Ferrara, Italy

What a great weekend to be in Italy, the weather was amazing all weekend!  Yesterday Dan and I went to Ferrara to check out all there was to see.  It’s about an hour and 45 minute drive from here, all highway too.  While we were on the highway we saw signs for Bologna being only 50km away, so that kind of gives you an idea of where we were at.

The town of Ferrara has many places dating from the 14th and 15th Century and because of it’s beauty and cultural importance, it has been qualified by UNESCO as a world heritage site.

The drive there was beautiful, but the closer we got, the foggier we got.  When we arrived it was starting to clear up, still a bit hazy though.

This was driving through the fog

Looking down the streets of Ferrara

An old Church we passed going to the main square

Many of the bikes had baskets with flowers in the them. I thought they were cute.

This is the main cathedral in Ferrara from the 12th century. It's a 3 tiered marble facade, combining Romanesque and Gothic styles. The upper level is a graphic representation of the Final Judgment and heaven and hell.

Absolutely Beautiful

This is the City Hall.  It was renovated in the 18th century, was the earlier residence of the Este family.

The building you see at the end is the castle

Inside the Cathedral

Tower in the Square by the Cathedral

There was an antique market going on in the square. Lots of good looking wood tables, stands and chests.  There was a chest we really liked, but it was over 1500 Euro!

This is the outside of the Castello Estense.  It’s surrounded by water and has a drawbridge as well.

This picture I took while coming out of the castle, we were walking over the drawbridge.

More pictures of the castle from the outside

Looking out from inside the castle

The kitchen in the castle

The dungeon!  Had to go down some narrow stairs, the duck through the little doorways, which were probably only 4 feet tall.

This was in one of the holding cells they had.  It was a small room with a toilet in the corner, which is what you see below.  Apparently there is a story to go along with the dungeon. In 1425 the Duke, Nicolo III d'Este had his young second wife and son beheaded down here because he found out they were lovers. And I guess that inspired Robert Browning to write a poem, "My Last Duchess."

This door was very short, maybe 3 feet tall.

Painting’s and Ceilings within the castle

We came to the part to go up in the tower. So, that means lots of stairs.  They weren’t that bad though and the view was worth it!

This picture is gross. Naked men rolling around with their heads in each others groins and butts…can we say ewww?  Click on the picture to enlarge…see for yourself.

They had angled mirrors so you could look into them rather than looking up at the ceiling…pretty nifty.

While we were getting ready to leave the castle, we heard drums coming from the street, so rushed over to a window and saw a parade.  I got a video, but it’s shaky and not very good, but I will post it anyway so you can see how neat it was. It was a band with drummer, followed by a court of some kind then men with flags.

 

We walked through the rest of the castle and exited through a courtyard within the castle.  When we were leaving, this band and court that just paraded through the streets was entering the courtyard. So, we stayed and watched.

 

Band entering courtyard in castle

 

Walking down the streets of Ferrara, headed to the park

2 older gentlemen on their bikes carrying on a conversation. I thought it was too cute.

We found the park. Surprised at how green everything was

Cute Hello Kitty bikes

This is another park we found on our way back towards the square

This was a little confusing to see here in Italy.  We saw it on our way in, so on our way out, I figured I would snap a photo.

Dan and I had a lot of fun here, we thought it was a neat town.  We parked in a designated parking lot, Dan said he saw online that it was the cheapest in the town. It was 0,70 for the 4 hours we were there. Not too shabby!