Day Trips from Bologna: Modena, Parma, Ravenna, Ferrara, Florence and Motor Valley

Bologna Centrale is a hub on Italy’s main lines to Milan, Florence and Venice, which makes the city a good base. Five worthwhile cities are about an hour or less away by train, most of them on cheap regional services you can buy at the station on the day.

Every train time and fare below comes from Trenitalia’s own journey planner, searched in October 2026 for a weekday morning. Regional fares are fixed. High-speed fares change with demand, so treat them as “from” prices.

Day trips from Bologna compared

Checked October 2026. Trains leave from Bologna Centrale, about a 20-minute walk from Piazza Maggiore; our getting there guide has the route.

Modena

The closest and cheapest. Regional trains take 25 to 32 minutes for €4.50. A Frecciarossa does it in 20 minutes but costs €16, which is not worth it for a five-minute saving.

Modena’s cathedral, its bell tower and Piazza Grande have been on the UNESCO World Heritage list together since 1997. The cathedral was begun in 1099 by the architect Lanfranco, and the bell tower is known locally as the Ghirlandina. You can climb part of it: VisitModena lists €6 full price with a booked time slot, going up as far as the Sala dei Torresani rather than the very top.

Modena is also where balsamic vinegar comes from, and it is the easiest base for Ferrari (see Motor Valley below). Half a day covers the center. A full day lets you add a museum or an acetaia visit.

Ferrara

Thirty-one minutes on a regional train, for €5.50.

UNESCO listed Ferrara in 1995 as a planned Renaissance city that has kept its street layout, and extended the listing to the Po Delta in 1999. The Castello Estense in the middle of town was begun in 1385 for Niccolò II d’Este and is still surrounded by its moat. The official castle site lists €12 full and €10 reduced, and it is closed on Tuesdays.

The other reason to come is the walls. More than 9 km of them ring the old town, and you can walk or cycle along the top or in the ditch below.

Parma

About an hour each way, €8.50 on the regional train (58 minutes on the faster RV services). The Frecciarossa saves only three minutes.

Parma is the food trip: Parmigiano Reggiano and Prosciutto di Parma are made in the countryside around it. To see the cheese and ham being made you need transport to the producers, which is where a tour earns its price. The Parma food tour in our picks starts in Parma, so you take the train there yourself and meet the group.

In town, the cathedral is free to enter. The Baptistery beside it, begun by Benedetto Antelami in 1196, and the Diocesan Museum share a ticket of €12 full. Inside the cathedral, look up at Correggio’s dome, painted between 1525 and 1530. The Complesso della Pilotta, which includes the Teatro Farnese and the National Gallery, charges €18 full, is free for under-18s and closes on Mondays.

Ravenna

Ravenna is a little over an hour away on a direct regional train (1 hour 12 minutes, €8.50). There is no faster option, but you do not need one.

You go for the mosaics. Eight early Christian monuments from the fifth and sixth centuries are on the UNESCO list together, including the Basilica of San Vitale, the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia and Sant’Apollinare Nuovo. Combined tickets cover several of them. The official site lists reduced prices only, so check the full fare when you buy, and book a time slot for Galla Placidia and the Neonian Baptistery, which is mandatory. The monuments open 09:00 to 19:00 until 2 November 2026 and 10:00 to 17:00 from 3 November.

The guided Ravenna tour in our picks includes the train tickets from Bologna, monument entry and a two-hour guided walk.

Florence

The fast train is the reason Florence works as a day trip. Frecciarossa services reach Firenze Santa Maria Novella in 37 minutes, with fares from €18.90 on the date we checked. Italo runs the route too. The regional alternative costs €10 but takes about 1 hour 47 minutes with a change at Prato.

The historic center of Florence has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1982. Book any museum you care about before you leave Bologna.

The one GetYourGuide product we found that runs from Bologna to Florence has only three reviews averaging 3.8, so we have not picked it. Buy the train ticket yourself instead. If you are still deciding between the two cities, our take on which is nicer, Bologna or Florence may help.

Motor Valley: Ferrari, Lamborghini and Ducati

The Ferrari, Lamborghini and Ducati museums are all within reach of Bologna, but they are spread out, and public transport only works well for one of them.

Ferrari. There are two museums: the Museo Enzo Ferrari in Modena and the Museo Ferrari in Maranello. Ferrari runs a scheduled shuttle between them that stops at Modena station, so the train-plus-shuttle route works. Ferrari lists a single museum at €27 for adults from October to April and €32 from May to September, and a pass for both at €38 and €42. Show a regional train ticket used this year and a single museum drops to €20. Check the shuttle times on ferrari.com before you set off.

Lamborghini. The Museo Automobili Lamborghini is at the factory in Sant’Agata Bolognese. Factory tours start from the museum and are booked separately. Official sources disagree on its current hours and prices, so check museolamborghini.com before you go.

Ducati. The Ducati Museum is at the factory in Bologna’s Borgo Panigale district. Ducati lists museum entry at €18 for adults plus a €2 online booking fee, closed on Wednesdays except in August, with tickets bought online in advance.

For Ferrari and Lamborghini on the same day, a guided tour with transfers is much simpler than stringing together trains and shuttles.

How we picked the tours

We looked at the GetYourGuide day trips we track for visitors staying in Bologna, using the rating, the number of reviews and the price shown on each listing in October 2026. Labels follow from that data: the lowest price is “Best on a budget”, the highest rating is “Highest rated”, and the most reviews is “Most reviewed”. We left out tours rated below 4.0 and tours with fewer than ten reviews. Prices change, so check the listing before you book.

Back in Bologna, everything starts at Piazza Maggiore. If you are choosing a base for these trips, our guide to where to stay in Bologna compares the areas, including near the station.