Emilia Romagna
How to Get Around Emilia Romagna
Getting Around
Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport, named for the Bologna-born radio pioneer, is the region's main air gateway and is linked to Bologna Centrale railway station by the Marconi Express monorail in about seven minutes. Bologna Centrale is itself a core hub of Italy's high-speed rail network, sitting on the Milan-Bologna and Bologna-Florence high-speed lines that together form the backbone of the Milan-Rome route, which makes Bologna a practical base for day trips across much of the region and beyond.
Regional trains connect the Via Emilia cities -- Piacenza, Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Bologna -- frequently and inexpensively, and Ravenna and the coastal towns are also rail-connected. A car becomes useful mainly for reaching smaller Apennine towns, individual food producers, and the Po Delta, where rail service thins out and public transport runs on a limited schedule.
Regional connections
How easily, and at what cost, can you combine the region’s main destinations?
| Route | Best option | One-way time | Travel Smart take |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bologna and Modena | Train | ~25 min typical, not a timetable | Excellent day-trip connection. Bologna works well as a base for Modena. |
| Bologna and Parma | Train | ~1 hr typical, not a timetable | Comfortable as a day trip. Bologna works well as a base for Parma. |
| Bologna and Ravenna | Train | ~1 hr 20 min typical, not a timetable | Comfortable as a day trip. Bologna works well as a base for Ravenna. |
| Modena and Parma | Train | ~35 min typical, not a timetable | Excellent day-trip connection. Modena works well as a base for Parma. |
Cost compares the options for each route rather than quoting a fare: inexpensive means the price is not a factor in planning, moderate cost means a real line in the budget, and the expensive option is one worth weighing against the alternative. Fares change from year to year; the ranking between them does not.