Day trips by car / Bologna and its province

Half day Castles Archaeology Architecture

The Bolognese Apennines: Rocchetta Mattei, Aalto and the Etruscan city of Kainua

Count Mattei's Moorish castle above Riola, Alvar Aalto's church on the Reno and the excavations of the Etruscan city of Marzabotto.

Up the Reno valley towards the Apennines: a fairytale castle built by a healer count famous throughout Europe, the only Italian church by the great Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, and a 6th-century BC Etruscan city laid out with straight streets like a modern town.

Il Cortile dei Leoni della Rocchetta Mattei — Photo: Sailko, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Length from Cattolica8 h 00 Full day
Driving4 h 40 · 376 km there and back
Visits and stops3 h 20
When to goSaturday and Sunday (Rocchetta usually opens at weekends)

The plan from Cattolica

08:00
Leave Cattolica for Riola, Rocchetta Mattei2 h 20 driving, 190 km
10:20
Riola, Rocchetta Mattei1 h 30 of visits: Rocchetta Mattei
11:50
Drive on to Riola, Aalto's church5 min driving, 1 km
11:55
Riola, Aalto's church30 min of visits: Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta by Alvar Aalto
12:25
Drive on to Marzabotto, Kainua25 min driving, 21 km
12:50
Marzabotto, Kainua1 h 20 of visits: Kainua, the Etruscan city
14:10
Drive back to Cattolica1 h 50 driving, 164 km
16:00
Back in Cattolica

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

1Riola, Rocchetta Mattei

Rocchetta Mattei 75 min

Count Cesare Mattei began it in 1850 on the ruins of a fortress and worked on it until his death in 1896, without a single master plan: crenellated towers beside Moorish domes and arches, neo-Gothic halls and Art Nouveau staircases. The Cortile dei Leoni copies the one at the Alhambra. Mattei was famous for electrohomeopathy, a medicine of his own invention, and patients came here from all over Europe: even Dostoevsky mentions him in The Brothers Karamazov. Restored by the Fondazione Carisbo, it reopened in 2015.

Guided visits only, with online booking for scheduled time slots (usually Saturday and Sunday). Animals not allowed.

2Riola, Aalto's church

Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta by Alvar Aalto 20 min

Cardinal Giacomo Lercaro wanted new churches designed by the greatest architects of the time, and he called on the Finn Alvar Aalto, who asked for a place in nature, near a river. The design dates from the 1960s, the church was inaugurated in 1978, two years after Aalto's death. It is his only church in Italy: a white nave covered by great concrete arches, with light falling from above, facing towards the Reno.

It is a parish church: open for services, at other times ask at the parish office.

3Marzabotto, Kainua

Kainua, the Etruscan city 60 min

The Etruscans founded it in the 6th century BC on the plateau along the Reno, a trading hub between Felsina, ancient Bologna, and the port of Spina. It was built all at once according to a plan: straight streets at right angles, regular blocks, water channels. In the park you walk among the houses, workshops, the acropolis with its temples and the necropolises; in the museum there is the head of a kouros in Greek marble, bronze figurines and Attic vases. It ended in the 4th century BC with the arrival of the Gaulish Boii.

Thursday to Sunday, closed Monday; Tuesday and Wednesday groups with guide only. Free on the first Sunday of the month.

Tips

Marzabotto is also a place of memory: on the hills of Monte Sole, in autumn 1944, the SS killed hundreds of civilians. The Sacrario dei Caduti is in the village, a few minutes from the museum.
Your Rocchetta time slot decides the order of the trip: book that first and fit Kainua in before or after.

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.