It took some days to warm up to Ferrara, our next stop. Largely because it was either raining, had
just rained or was about to rain. And it was cold. Ferrara like Parma is not on the American
tourist agenda. We wanted to spend more
time in Emilia Romagna and wanted a Goldilocks city. Not too big nor too small, with lots to see
in the town and surrounds. Ferrara met
this need.
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| Castello Estense |
Not only did it have a REAL
15th century castle…built by an Este Duke (Lucrezia Borgia married
into the Este family)… the castle still has a moat filled with water! The
ceilings are filled with Renaissance frescos of sports and pagents, sadly a
spider web of gauze patches covered them because of cracks caused by the big
earthquake (5.9) last year. We took the English tour led by a lovely (they
appear to all be lovely) young Italian woman so passionate about sharing her
love of the City and its history. Included
in the tour was a visit to the dungeons which were used even during World War
II.
We arrived in Ferrara train midafternoon Friday to THRONGS
of young people leaving town for the week-end. Instantly, we recalled that
Ferrara is a major university town. Our lovely apartment rental was in the
shadow of the magnificent duomo and around the corner from the Castle . The piazza in front of the Duomo is the place
to hang out with friends and a drink. It
was nice to be surrounded by youthful enthusiasm and energy.
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| Lampedusa memorial and nightly gathering in Duomo Piazza |
Also around the corner was a scary statue of Savonarola (the
bonfire of the vanities cleric and self anointed prophet). He is a Ferrara home boy, but Donna was still
surprised to see the larger than life statue in a place of honor.
Bicycles rule this town.
They are everywhere with old and young riders…some even dressed in
spiked heels. The riders are proficient in one armed steering, so they can talk
on their phones and carry their open umbrellas.
Ferrara had a few other things going for it….1) Giorgio
Bassani, a Farranese, set his famous book “The Garden of Finzi Contini” in
Ferrara, 2) many museums, 3) a 9KM 15th century wall that surrounds
the city which is also a bike/walk trail, 4)
it was a quick train trip to the 5th century mosaics of
Ravenna and 5) it was accessible to many nature sights in the Po Valley. As to #3 & 5, Plan B had to take over
with the weather.
We were able to view many of the Bassani’s street/building
references…such as the synagogue, the jewish school and the library. In 1938, the Jews of Ferrara were subject to
racial laws and prohibited from accessing the library. That same library today houses all of
Bissani’s books and writings. On our last day in Ferrara which was
beautiful…we walked along the wall and
stopped by the Jewish cemetery where Bassani & family are all buried.
We did make a trip to Commachio a coastal town on the Po which hypes itself as a little Venice (a
stretch). Commachio is famous for its canals, a delightful 5 arched 17th century bridge, eel farms and a famous Roman trading boat. The latter was discovered in the 1980s and
it along with its contents were salvaged. The artefacts are displayed in a museum.
In addition to checking out the
eel museum, which expanded our knowledge of eel
production titanically (just ask if you want to know more)…we enjoyed a
lunch of eel and other seafood at a nice restaurant on a canal.
This blog would not be complete unless we teased your taste buds and commented on the
Ferranese bread…now that we are safely out of its clutches. After weeks of enjoying Tuscan bread, we
discovered that in Ferrara, against all logic, they prefer to eat their own
bread. See picture. It was fun to pull apart while you are
waiting for your antipasto, but we had the most fun deciding how to describe its
taste and texture. Taste was easy.
NONE. Texture, we agreed on
Ossified Pillsbury Doughboy.
