imprimis travel design: aprile 2012

Some time ago the Imprimis Travel Design team decided to fill up some voids it had on certain cities in North Italy.. We pride ourselves to know extremely well our country, and we do, but being such a variegated and diverse country, it is hard, almost impossible to know everything, and to do our job well we need to keep going around and getting to know well cities, areas, restaurants and hotels.

With this spirit we organized a trip to some nearby towns, because our time was limited, the winners were Mantova and Ferrara, with short stops at Cremona on the way there and Modena on the way back.

We stopped in Cremona for a quick visit to this small jewel, a lovely little town an hour or so from Milan, we parked and wondered around the pretty historical center, which is small and won’t take you very long… we wanted to reach Mantova in time for lunch so we only saw the architectural pearl of the “Chiesa di Sant Egidio e Sant Omobono”, in the center, and proceeded eastwards.

Mantova is a bigger town, but yet as with Cremona it didn’t pose a challenge to find parking close to the historical center and walk inside. We always suggest to park, if driving, at the edges of the historical center, which often charges ludicrous hour rates, and walk; it is often a good way to find hidden gems or corners you wouldn’t see otherwise. In Mantova our first stop was the “Osteria dell’Oca”, one of the restaurants with the best reviews, and we were driven to see if that was true.. and indeed it was! What a restaurant. (full review by Imprimis in our profile on www.tripadvisor.com) Then we wondered around the center going to such sightseeing as Palazzo Della Ragione, Palazzo Te, La Casa del Mercante and the grand Palazzo Ducale with its Castle (Castello di San Giorgio, home of the Gonzaga family) and the lovely archeological museum inside. By the end of the afternoon we saw it all, and proceeded to Ferrara, less than a hundred kilometers down the Po river course..

Ferrara is bigger than Mantova, we found a very good safe parking right at the edge of the historical center and at good nightly rates, which was also very close to our hotel. (Hotel Corte Estense, a good option. See full review on tripadvisor)

We walked thru the main “piazza” looking for our restaurant, another highly anticipated one, having a glimpse of the Duomo of Ferrara, lighted in the night. The restaurant (Il Mandolino, good but slightly below expectation) offered a good position in a lively street in town, where we had an aperitivo waiting for dinner time.

The following morning was taken by sightseeing, which is very easy to do considering most of them are located in walking distance to each other: The mighty Duomo, which we saw the previous evening, was now explored inside, the Palazzo di Ludovico il Moro, the Monastero di Sant’Antonio in Polesine, the magnificent Castello Estense and the Jewish quarter and its museum were all done in one morning, included the museum inside the castle which took us some time, all of it within the “Mura di Ferrara”, the historical walls which protected the town (now the town center) which are a sight themselves.

Happy with our “sightseeing tour the force” and the consequent purchase of guides and collection of info brochures and books to better assist our clientele, we went back to the parking lot, paid the fare and left on our way to Milan.

Slightly out of our way lied the small town of Modena, famous mostly for the Ferrari legacy.. and its superb culinary standards. This is why we thought going to the center and looking for a restaurant was a brilliant idea! This time we didn’t look for reviewed restaurants, but wondered and looked for one we didn’t know what to expect from. We ended up going to a small trattoria called “La Bonissima” which offered the real Modenese deal at great value, had lovely wine, purchase some for us and left highly satisfied and with a full stomach. (review still on www.tripadvisor.com) We wondered around the city center for about an hour, had a coffee and then got back on our way to Milan, which took us less than two hours.

This is what Italy can offer, with the right expertise and knowledge, for those who do not have too much time but want to experience as much as they can, may be going to destinations out of the mainstream of mass-tourism. In two full days spending only one night out, we visited four towns in a range of 250 kilometers using a big hub as Milan as the base, see the things we had to, and ate at restaurants which offered local cuisine, using user- generated reviews or our own luck to find the best options we can in turn offer to you.

Come to www.imprimistraveldesign.com and see what we are capable of!

Tommaso & Matteo