Le Nuvole · Diario

Tag: place guides

  • What to eat in Ferrara: the dishes that tell the city’s story (and where the sea ends)

    What to eat in Ferrara: the dishes that tell the city’s story (and where the sea ends)

    If you're wondering what to eat in Ferrara, know this: it's a city with two cuisines in one. On one side the Este court, the splendour of the Renaissance banquet, the pumpkin and pork of the hinterland. On the other, the water: the lagoons, the Po Delta, eel and oily fish. We at Le Nuvole are on the side of the water, we're a fish trattoria, but in Ferrara land and water have always gone hand in hand, and you can't understand one without the other.

    So, what to eat in Ferrara? Here is our stroll: eight dishes that tell the city's story, from the dukes' table down to where the sea ends. For each one: where it comes from, what it is, and how we like it.

    From the Este court

    Ferrara's cuisine was born in the Renaissance, when at the Este court the banquet was an art form. The “scalco”, the man who organised the banquet, counted for more than the cook. Two names come up in any honest account of this cooking: Cristoforo da Messisbugo, whose recipe book came out in 1549, and Giovan Battista Rossetti, with his Dello Scalco of 1584. Almost all the dishes that follow start there.

    1. Cappellacci di zucca ferraresi

    The origin. Pumpkin-filled pasta, PGI since 2016 (IGP in Italian), and Ferrara's egg pasta was already documented by Messisbugo in 1549. Pumpkin has been grown in these fields since 1570.

    What they are. Fresh egg pasta filled with oven-baked yellow “violina” pumpkin, cheese, breadcrumbs and a pinch of nutmeg. The shape recalls the farmer's straw hat, caplaz in dialect. Something we always say: Ferrara's cappellacci do not contain amaretti biscuits, they are not the tortelli of Mantua.

    How we like them. The classic: melted butter and sage, which lets the pumpkin do the talking. And in the glass, a mature, savoury white from the coast, a Bosco Eliceo: the salinity of the sea against a dish of the land. There, in the very first dish, land and water already talking to each other.

    2. Salama da sugo

    The origin. A PGI cured pork sausage with Renaissance roots: the first mention dates from 1492, and there's a letter from Lorenzo de' Medici to Duke Ercole I d'Este thanking him for the “precious and most welcome” gift.

    What it is. Pork with red wine and spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves), stuffed into a pig's bladder, tied “like a melon” and aged for up to a year. It's steamed, suspended over boiling water, for around five hours. Pure patience.

    How we like it. Hot, sliced, with mashed potato. Alongside, a sparkling Fortana from the Bosco Eliceo: acidity and bubbles cut through the fat and bring balance. It's the most “courtly” dish on the list: substantial, rich, for a special occasion.

    3. Pasticcio di maccheroni alla ferrarese

    The origin. Careful here: it is not PGI. It's the subject of a De.Co. project, a Denominazione Comunale d'Origine, the City of Ferrara's own municipal designation of origin. It descends from the meat “pastelli” of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and the macaroni arrived from the South with the marriage in 1473 between Ercole d'Este and Eleonora d'Aragona, daughter of the King of Naples.

    What it is. A shell of sweet shortcrust pastry filled with macaroni, ragù, béchamel and truffle, dome-shaped and baked in the oven. The beauty is in the contrast: sweet outside, savoury inside. Traditionally it's a Carnival dish.

    How we like it. As a small baroque marvel to be cut open at the table. If you're thinking of the “timballo” in The Leopard, you're not far off: the same idea of pasta hidden under a crust.

    4. Coppia ferrarese

    The origin. The city's PGI bread. Messisbugo mentions it in 1547 as “pane intorto”, twisted bread, in the household accounts for the table of Prince Alfonso II. That twisted bread is today's Coppia.

    What it is. Two twisted arms forming a “fan of four horns”; the tips are called crostini. A crust as dry and crunchy as a breadstick, a soft heart. (There's also a legend linking it to Lucrezia Borgia's curls: charming, but it's legend, not history.)

