The Cities of the Via Emilia
Eleven old towns in a row along two hundred and sixty kilometres, one every half hour of driving.
The Via Emilia is a road from 187 BC and the cities along it are still the same ones: Rimini, Cesena, Forli, Faenza, Imola, Bologna, Modena, Reggio, Parma, Fidenza, Piacenza. They are close together, they all have a compact old centre and they are visited on foot, which for anyone arriving by motorhome is a piece of luck: you park outside and walk in.
What there is to see
Bologna has tens of kilometres of arcades, a Unesco site, and the one up to San Luca climbs to the sanctuary under cover for nearly four kilometres. Modena has its Romanesque cathedral and the Ghirlandina, also Unesco. Parma has the Antelami baptistery and the frescoes of Correggio. Ferrara and Ravenna lie off the Via Emilia but in the same band, and each is worth a journey on its own.
The right way to do it
Not all in one day. Two cities a day is already a lot, and the local train along the Via Emilia links them without your having to think about parking. In summer you leave early in the morning, eat under an arcade and go back to the campsite in the afternoon, when the plain is too hot to be out in.