter

The 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip.

Every Sunday we send one letter. The week's town, what is worth eating there, and when to turn up. It is free, and you can leave whenever you like.

Substack sends a confirmation link to your inbox. The signup finishes when it’s clicked.

From elsewhere in Italy

Five more towns to discover