The Italian region which takes its name from the important way connecting Rome to the northern part of Italy, Via Emilia, offers to its visitors many famous cities art such as Bologna, Ravenna and Modena but also the summer resort aimed from many tourists, Rimini.
Being rich in agriculture's products - cereals, fruit, wine are just some examples - ITALY Magazine gives here ten fun ways to enjoy one of Italy's yummiest regions.
Look for Liuzzi
Creative young chef Raffaele Liuzzi has brought some of his southern vitality to bear in his delightfully original restaurant Locanda Liuzzi in Cattolica. Don’t miss the oyster water ravioli and Raffaele’s original method of smoking local fish over cherry wood at your table.
Via Fiume, 63 (www.locandaliuzzi.com)
Jazz things Up
What better way to close the day than enjoy a well-earned glass of wine with a jazz band doing its marvellous stuff as you sip? Bologna’s Cantina Bentivoglio has an admirable selection of wines, great food and world class jazz artists. Too good to miss.
Via Mascarella 4/B
(www.cantinabentivoglio.it)
Go to the devil
Best known for its outstanding restaurant, Il Povero Diavolo in Torriana also has a handful of pretty rooms and is the perfect place to spend a quiet weekend enjoying Stefania and Fausto Fratti’s warm hospitality. Each room is equipped with a writing corner and a shelf of well chosen books. Joy! (www.ristorantepoverodiavolo.com)
Put away a piadina
All over Emilia Romagna you’ll find the region’s famous snack – piadine, circles of flat bread heated and folded around fillings of cheese, ham or other ingredients. For a great choice, head to Cesena where the art of the piadina is a city specialty.
Savour Savigno
Alberto Bettini’s restaurant Da Amerigo in Savigno is a haven for hardcore foodies interested in sampling the most traditional and convincing of local dishes, all with delicate flavours that seem to reach out and pull you back into the past. (www.amerigo1934.it)
Be a ham
Having come this far, be sure to fill up on generous plates of prosciutto di Parma, mortadella and culatello di Zibello, and notice how much better they taste when eaten in a trattoria in Parma or at a street-side café in Bologna’s Piazza Maggiore.
Live the sweet life
At Cattolica’s Staccoli Caffè, treat yourself to a first-rate coffee and a delicious homemade pastry, then head next door to their chocolate laboratory where you can expect such delights as chocolate flavoured with rose, coffee, chilli pepper, and cherry.
Piazza del Municipio (www.staccoli.it)
Cool down with a cocktail
After a hard morning sunning yourself on Rimini’s famous beaches, reward yourself with a refreshing cocktail at Istinto, a beautiful gourmet wine bar that offers a huge range of wines, cocktails, delicious tapas-like snacks, and lots of gastronomy books and products besides. Corso d’Augusto 171.
Verse yourself in vinegar
Few ingredients are more versatile that good quality balsamic vinegar and Paolo Rossi Barattini is one of Modena’s most respected producers. With vintages that date back 200 years (that’s right!) a visit to his acetaia in Formigine is a treat. Booking essential. (www.balsamicodop.it)
Make for a market
Bologna embodies Italy’s reputation for hearty food and quality ingredients and nothing gives you a better taste for the city than a walk through its Medieval Market amid crates of fruit and vegetables, mountains of homemade pasta, whole roasted pigs, and cheeses as big as truck wheels.