    How we like it. As trattoria bread, plain and simple. Those crunchy crostini are made to be snapped off and used to mop up a sauce, or to keep a glass company while you wait for the first course.

    And then the sea ends

    Here we head down towards the water, and this is home. The Valli di Comacchio lie in the Po Delta Park, between the Po, the Reno and the Adriatic: reed beds, brackish lagoons, the only delta in Italy, a UNESCO World Heritage Site together with Ferrara. People have always fished and farmed there: eel, sea bass, lagoon shrimp.

    5. Anguilla marinata di Comacchio

    The origin. This one too is not PGI: it's a Presidio Slow Food, a Slow Food Presidium. The marinating method was codified as far back as the Regulations of 1818, and it's still made at the Manifattura dei Marinati in Comacchio, in the “Sala dei Fuochi”, the Hall of Fires, with its twelve great hearths.

    What it is. Wild lagoon eel, spit-roasted and put in brine: for every litre of white wine vinegar, around 70 grams of Cervia salt, a glass of water, a bay leaf. The eel is born in the Sargasso Sea and comes back here to close the circle; it's caught with the lavorieri, the traditional fishing weirs, from October to December. They say that in Comacchio there are forty-eight recipes for eel.

    How we like it. It's the flagship dish of the lagoons, the one closest to us in spirit. Vinegar, salt, woodsmoke: austere and beautiful. Against the vinegar of the marinade we happily go for a Bosco Eliceo Sauvignon, dry and slightly tart, which balances the richness of the eel.

    6. Brodetto di valle

    The origin. The Adriatic fish soup was born on board the fishing boats, as a way of using up the less prized catch. On the Ferrara side the reference point is the lagoon version: Comacchio's eel brodetto “a becco d'asino”.

    What it is. Eel with onion, vinegar and tomato conserve; in winter there's also a version with savoy cabbage. Poor man's cooking, of leftovers and patience.

    How we like it. Deep, slow, made for mopping up with bread. It's the dish that best tells the story of life in the lagoons: nothing precious in the ingredients, everything in the time and the hand. Here, with the sharp dishes of the Comacchio area, a still Fortana from the Bosco Eliceo holds up better than the whites. (And a brodetto di valle is not a “DOP Ferrara dish”; none of them is: it's tradition, and that's perfectly fine.)

    7. Pesce azzurro: sardoncini and alici

    The origin. Sardines and anchovies from the Adriatic, the pesce azzurro, the oily fish, of the Ferrara and Romagna coast. At the Lidi di Comacchio they're fried and then marinated with vinegar and bay leaf, the same “old-style” logic as the eel.

    What it is. Humble fish, plentiful, sustainable. Fried and marinated, or scottadito, straight off the grill.

    How we like it. A lot. It's the heart of an honest seaside trattoria: no trophies, just freshness. Warm sardoncini, a rustic farmhouse fizz from the Bosco Eliceo, and you feel good, with no hurry.

    8. Pampapato di Ferrara

    The origin. The city's PGI cake, since 2015. It was born in the sixteenth century in the enclosed convent of Corpus Domini: the nuns prepared a spiced bread for the high prelates at Christmas. The shape recalls a cardinal's cap, the “pope's bread”. The chocolate coating, on the other hand, is a recent idea: a Ferrara pastry chef, in 1902.

    What it is. A dome of almonds, candied fruit, cocoa, nutmeg and cinnamon, covered in dark chocolate. One of the rare cakes with no added fat.

    How we like it. At the end of the meal, in small pieces, unhurriedly. It closes the circle: we started with the Este banquet, and we finish with a sweet born next door to their court.

    (A note, because it matters to the people who cook: torta tenerina, Ferrara's other great cake, is not PGI; it's a Prodotto Agroalimentare Tradizionale, a PAT, a traditional agri-food product. Delicious all the same.)

