6 Day Trips from Bologna by Train, and How to Plan Them

Six cities make good day trips from Bologna by train, and all six are under 90 minutes away: Modena, Ferrara, Parma, Rimini, Ravenna and San Marino. Bologna Centrale is one of the busiest rail hubs in Italy, which is the whole reason the region works this way. You can base yourself in one hotel for a week and never rent a car.

I spent a week doing exactly that, with Bologna as the base, and this is the plan I would give someone doing it again: what each city is for, how long the train takes, which pairs sensibly combine, and the two tickets that are easy to get wrong. The Emilia Romagna region is flat, compact and unusually well connected, so the planning is easier than it looks.

The 6 day trips at a glance

The table below sets out the six day trips from Bologna, what each one is for, and roughly how long the train takes each way.

Two of these pair naturally. Parma and Modena sit on the same westward line, so you can do both in one long day, and San Marino is reached through Rimini, so those two go together too. That leaves Ferrara and Ravenna as single days, which is how I would keep them.

Before you go: the two tickets that catch people out

Two practical things decide whether these days run smoothly, and both are fixable before you leave your hotel.

Buy train tickets in advance, not at the station. Bologna Centrale is busy, the self-service machines are unreliable, and the ticket-office queue at 9am eats the start of your day. More than one company runs trains in Italy, and the station displays do not always make that obvious, so compare everything on the route at once through Omio and have the ticket on your phone before you arrive.

Check what is open on the day you go. Italian museums close on set days, and in Emilia-Romagna the pattern is not uniform. The Castello Estense in Ferrara closes on Tuesdays. The Palazzo della Pilotta in Parma and Ferrara’s Pinacoteca Nazionale both close on Mondays. A Monday or Tuesday day trip can therefore arrive at a shut front door, and the fix costs nothing but a minute’s checking.

If you would rather not plan any of it, guided day trips run from Bologna to most of these cities, and they solve the transport and the timing in one booking.

The 6 best day trips from Bologna

Each of the six sections below gives you the case for the city, the journey, and where to read the full guide. They are ordered by how easy the trip is, starting with the two half-hour hops.

1. Modena

Modena is the easiest day trip from Bologna and the one to do first, at about half an hour on a direct train. It is a quarter the size of Bologna and it packs a great deal into that: the Cathedral, the Torre Civica, Piazza Grande and the Palazzo Ducale, with the cathedral complex on the UNESCO list as a monument of Romanesque art.

Modena is also a food town with its own claims. Traditional balsamic vinegar is made here, the thick, aged, syrupy kind that has nothing to do with supermarket bottles, and the city has its own prosciutto, its own Parmigiano-Reggiano production and Lambrusco, the lightly fizzy red. The covered Mercato Albinelli is where you taste all of it in one place.

Then there are the cars. Modena was Enzo Ferrari’s birthplace and it is still the headquarters of Ferrari, Maserati and Lamborghini. You can visit the Museum to Enzo Ferrari a short walk from the centre, or head out of town to the Lamborghini Museum in Sant’Agata Bolognese. Luciano Pavarotti was born here too.

Getting from Bologna to Modena: a direct train takes about 30 minutes, on the same westward line as Parma. Buy your ticket beforehand so the machines are not your problem.

2. Ferrara

Ferrara is the quietest of the six and the most complete, at about half an hour north of Bologna by direct train. It is the city of the Este dukes, who ran it for roughly 350 years and paid for almost everything worth looking at. The whole historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and it is ringed by about 9 km (5.6 mi) of intact walls you can cycle along the top of.

The Castello Estense is the set piece: a working moat, drawbridges, ducal apartments and dungeons below the waterline, with a tower you can climb. Beyond it are the cathedral, the old Jewish ghetto around Via Mazzini, and the Palazzo dei Diamanti, faced with 8,500 pyramid-cut marble blocks and holding the Pinacoteca Nazionale. Ferrara is also a cycling city in a way few Italian towns are, so hiring a bike for the day is the obvious move.

Time a visit to late May and you get the Palio di Ferrara, which the city dates to 1279 and claims as the oldest in the world. Note that it now runs on a Saturday evening rather than the last Sunday in May. The full guide to what to see in Ferrara has the ten sights with their 2026 prices and closed days.

Getting from Bologna to Ferrara: direct trains take about 30 minutes and run frequently enough to decide on the morning. Buy your ticket beforehand rather than at the station.

