Bologna for 7 nights

I’ve been there in early December and the weather is temperate (35°-55°) and I made do with a medium weight jacket and sweater. Having stayed in both Parma and Bologna, I would opt for Parma even though transport-wise Bologna is more convenient. Parma is a smaller and nicer city with restaurants as good as those in Bologna.

Thank you, we are checking it out now. While staying in Parma, did you take the train to Bologna and Modena or did you have a rental car?

Ferrara is also a great place to visit from Bologna.

I spend 5 months a year (Jan - May) near Bologna in Vignola. I would stay in Bologna rather than Parma. Vignola is a nice small town an easy train ride away that you can visit! Modena, Ravenna, Florence, Parma, Ferrara. There are many smaller towns on the route from Bologna to Piacenza (including Parma and Modena) but smaller yet Fidenza and Fiorenzuola. Really off the beaten path (but on the Via Francigena)

Linda, thank you! We just secured a lovely Airbnb with a balcony in Bologna and are so excited! I appreciate your suggestions and we will definitely be checking all of them out. I may be reaching back out to you for more specific recommendations (if that is okay) since you spend such a large amount of time there.

In the last years Winters are warmer than in the past, so January is not a bad period. Winters now are dry, with few rain, almost no snow and temperature rarely below freezing point.
With 7 days you have time to discover several cities and town by train, because Bologna is the most important train hub of Italy.
I suggest you to plan even a day with a tour visiting some food producers and/or car factories, or other places far from the cities (Emilia and Romagna are plenty of castles and fortresses, for example). You can even rent a car and do by your yourself, but is funny even visit how nice is Italy outside cities.

Ravenna is not too far away, such incredible mosaics!

My wife and I are from Texas also, and every year we go through the travel process "where is a good place to go in Europe in Jan or Feb?". I am really interested in Bologna and the areas mentioned in the thread (because we have never been to that part of Italy). Rick doesn't really cover this area that much, so any advice on resources that are good for this area on travel advice and ideas?

For Ravenna it would be very important to research winter operating hours for the mosaic sites. In high season you can visit the seven main ones in a single day, traveling from Bologna. I don't remember whether they are open every day of the week, but they have reasonably long hours. Some other sights in the city (there's a mosaic museum, an art museum, etc.) go beyond what could be accomplished in a single day trip, and those are probably closed at least one day a week even in the summer. For a winter visit you could run into shorter hours on the days things are open.

Ravenna is really fabulous, but I've only been there in the summer (2015) and in September (2022). I guess through dumb luck, I've never run into significant crowds. A couple of the major sites require timed tickets, but I haven't read of folks having a problem getting a convenient time slot upon arrival in Ravenna.

A lot of cruise ships are now docking in Ravenna (labeling the cruise as going to "Venice", I would guess), but those folks seem not to have discovered Ravenna yet; they all just head to Venice. Now would be a good time to see Ravenna before it becomes more crowded.