    Frequently asked questions

    What is the typical dish of Ferrara?
    There isn't just one: the city lives on a pair. If we have to choose the symbol of the land's table, it's cappellacci di zucca; for the water's, Comacchio eel. Together they tell Ferrara's story better than any single dish.

    Are cappellacci di zucca PGI?
    Yes, they have been PGI since 2016. But be careful not to call everything else PGI: pasticcio di maccheroni is a municipal De.Co. project, the tenerina is a PAT, Comacchio eel is a Presidio Slow Food. They're different recognitions, and mixing them up is the most common mistake.

    Where do you eat fish in Ferrara?
    The thread to follow is that of the lagoons: eel, brodetto di valle, oily fish from the Adriatic, and the small Goro oysters from our Delta. Look for places that think in terms of season and place rather than big names. And yes, at our place too: that's exactly what we try to bring to the table.

    If you're passing this way

    Eight dishes aren't the whole of Ferrara; this is a stroll, not a census. But if you line them up, from the Este court down to where the water turns brackish, you've understood what this city is made of: double, between splendour and lagoon, between pumpkin and eel.

    We're on the side of the sea and the lagoons, with the wines of the sands in the cellar. If you fancy trying this side of Ferrara, the table is ready. And if you end up in Comacchio in front of a plate of eel that isn't ours, that's perfectly fine too: it's the same story, and it's a good one.

  • Ferrara with kids: a day of walls, castle and clouds

    Ferrara with kids: a day of walls, castle and clouds

    A child, in the car, asking where we're going. And us saying: to look at the clouds. It nearly always works. Because Ferrara, seen from the height of a seven-year-old, is a city made to measure: flat, slow, with red walls that look like a castle you'd draw and plenty of sky above. Down here, after all, there's us too.

    If you're wondering what to do in Ferrara with kids without turning the day into a forced march from museum to museum, we'll tell you how we'd live it. One thing at a time, with the right breaks. No rush: it's our trade, after all.

    Start on a bike, on the walls

    Ferrara is the city of bicycles, and not just as a figure of speech. Around 90% of people in Ferrara own at least one, and a quarter of all home-school-work journeys are made by pedal, on more than 200 km of cycle paths. Translated for anyone arriving with children: here the bike is the rule, not the exception. The cars expect it.

    The loveliest way to begin is to go up onto the walls: a ring of around 9 kilometres that wraps the historic centre, walkable and cyclable among bastions, towers and gates. No need to do the whole thing. One stretch is more than enough. You pedal above the city, in the shade of the trees, and the children race ahead without a thought for traffic. Grass, wheels, a bit out of breath and the odd soft tumble: that's the first real stop.

    From Corso Ercole I d'Este you reach the Porta degli Angeli, a good spot to get on or off. And if one of the little ones looks up and stops to watch the sky changing, well, we understand that perfectly.

    The Castle, with its moat and towers

    Then there's the big one, the Castello Estense. The symbol of the city: four towers, red terracotta brick, white balustrades, drawbridges. And all around, the thing children love most: a moat full of water. A real castle, with water around it, right in the middle of Ferrara. Hard to explain, easy to look at.

    You walk around it, count the towers, look for the ravelins. The Torre dei Leoni can be climbed, for those with the legs and the will. We won't give you opening hours or ticket prices here; they change often, and the last thing we want is to send you to a closed door: a quick check on the official website before you set off and you're sorted.

    Even just from the outside, though, the Castle makes an impression. It's one of those places that stay with children longer than any number of stories.

    Parco Bassani, for running properly

    After the walls and the towers, you need space. Lots of it. You'll find it at the Parco Urbano Giorgio Bassani, the big green area to the north, between the walls and the Po, named after the Ferrara-born writer. It's enormous, we're talking around 1,200 hectares, what they call the Addizione Verde, the Green Addition. Here the children can finally run without anyone saying “careful”.

    It's the place for picnics, for a football, for a blanket on the grass. The one you arrive at full of city and leave full of air. Bring something to eat and let them loose: a park like this, in the end, is the best museum for anyone who's only a few years old. And above, once again, the clouds. It's almost a habit, around here, to start watching them.

