Ferrara, Italy

August-September 2023

Ferrara is located in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy and was the perfect place to call home. Ferrara was much more affordable than staying in the touristy regions of Italy, such as Tuscany or Veneto. This historic city was centrally located and allowed us to take day trips to places such as:

Verona
Florence
Padova
Modena
Venice

Getting to Ferrara
We flew into the Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Fiumicino, Rome. From there we took the Leonardo Express to Rome Termini, one of the largest train terminals in Europe, which will take you almost anywhere on the continent. 

At the airport it is tempting to take a taxi to central Rome and in most cases I would suggest doing that. All taxis have a set price of 50 euros, but if you want to save money, right outside of the baggage claim when you exit, follow train signs to terminal three where you can catch the Leonardo Express train for €14 per person. There were many places to buy tickets and trains left every 15 minutes. 

Once at Rome Termini we had tickets to Ferrara ($59.56) and it would have been seamless, but with a delayed flight and trouble with Jim’s passport at Customs, we missed our scheduled train. However, with minutes to spare we were able to switch our train tickets online to the next available train heading to Ferrara. Once on the train we sat back and relaxed in the comfy seats for the 3 hour and 15 minute ride, with only one change in Bologna.

TIP: Trainline App
Italy's train system is extensive, efficient and affordable. Trenitalia is the main operator, offering high-speed and regional trains that connect most major cities and towns. Italo is a private company offering high-speed options oftentimes at a premium. Tickets can be purchased online or at train stations. I suggest downloading the Trainline app which allows you to book tickets for train transportation anywhere in Italy or Europe at the click of a button. The app shows you all the operators and times. Creating an account will allow you to put your payment method in and will both email and save your tickets, completely hassle free. There's a nominal charge, but having the ability to search across multiple carriers is well worth it. 

Our Home in Ferrara
We took a taxi to our new place for the next six weeks. When we first walked into the small courtyard, we were greeted by a little statue resembling a fawn. 

Our place was a small studio without a couch. From the bed, that would slide away from the wall if we both leaned against it at the same time, we had a great view of the kitchen, dining room, closet and the one window. Opening the refrigerator required the strength of four gladiators, but at least it was sealed. The bathroom was even smaller with shelves sticking out so you had to contort your body to find the toilet or use the washer. We didn't even attempt the bidet, except for that one incident when nature called for us both at the same time. But we've been in cramped quarters before and this was manageable, a bonus was that it had an oven and stove.

What nearly drove us insane were the three yapping Chihuahuas that had separation anxiety. The paper thin walls didn’t help. Every time our neighbor would leave they would have a contest of who had the most anxiety. They also liked to wake us up every morning for no apparent reason other than to see which one of us lost our mind first. Add constant church bells and babies to the mix and, well, it's just a recipe for psychological abuse. Two days after no sleep we realized the fawn statue was a Chihuahua. She was immortalizing these torturous things. 

The pinnacle of pain though was when school came back in session and we woke to yapping dogs, church bells, babies crying, a garbage truck blaring and finding out there was a preschool right next door housing every kid in Italy. With 100+ degree weather our only reprieve was inside the air conditioned soul sucking studio. Our host brought over a bottle of wine as an apology and later listed the place for sale. It was like he knew this would be the last review he would ever get on Airbnb. 

Ferrara
The streets of Ferrara are the cleanest we've ever seen. Every few hundred yards are large trash receptacles labeled for organic, yard waste, cardboard, plastic, glass and metal. All are open to the public. The one for general trash is controlled by a card supplied by our host. Not sure if it's a pay as you use kind of thing or what. 

We quickly found that many businesses were closed from the middle of July to the end of August for summer holiday. They also take their riposos or rests seriously which means the city pretty much shuts down from 13:00-15:30.

It took us a while to get the bus system down. It wasn’t that it was hard, it’s actually integrated with Google Maps, we just were still exploring. However by week three the walking was getting old. New shoes helped but walking the same roads was boring. The train station was 30 minutes by foot, the supermarket was 45. We finally hopped on one not knowing where we were going or how to pay. I tried to pay the driver who just pointed in the back. I found three terminals in the aisle. One was for euro coins for €2, one was for the card you can get from a still unknown location and the other one was a contactless visa pay terminal for €1.50. The ticket is good for 75 minutes on any urban bus. We rode so much we had to make up excuses to walk for exercise.

Parks, Monuments, Churches, Piazza & Festivals-(Free)
We explored many parks, but the two biggest were, Parco Massari and Parco Marco Coletta which hosts the Giardino per tutti, free concerts in the park for the month of August. We strolled through some of the most beautiful streets, such as Via Giuseppe Mazzini. 

We visited monuments such as the Piazza Ariostea, a walking track encircled by a lawn with a monument to the poet Ludovico Ariosto. The Acquedotto di Ferrara, a monumental reservoir of the city's aqueduct and the Rotonado Foschini, which is basically a shortcut between streets that is used by locals.

We also visited a few of the churches; The Church of San Cristoforo alla Certosa built in 1452 that  became a public Cemetery in 1811 and the Basilica San Giorgio, which was right next to the Aldi store. The main cathedral, Cattedrale di Ferrara was under construction.

Every place we traveled had a square or in Italian, a piazza. A place to people watch or enjoy a cold beer or a bite to eat at a cafe. Ferrara's Piazza Trento e Trieste is a beautiful square in the heart of Ferrara with the famous Este Castle just around the corner.

Ferrara is full of festivals, from music, food, football, art, and wine. We literally could find something to do every night. Most events started late in the evening, thankfully because it was so hot during the day. One weekend we enjoyed the Buskers Festival where 250 artists performed over five days. The square was filled with jugglers, artists, musicians, entertainers along with food and wine from all over Europe. Every nook and corner was filled with something to see. We were introduced to new music that we added to our playlist, a favorite band was Cinque Uomini sulla Cassa del Morto. It was a great couple of days.

