Ferrara train timetable and tickets

If you want to discover what is considered the first true modern city in Europe, book your train ticket to Ferrara with Italo right away: today, it is even easier and faster to reach. Straddling Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia-Romagna, Ferrara is the ideal destination to explore the parks along the Po River, taste the delicacies typical of the Po Valley, and walk – or cycle – on the cobblestones of historic streets, surrounded by Renaissance palaces.

Declared a World Heritage Site twice by Unesco, Ferrara was the first city in the world to evolve from a simple cluster of medieval villages and walls into a thriving fortified Renaissance city, thanks to the intellectual and political guidance of the Este family. The most important and fascinating works and monuments of the city date back to the period between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: the new walls, the Este Castle, with its ducal residences and frescoes, and the Cathedral of San Giorgio. The jewel of that golden era is the wonderful Palazzo dei Diamanti, built with 8,500 blocks of white marble streaked with pink, creating incredible plays of light and shadow, a visit not to be missed!

Today, Ferrara preserves its history excellently, making it interact with contemporaneity. Its relaxed atmosphere makes it extremely livable: its human scale is symbolized by the widespread use of bicycles. Ferrara is indeed the nerve center of a network of almost 600 kilometers of bike paths throughout the province, earning it the nickname "city of bicycles."

If you are a food lover, you will not be disappointed in Ferrara. The menu is dominated by first courses: typical of Ferrara are cappellacci di zucca (ravioli filled with a mixture of baked pumpkin, Parmesan, and nutmeg), and pasticcio di maccheroni. The latter requires such a long and laborious preparation that it is worth staying in Ferrara just to savor it at its best, in one of the many restaurants that serve it according to local tradition. It consists of a shell of shortcrust pastry (or puff pastry), filled with macaroni seasoned with dried mushrooms, ragù, béchamel, and Parmesan, all sprinkled with truffle shavings, and prepared in a typical copper dish, called a pasticcio dish.

If you want to explore the city on foot or by bicycle, there are plenty of choices: you can start from Corso Ercole I d’Este, considered by Unesco to be “one of the most beautiful streets in the world”; then move on to Piazza Trento e Trieste (formerly known as Piazza delle Erbe), the heart of the city with the Duomo and the Palazzo della Ragione; and venture into via delle Volte, two kilometers of cobblestone street among the arches of residential houses and local trattorias.

What are you waiting for? Buy your Italo ticket to Ferrara!