    The Delta and the flamingos, if you have a whole day

    If you feel like going further afield, the big prize is the Po Delta. Here the great river meets the Adriatic, and the tourist boards describe it as a destination made for families: boat trips, canoeing, horse riding, birdwatching, nature reserves to explore.

    The thing that leaves everyone open-mouthed, big and small, is the Valli di Comacchio: you go out by boat to look for the flamingos, really pink, standing in the shallow water. For children it's a kind of magic. In summer there are also guided outings to get closer to the birdlife and visit the fishermen's huts, the casoni, along the canals.

    And if it rains, or you need some shade, in Comacchio there's the Museo Delta Antico, designed with younger visitors in mind too: finds from the Etruscan city of Spina, the cargo of a ship wrecked more than two thousand years ago, immersive videos, installations you can smell and displays you can touch. Not the usual look-but-don't-touch museum.

    A day, on a child's scale

    Putting it all in order, a sensible day might look like this:

    1. The walls by bike, one stretch of the ring, with an easy start from the Porta degli Angeli. Above the city, in the shade, no traffic.
    2. Castello Estense, a walk around the moat, counting the towers, a climb up the Torre dei Leoni for the older ones (opening hours on the official website).
    3. Parco Bassani, free running, a football and a picnic on the grass. Time to catch your breath.
    4. The Delta and the Valli di Comacchio, the long outing, by boat, flamingo-hunting. Save it for when you have a whole day to yourselves.

    Four stops, but no obligation. Even just the first three, taken slowly, already make a lovely day. The secret, with children, is to take away, not to add.

    Frequently asked questions

    What is there to do in Ferrara with kids?
    The classic round, stress-free: a stretch of the walls by bike, the Castello Estense with its moat and towers, and a good run around Parco Bassani. With an extra day, the trip to the Po Delta and the flamingos of the Valli di Comacchio by boat. A few things, done calmly.

    Can you get around Ferrara by bike with children?
    Yes, and it's the best way. Ferrara is Italy's city of bicycles: cycle paths everywhere and the ring of the walls, around 9 km, all of it rideable away from cars. One stretch at a time, at the pace of their legs.

    And at the end of the day

    When the children are tired in the right way, the good way, with red cheeks and fewer words than usual, it's time to come back to the table. We're here, a small fish trattoria, with the smell of cooking from the kitchen and no hurry. It's not a place for children or a place for grown-ups: it's a place for families, which is something else.

    If you're passing, the table is ready. And if outside it has started to nuvolare, our word for when the clouds roll in, point it out to them: in Ferrara, watching the clouds is already half the fun.

  • Where to have an aperitivo in Ferrara: the areas, the atmosphere, a glass of wine from the sands

    Where to have an aperitivo in Ferrara: the areas, the atmosphere, a glass of wine from the sands

    The good hour is the one when the light drops and the city slows down a little more. Ferrara is slow enough already, quiet, on a human scale, a place to cross on foot or by bike, but at aperitivo time it turns positively gentle. People go out, sit down, wait for the evening to arrive. So the question is a simple one: where to have an aperitivo in Ferrara, and with what in your glass.

    We at Le Nuvole have a small idea about that. We'll tell you about the areas, the atmosphere that changes from one square to the next, and the wine we like to pour when the sun goes down: cool, saline, from these lands. No rankings, no addresses that change with the season. Just the places where it makes sense to stop, and why.

    The Listone: Piazza Trento e Trieste

    Anyone arriving in Ferrara and asking where to go for an aperitivo ends up here sooner or later. Piazza Trento e Trieste, the Listone, as everyone calls it, is the heart of city life in the historic centre, the theatrical space between the Cathedral and its museum.

    It's the square for occasions: broad, busy, a place people pass through. Along the flank of the Cathedral runs the Loggia dei Merciai, and Via Mazzini starts from here. The mood is see-and-be-greeted: you sit down and sooner or later someone you know walks by. Good for anyone who wants to be in the thick of things, with the façade of the Duomo, that weave of Romanesque and Gothic, as a backdrop while the light fades.

