Sicily - late March

Emilia-Romagna - early April

Ferrara Intro

Apartment

Museums 1

Rossetti

Eating!

Ravenna Hills 1

Ravenna Hills 2

Faenza

Tuscany, Florence - April 8

Umbria - late April

Ferrara and the Po Valley

As I mentioned previously, Emilia-Romagna is in north-central Italy, up where they make all the wonderful hams and cheeses (well, that's kind of everywhere, but these are THE BEST.) Ferrara is in north-eastern Emilia-Romagna, a little north and east of Bologna, but south of the Italian Alps. This is the beautiful and fertile Po Valley, which reminds me a bit of the southern Willamette Valley here in Oregon--with some major differences, of course, like the Po Valley is much larger than the Willamette Valley. It's late Spring here, the lilacs, pears, wisteria, poppies and some of the grapes are blooming. The fruit trees are interesting; most of them appear to be espaliered, so they're planted closer together than ours, and are, perhaps, easier to harvest.

The home gardens are still producing onions and winter-looking greens, but some rows have clearly just been planted or just turned over in preparation for planting. This is also true in the fields. In both fields and gardens, there are quite a few individual or row-long miniature "green houses," made out of opaque plastic and sticks and pieces of brick. I just saw these out of train windows, so no pictures, but you can imagine them.

One of the most glorious things throughout Italy is the hundreds and hundreds of blooming wisteria, some of them very old, which you do not see nearly so much in Oregon. (This photo is from Brisighella, which I will tell about later.)

Other differences from Oregon include, of course, the exotic-looking farm buildings, all stone, some thatched; the castles and defensive towers sprinkled about the countryside; and the ubiquitous, gorgeous rows of cypress trees. (Here's a nice photo of cypress.) Although these trees are mostly associated with Tuscany, they are also seen in other central regions, especially Emilia-Romagna. I was told that they are often used to mark boundaries, roads and cemeteries because you can see them from far away and all year round (they're an evergreen conifer).

Ferrara itself is an old community, probably established as a trade center in pre-Roman times, with a recorded history back to the 7th century. But, its heyday was in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, declining in the latter part of the 16th. This is the timeframe where this branch of the House of Este consolidated its wealth, bolstered by the fertile fields and the abundance of local pottery clay, as well as the value of the ancient trading route that the Po represents.

In this time period, the Estes established a university (1391), built scores of beautiful palaces, summer homes and administrative and defensive building--and a few buildings just for relaxation and entertainment. They were the greatest patrons of the arts in central northern Italy for hundreds of years and were granted a Duchy in 1452 (by the Emporer, Frederick III, a Hapsburg, if you're curious). They continued to do well until they ran into Alexander VI, a corrupt pope, looking for a (third) husband for his darling daughter, Lucretia Borgia, in the mid-15th century. That marriage, to Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara, worked out pretty well. Lucretia settled down, avoiding the intrigue of her earlier marriages (and unfortunate affairs with family members) and bore the Duke eight children. But the stain of fate was on the Este family, and when Lucretia and Alfonso's grandson died without a male heir, another corrupt pope, Clement VIII, used this as an excuse to sieze their holdings. The glory years were over.

However, Ferrara still proudly offers evidence of those glory years. In the ancient city center, we were dazzled daily by the remaining art and architecture. A bit about that in the next installment, and with less history lesson.