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Day trips by car / Bologna and its province

Full day Castles Art Music Food and wine

The Castles of the Duchy: Fontanellato, Soragna and Busseto

The Rocca Sanvitale in its moat with Parmigianino's little room, the fortress of the Meli Lupi princes, then the lands of Giuseppe Verdi.

In the Bassa between Parma and the Po, the plain of mists and culatello, the great families of the Duchy built castles that still stand, some still inhabited. In the morning the Rocca Sanvitale at Fontanellato, enclosed by its moat, and the Rocca Meli Lupi at Soragna, with the princes' apartments. In the afternoon the lands of Giuseppe Verdi: the house where he was born at Le Roncole and Busseto, the town where he grew up.

Rocca Sanvitale, Fontanellato
Photo: Carlo grifone, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
  • Length from Cesena11 h 20 Full day
  • Driving5 h 15 · 443 km there and back
  • Visits and stops5 h 05
  • When to goAll year round (check the castles' closing days)

The plan from Cesena

  1. Leave Cesena for Fontanellato2 h 15 driving, 206 km
  2. Fontanellato1 h 35 of visits: The Rocca Sanvitale and Parmigianino's little room, The Santuario della Beata Vergine del Rosario
  3. Drive on to Soragna15 min driving, 8 km
  4. Soragna1 h 25 of visits: The Rocca Meli Lupi
  5. Lunch in Soragna1 h 00 of visits: in the Bassa: culatello di Zibello, torta fritta, anolini in brodo, tortelli d'erbetta, Parmigiano Reggiano and Fortana.
  6. Drive on to Le Roncole, Verdi's house10 min driving, 5 km
  7. Le Roncole, Verdi's house40 min of visits: Giuseppe Verdi's birthplace
  8. Drive on to Busseto10 min driving, 5 km
  9. Busseto1 h 25 of visits: The Rocca and the Teatro Verdi, Casa Barezzi
  10. Drive back to Cesena2 h 25 driving, 217 km
  11. Back in Cesena

Times are a guide: driving times are worked out without traffic, then come the visits and ten minutes at every stop to park. In summer towards the coast and at rush hour allow extra time.

What you will see

1Fontanellato

The Rocca Sanvitale and Parmigianino's little room 60 min

The Rocca stands in the centre of the village, surrounded by a water-filled moat: it was the home of the Sanvitale counts for centuries. Inside is its treasure, a small room that the young Parmigianino frescoed around 1524 with the myth of Diana and Actaeon, the hunter transformed into a stag. In one tower there's a nineteenth-century camera obscura: using mirrors and lenses it projects the square outside onto a table in real time.

Admission charge; guided visits at fixed times. Check the closing day.

The Santuario della Beata Vergine del Rosario 15 min

A few steps from the Rocca is the most visited sanctuary in the province of Parma, a pilgrimage destination for centuries. Along the corridors hang thousands of ex-votos, the small painted panels that tell of graces received: accidents, illnesses, falls from horses, a history of everyday life in the Bassa.

Free admission.

2Soragna

The Rocca Meli Lupi 70 min

Built as a fortress in the fourteenth century, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it became a palace, and is still today the home of the Meli Lupi princes. You visit the state rooms with their stuccowork, frescoes and original furnishings, still in their place. Around it is a large English-style park. The castle also has its ghost: Donna Cenerina, a noblewoman murdered in the sixteenth century, who according to legend returns when the family is in danger.

Admission charge; guided visit. It's a lived-in house: check opening days.

3Le Roncole, Verdi's house

Giuseppe Verdi's birthplace 30 min

Here, in a small country house that was also an inn and shop, Giuseppe Verdi was born on 10 October 1813, the composer of Nabucco, La Traviata and Aida. The rooms are simple and almost bare, as was the life of the Bassa peasants. Opposite is the church of San Michele, where young Verdi played the organ as a boy.

Admission charge. Check opening days.

4Busseto

The Rocca and the Teatro Verdi 30 min

Busseto is the town where Verdi grew up and studied. In the square is the Rocca dei Pallavicino, now the town hall, and inside is the Teatro Verdi, opened in 1868: small and precious, with decorated boxes. The town built it for him, but Verdi would have none of it and never went.

The theatre can be visited with admission charge, at fixed times.

Casa Barezzi 30 min

Antonio Barezzi, a wealthy Busseto merchant and music lover, discovered young Verdi's talent, took him into his home, paid for his studies in Milan and gave him his daughter Margherita in marriage. In the salon of his house, where the Società Filarmonica met, Verdi performed in public for the first time. Today it's a museum with mementos, letters and portraits.

Admission charge. Check opening days.

Tips

  • The castles are visited with a guide at fixed times: check the times and plan your morning around them.
  • Near Fontanellato there's the Labirinto della Masone, the world's largest bamboo labyrinth, created by publisher Franco Maria Ricci: if you prefer, you can visit it instead of Soragna.
  • In the countryside around Zibello and Polesine they age culatello: many cellars will show you round and offer tastings by appointment.

The same trip from other towns

How long it takes from each town, the drive back included. Tap a town to see the plan from there.

Ravenna, Faenza and Cervia

Rimini and the Riviera

Forlì and Cesena

Bologna and its province

Comacchio and its beaches

Pesaro and Fano

With your own car

Almost every old town has a limited traffic zone (ZTL) with cameras: park outside and walk in. The fine reaches your home, abroad too. ZTL and car parks town by town

This trip with a driver

Romagna Transfer picks you up at your hotel, drops you in front of every stop and brings you back: no parking, no ZTL, and the wine is yours to enjoy.

Ask Romagna Transfer

More trips in the Bologna and its province area

All the trips

Trips written by our editors from the facts of our monument pages and the official sites. Opening days and hours change: the note under every place tells you what to check before you leave. No prices: you find them on the museums' sites.

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