Diamanti Palace ($26.15) 
Other places worth visiting was the Diamanti Palace where they were celebrating an exhibit of 50 years of photographs and stories of Guido Harari, a photographer who toured with many famous musicians. Diamanti Palace, or the Palace of Diamonds, one of the most stunning palaces of Italian Renaissance architecture was built in 1495. Like many other buildings, the Palazzo suffered extensive damage from World War II and was renovated in 1950.

Este Castle ($30.09)
The house of Este has a long and interesting history. Este is actually a city near Padova but rather naming the city after the family, Alberto Azzo II built a castle there and gave himself and his family the city's name. It wasn't until 1240 that the Este's moved to Ferrara and established the new capital there. For centuries the house fought with outside forces and its own overtaxed population. A castle and moat, complete with drawbridges was built to thwart the townspeople from revolting. The house of Este remained in power until the last part of the 1590's when no legitimate heir was produced and it was annexed by the papal states, though some members still exist. Today, it's a UNESCO World Heritage City. We enjoyed walking through the dungeons and up the Lion's tower, overlooking the city.

Places to eat worth mentioning
Most places closed for lunch and we found ourselves eating lots of meals at home, especially dinner. Cooking with fresh, locally produced delicious vegetables, cheeses and meats made dinners experimental and truly enjoyable. We actually bought a couple of pans to help the process. Add €3 D.O.C. wine to the mix and bam, Bellissimo!

We would find a place to eat on maps, walk there only to find it closed for summer or closed during the riposo or closed because Guiseppe simply didn't want to work that day. Places usually opened for dinner around 7:00 pm. Since our internal clocks of eating times were off we found ourselves not eating a local meal of pasta until two weeks into our stay. So in the beginning of our stay we ate at places that were open, which were:

Sushi Yun-($60.54)
As Jim put in his google review: “Italian made steel chopsticks, beautiful ambient jazz music with the river as a backdrop - perfect! Nigiri was brought out quickly and tempted us to order more while waiting for some rolls. The Unagi melts in your mouth. Unfortunately the Unagi roll is only on the lunch menu, but they graciously made one for me. Service was impeccably performed by English speaking staff. *Watch the last step down if you dine upstairs, still nursing a broken toe from the fall.” 

Yes, Jim fell here breaking his big toe, which finally allowed me to keep up with him on our adventure for the next three weeks. As we were walking downstairs to pay our bill, the lighting was dim and the last step before the main floor was black. Funny thing was while we were walking down, he made the comment to be careful and thankfully we chose to only have a beer and no sake (In my younger years I had a bad experience with sake where I passed out on a plane and when the plane landed, they wouldn’t allow me to make my connecting flight and took me to a hospital). 

As we were walking down there was kitchen noise, people talking and the sushi chefs clinking and clattering and then everything went silent, which prompted me to look back. Both the waiter and I looked and Jim was contorted and laying on the floor. I asked if he was OK and he gave me a look, not sure of embarrassment or pain, but he hobbled up and walked it off.  

Jasmine-($13.00-$15.00)
On more than one occasion we had Chinese food from Jasmine's which only served take out. This is also where we were taught some basic Italian phrases by a Chinese woman who laughed at us and swiftly corrected our sad attempts. 

Just Eat app- ($19.00-$21.00)
We figured out the Just Eat app about three weeks in and were finally able to get pizza delivered.

Panificio Cappelli-($35.96)
Our first and only Italian meal in Ferrara, besides pizza, was lunch at Panificio Cappelli, a bakery and cafe that is only open from 7:00-3:00. We both decided to skip our go-to Italian meals and opt for something different. I ordered Chicory Ravioli with kitchen cream and bacon, paired with a delicious red wine. Jim had Pumpkin Ravioli with a bolognese sauce and a beer. Both were good, but still looking for better. Ferrara is also known for its couples bread, two pieces of bread intertwined into one.  

For major grocery shopping we'd hop on a bus and go to the Coop market located inside a mall at the south of town. For weekly shopping we'd head to Aldi whose prices were comparable to Coop but walkable and with less of a selection. 

For our daily needs like water or last minute forgotten ingredients we'd walk about five minutes to Deshy's. I don't know the real name of the place, but over the course of six weeks we were always greeted with a loud broken English greeting of "Colofornia." This was Deshy, a name we called him, from Bangladesh with a name so long he said not to worry about it. His colorful and passionate conversations were interesting and we often found ourselves having spent more time talking than it took to walk back and forth. 

On our last day, we went down to get some water. In typical Deshy fashion a loud welcome came and in we went. We chatted briefly about a rapper who died (you never knew what would come up). We said our goodbyes and left. About a block down the street we heard, "Colofornia! Come back!" Alisa stayed while I walked back. He went inside the store and brought out two bottles of wine refusing to accept any money. The people you meet often define the places you visit. Ferrara is lucky to have him. Here's to you Deshy! 

Ferrara was an excellent base to explore this area of northern Italy. Ferrara also has a rich history itself that should not be overlooked by its more famous counterparts. In these cities locals aren't yet fed up with mass tourism and all the trouble that brings. Sure we did touristy things, but we also enjoyed the afternoon riposos, the aperitifs and digestifs. We suffered side by side and right through one of the hottest summers in Italian history. Alisa left her blood on your streets. We waved, we smiled, ignored the stares, we learned your culture, we ate your food and we did it all with no sleep. Goodbye Ferrara, and goodbye yapping Chihuahuas.