    Via delle Volte: an aperitivo in the shade of the vòlti

    Move a few hundred metres and everything changes. Via delle Volte is medieval Ferrara, one of the most evocative streets in the city: the backbone of the “linear Ferrara” that grew up between the 7th and 11th centuries. The name comes from the vòlti, the overhead passageways and arches that once linked the warehouses on the riverbank to the workshops towards the centre.

    Here the mood is intimate, a little secret. Stone, brick, shade. Fourteenth- and fifteenth-century buildings closing in overhead. It's the right area for a slow aperitivo, the kind that turns into dinner without anyone noticing. Less shop window, more conversation.

    Around the Castle: the moat and the four towers

    Then there's the Castello Estense, the symbol of Ferrara: four towers rising from the moat, red terracotta brick, white balustrades, drawbridges. Sitting here for an aperitivo has something theatrical about it, the water all around, the great bulk darkening while the sky stays light for a moment longer.

    It's the most “postcard” area, and that's fine: some evenings a glass is worth it just to look up at the Torre dei Leoni from below. From here, if you like, you can carry on along Corso Ercole I d'Este, the monumental axis almost two kilometres long, as far as the Porta degli Angeli and the ring of the walls, nine kilometres of green to do on foot or by bike. That's no longer aperitivo: that's afterwards. But it's nice to know it's there.

    A gem: the oldest osteria in the world

    We can't resist. If Ferrara's aperitivo has one symbolic place, it's the Enoteca Al Brindisi, next to the Duomo in Via Guglielmo degli Adelardi: considered the oldest osteria in the world, documented since 1435 (back then the Hostaria del Chiucchiolino). In the fifteenth century people arrived by boat. It's hard to get more “local aperitivo” than that.

    We mention it gladly, because in Ferrara generosity pays for everyone: a city with a six-hundred-year-old osteria is a city where the very idea of stopping for a glass has deep roots.

    What to drink: the wine of the sands

    And here we come home. Because in Ferrara an aperitivo can be a statement of place rather than just any old glass.

    A few kilometres from the centre, between the province, the Po Delta and the Adriatic coast, lies the Bosco Eliceo DOC, the “wines of the sands”, so called because the vines grow on soils that are up to 95-97% sand, the legacy of the Po, the Reno and the land reclamations. The leading grape is Fortana, the old “Uva d'Oro”, the golden grape, grown around here for centuries.

    They're wines with a precise soul: modest alcohol (around 10.5-11%), good acidity, and that slightly saline note that comes from the sea next door. Light, easy to like, often lightly sparkling. In a word: made for aperitivo. The savouriness of the sand, after all, is the same thing we look for in the fish of these lagoons; it's the thread that ties the vineyard to the table.

    Worth trying, when you get the chance, is the Fortana Rosé, the sparkling wine the Consorzio proposes precisely as an aperitivo, a local rosé instead of the usual anonymous white. And if you like living wines, look for the bottle-refermented wines of the small Bosco Eliceo growers, such as those of Mirco Mariotti: ungrafted vines a few hundred metres from the Adriatic, “farmhouse bubbles”, saline and a little wild. No champagne. Something more ours.

    Our aperitivo

    We're a fish trattoria, not a bar on the square, but we know what a glass before sitting down means. Eli's cellar is “always on the move”, built on artisan winemakers and natural wines, and the wine of the sands is part of the family: we happily uncork it as the evening begins, perhaps with something from the sea to ease you into the meal, no hurry.

    If an aperitivo in the squares makes you want to stay, the step from a Fortana to a table of fish is shorter than it looks. But that, if anything, is another evening.