3. Parma

Parma is the food capital of the six and takes 50 to 60 minutes on a direct regional train. Say the name and two things come to mind, Prosciutto di Parma and Parmigiano Reggiano, and both are protected designations that can legally only come from here and a handful of neighbouring provinces.

The city itself is more restrained than Bologna and rewards walking. The Palazzo della Pilotta holds five museums on one ticket, including the wooden Teatro Farnese and the Galleria Nazionale with Leonardo’s La Scapigliata. On the cathedral square, the octagonal pink marble baptistery and Correggio’s painted dome are the two things people remember. Across the river, the Parco Ducale is where the city goes to sit down.

One expectation to set: dairy and ham producer visits happen in the countryside, not in town, they need booking ahead, and the dairies start very early because that is when cheese is made. The guide to things to do in Parma covers how those bookings work.

Getting from Bologna to Parma: a direct train takes 50 to 60 minutes, and Modena sits halfway along the same line, so you can do both in a day. Buy your ticket beforehand.

4. Rimini

Rimini is the beach day, about an hour from Bologna, and it has a Roman city underneath the sunloungers. The Adriatic sand is what draws most people, and it is genuinely good: long, groomed and lined with coloured umbrellas, with the nightlife to match.

The older city is the surprise. Rimini was founded by the Romans in 268 BC, and the Bridge of Tiberius, finished around 20 AD, still carries traffic. The Arch of Augustus dates from 27 BC, Castel Sismondo went up in the 1400s and now hosts exhibitions, and the Domus del Chirurgo is an excavated Roman surgeon’s house, whose recovered instruments are among the most complete sets found anywhere. Rimini has more depth than its reputation allows.

Getting from Bologna to Rimini: a little under an hour on a fast train, but check which service you are booking, because the stopping trains take considerably longer, especially in the evening. Get your train ticket in advance.

5. Ravenna

Ravenna is the art-history day, a little over an hour from Bologna, and its mosaics are the reason to go. This was the capital of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century and later a Byzantine centre, and it kept the decoration.

The Basilica di San Vitale, the Mausoleo di Galla Placidia and the Basilica di Sant’Apollinare Nuovo hold the mosaics people travel for, and eight of the city’s monuments are on the UNESCO list. Dante’s tomb sits a short walk from the centre, a plain marble box holding the poet’s bones. North-east of the city, the marina and the Adriatic coast give you somewhere to go in the afternoon once your neck has had enough of looking up. The guide to Ravenna has the detail.

Getting from Bologna to Ravenna: direct trains take a little over an hour, but times vary a lot, so check before you book. Some services stop everywhere. Get your ticket beforehand.

6. San Marino

San Marino is the longest day of the six and the only one that needs two legs, but it is the one people talk about afterwards. It is the oldest republic in the world and one of the smallest countries in existence, sitting on top of Monte Titano at about 650 m (2,130 ft) above sea level, with views down to the Adriatic.

The city is genuinely striking: steep cobbled lanes, three fortress towers along the ridge, and a skyline that looks invented. Two of the towers, Guaita and Cesta, are open to the public, and Cesta holds a museum of ancient weapons. The Public Palace on Piazza della Libertà houses the country’s parliament, with a white Carrara marble statue of Liberty in front of it, and a combined ticket covers several state sites including both towers, the Public Palace, the Church of St Francis and the State Museum. Shopping here is tax-free, which is why the main street is the way it is.

Getting from Bologna to San Marino: take the direct train to Rimini, a little under an hour, then the Rimini-San Marino shuttle bus run by Bonelli Bus. The single fare is €7.00 ($8, £6), the bus runs all year and every day, and it takes 50 to 60 minutes up the hill. Buy online or at an authorised outlet rather than relying on the driver, because on-board sales depend on there being space, and Bonelli recommends reserving. Buses run roughly every one to two hours in each direction, so check the return time before you set off up the mountain, or you will be sitting on a wall for an hour.

A note from my own trip: I tried to buy the ticket in advance at a newspaper stand, which is where you normally get bus tickets in Italy, and was told to get it on the bus instead. Then I got on with only a €50 note, which the driver made very clear was not welcome. Buying online avoids both problems. Get your train ticket to Rimini here.

An Emilia Romagna itinerary: a week from Bologna