    Frequently asked questions

    Where do you go for an aperitivo in Ferrara?
    The classic areas are three: the Listone (Piazza Trento e Trieste), the busy heart of the city near the Duomo; Via delle Volte, the more intimate and evocative medieval street; and the area around the Castello Estense, theatrical, with its moat and towers. Next to the Duomo there's also Al Brindisi, the oldest osteria in the world, documented since 1435.

    What do you drink at aperitivo time in Ferrara?
    The local glass is the wine of the sands from the Bosco Eliceo: cool, slightly saline Fortana, often lightly sparkling, and the Fortana Rosé proposed precisely as an aperitivo. Alternatively, the bottle-refermented wines of the small Bosco Eliceo growers, lively, savoury wines born on vines a few steps from the sea.

    If you're passing

    Ferrara is a city that rewards those who slow down. Choose the square that suits you, order a glass of these sands, and let the light do its work. Then, if you get hungry and feel like the sea, you know where we are: the table is ready, no hurry.

  • Ferrara in a day, on foot and by bike: the city of the Renaissance

    Ferrara in a day, on foot and by bike: the city of the Renaissance

    A city to be taken slowly. Red brick, wide streets that end in a vanishing point, medieval lanes that appear where you least expect them. Ferrara is in no hurry, and neither are we.

    If you're wondering what to see in Ferrara in one day, the short answer is: more than you'd think, and without rushing. It's a small, flat city, made for legs and bicycles. Below we tell you about the day as we at Le Nuvole would spend it, starting at the Castle and ending in the evening. Which, incidentally, is the part we like best.

    Ferrara, city of the Renaissance (and a World Heritage Site)

    Let's start with something people in Ferrara take for granted, and shouldn't. Since 1995 the city has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the name “Ferrara, City of the Renaissance, and its Po Delta”; the listing was then extended in 1999 to include the Delta and the Delizie Estensi, the Este family's country residences.

    UNESCO describes it as the first city to put the harmony of its urban perspectives before the beauty of any single building. In our words: it's not just the palazzo that counts, it's how you see it as you approach from a distance. That's something you understand by walking rather than reading. Keep it in mind: it will come in handy later, when we head into the district that made Ferrara famous among town planners the world over.

    The Castello Estense, where everything starts

    The Castello Estense is the symbol of the city, and it's where people arrange to meet. Four towers, a moat full of water, red terracotta brick, white balustrades, drawbridges. A real medieval fortress, still whole. You can climb the Torre dei Leoni: from up there you take in at a glance how Ferrara is put together, the old meeting the new.

    From here on, the distances are almost laughable. Everything we describe is within a few hundred metres of everything else. That's why Ferrara works so well in a day: you don't waste time getting around, you spend it looking.

    The Cathedral, the Listone and the former ghetto

    A stone's throw from the Castle is Piazza Trento e Trieste, which people in Ferrara call the Listone: for many it's the heart of the city, the open, theatrical space where people pass through, stop, arrange to meet.

    On one side stands the Cathedral of San Giorgio Martire, the Duomo. Its façade is a conversation between two eras: the lower part Romanesque, begun in 1135, with Saint George slaying the dragon, signed by the sculptor Nicholaus; the upper part Gothic. Along the square runs the Loggia dei Merciai, the old shops built up against the church. Entry is free.

    From the Listone runs Via Mazzini, which was, so they say, the main street of the old Jewish Ghetto. It's a part of Ferrara worth getting to know: here you'll find the MEIS, the National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah, in Via Piangipane, which tells more than two thousand years of Jewish history in Italy. If you have the time and the inclination, it's a stop that leaves its mark.

    Via delle Volte, medieval Ferrara

    Now a tip from people who live here. Slip into Via delle Volte.

    It's a medieval street, the backbone of the old Ferrara that grew up between the 7th and 11th centuries. The name comes from the vòlti: the covered passageways and arches that once linked the warehouses on the riverbank to the shop-houses towards the centre. The river is long gone, but the arches are still here. Half-light, cobbles, buildings six and seven hundred years old. It's the most secret Ferrara, and on days when the light is low it's also the most beautiful to photograph.

    Palazzo dei Diamanti and the Addizione Erculea

    And now to the part that makes Ferrara a textbook case. Take Corso Ercole I d'Este: a dead-straight axis, almost two kilometres long, running from the Castle up to the northern walls. Not a single shop along the way, not one sign. Only palazzi and perspective.

    It's the heart of the Addizione Erculea, the “Herculean Addition”, the expansion that Ercole I d'Este entrusted in 1492 to the architect Biagio Rossetti. Rossetti doubled the city northwards on a rational, orthogonal grid and fused the medieval core with the new extension. That's why Ferrara is so often cited as one of the very first examples of a modern city in Europe, the one that, they say, invented the idea of the urban master plan.

    Halfway along the Corso opens the Quadrivio degli Angeli, the striking crossroads where four palazzi face one another. The most famous is the Palazzo dei Diamanti: it owes its name to its outer facing, some 8,500 blocks of white marble veined with pink, cut to a diamond point. It changes colour with the light of day. Inside are the Pinacoteca Nazionale and the big international exhibitions. It's worth checking the programme before you set off, because it changes from season to season.

    Palazzo Schifanoia and the Salone dei Mesi

    If you have energy (and curiosity) left, there's another place we hold dear: Palazzo Schifanoia, and inside it the Salone dei Mesi, the Hall of the Months.

    It's one of the great fresco cycles of the Renaissance, painted between 1468 and 1470 at the behest of Borso d'Este by the painters of the Officina Ferrarese, Francesco del Cossa and Ercole de' Roberti among them. Of the original twelve months, seven can still be read, from March to September: deities, signs of the zodiac, scenes of court life. A painted calendar, crowded with life. The name of the palace, “Schifanoia”, meant roughly “shun boredom”. A statement of intent we rather like.

    The walls: a 9 km green ring, best by bike

    We close the loop where Ferrara is at its best for anyone who wants to be outdoors: the city walls.

    They circle the historic centre for around nine kilometres, an unbroken ring of bastions, towers and gates, walkable and cyclable from end to end. From Corso Ercole I d'Este you reach the Porta degli Angeli, where the Addizione Erculea touches the northern edge of the city. Up here it's all green, silence and bicycles. And here Ferrara takes off its history-book mask and goes back to being simply a lovely place to breathe.

    One detail says it all: in Ferrara around 90% of people own a bicycle, and some call it the most bike-friendly city in Italy, with more than two hundred kilometres of cycle paths. If you can, get hold of one. The city is flat and the distances tiny: pedalling here isn't sport, it's simply the natural way to get about.

    The evening, at our place

    By now it's nearly dark, the legs have done their walking, and Ferrara slowly empties. It's the hour we like best. The light fades, the bricks glow orange, and you feel like stopping.

    We're here, a small fish trattoria run by two pairs of hands: Paolo in the kitchen, Eli front of house and in the cellar, with her artisan winemakers. The sea and the lagoons around here, a few off-menu specials told to you at the table, good wine and no hurry. After a day spent looking up, it seems to us the right way to close it: seated, in the warmth, in front of something good.

    If you're passing this way, the table is ready.

    Frequently asked questions

    What should you see in Ferrara in one day?
    A few hours are enough for the heart of the city: the Castello Estense, the Cathedral and the Listone, Via Mazzini with the former ghetto, medieval Via delle Volte, Corso Ercole I d'Este with the Palazzo dei Diamanti, and a turn along the walls. If there's time to spare, Palazzo Schifanoia with the Salone dei Mesi. All close together: no need to rush.

    Is Ferrara a UNESCO World Heritage Site?
    Yes. Since 1995 it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site as “Ferrara, City of the Renaissance”, and since 1999 the listing has also included its Po Delta and the Delizie Estensi.

    Is Ferrara better on foot or by bike?
    Both work: the centre is small and easily done on foot. But it's a flat, thoroughly cyclable city, among the most bike-friendly in Italy, so for the walls and for going a little further afield the bike is the natural choice.