Two days in Emilia Romagna: Modena, Bologna or Ravenna

I may be wrong, but isn't the Museum in Modena more focused on the guy Enzo Ferrari whereas the museum in Maranello is more about the cars he built?

Modena is a smaller, wealthier version of Bologna with an Unesco Cathedral in place of the Bologna University and the Bologna Unesco Porticoed Streets.

ItaliaRail is a re-seller for Trenitalia, they have no obligation to show the full schedules of both companies and all the discounted fares. There are no direct trains between Ravenna and Florence, you'll have 18 minutes to transfer at Bologna Centrale from the surface to the underground tracks.

Thank you, good to know all those things. I let my husband decide which Ferrari museum he wanted to go to and he picked Modena. He doesn't like to change his plans, so that's where we're going!

I like Italiarail's site because it's a little bit easier to navigate, but I'll check out Trenitalia to see how that train ride actually looks. In your opinion, is Modena an interesting city just to hang around for a day? If I'm jet lagged, I actually love cities like Paris that bombard your senses and can keep you awake that first day so you aren't tempted to sleep before nighttime.

I think Modena is too small, too old and too rich to bombard anyone's senses, but it's a beautiful town.

When I wrote "both companies" I meant both "railway companies", you should check both trenitalia.com and italotreno.it/en

I like that idea, but I have two other people that I want to be happy with our plans. My husband said he researched the Ferrari museums and wants Modena, so based on experience, it's better to let him have that then tell him he really wants Manarello. We all have our own peculiarities I suppose and that's something to take in consideration. If the Modena Ferrari museum is absolutely horrible, well that would change things.

I am the person that wants to see the mosaics and I may have to give that up for this trip. I should point out this trip to Italy I am getting to see plenty of things that interest me since I'm doing all the planning.

What I'm really wondering is Modena worth 2 nights for my group since our focus is not on truly exploring the Emilia Romagna region for this particular trip, it's our 6 nights in Florence and 7 nights in Rome. We would however enjoy getting a small taste of a different region just to whet our appetite for our next trip.

I understand how disturbing it sounds for people to travel to an interesting region just for a few days, but we only have a limited amount of vacation days and after this, we're not moving around much at all.

In September, I visited Florence (6 nights), Modena (4 nights), Ravenna (day trip) and Bologna (3 nights). I enjoyed Modena because after a week in Florence I wanted a smaller, quieter city — with delicious food and Romanesque architecture (Modena cathedral).

For reasons I won’t get into here, I ended up doing my day trip to Ravenna from Modena instead of from Bologna. Even with the longer train journey, it was eminently doable so consider it if you are the only one in your group who really wants to see the mosaics. I saw Basilica Sant’Apollinaire Nuovo, Mausoleum of Galla Placida, Basilica of San Vitale, Battistero Neoniano, and Domus dei Tappeti di Pietra, all within walking distance of each other, and I had time for a leisurely lunch. My B&B had in in-depth guidebook to Ravenna that I brought along with me. I did check the online cruise boards ahead of time to make sure there weren’t any ships in port that day.

Edited to add: I re-read your posts and in response to your question yes, I found Modena an interesting city center to hang around for a day! Things you can do: see the Duomo, climb the bell tower (Ghirlandina), browse the shops (clothing, shoes, books), visit Mercato Albinelli (Giovanni’s counter at the back has outstanding mortadella, prosciutto, etc), do a tasting of aceto balsamico tradizionale di Modena at Acetaia Giusti.

Buon viaggio!

Ravenna is great, but you only need a day there. We did a day in Bologna and it was OK, but we didn't do any museums.

Maybe I have a happy compromise. Stay in Bologna instead of Modena. It’s probably going to be faster overall to take the train to go from Milan to Bologna than to Modena because the faster Bologna trains run more often. (The train from Milano Centrale to Bologna is just an hour and 15 minutes. Don’t take one of the slower trains!)

Your first full day, you husband & son can take the quick 15-minute train from Bologna to Modena while you take the 1-hour train over to Ravenna. Then you don’t need to take a day away from Florence. Your first day of wandering to get over jet lag would be in Bologna where it sounds more to what you would like.

By the way, Trenitalia.com is easy to use. The city names are in Italian:
Milano is Milan
Firenze is Florence
Roma is Rome

So, if I have understood your program:
Day 1: you arrive by plane in Bologna at late morning or noon.
Day2: dedicated to visits.
Day3: dedicated to visits. In the afternoon train to Florence.

In my opinion sleep in the same hotel, in Bologna, makes more sense. No idea what could overwhelm you, but in my opinion when jet lagged better avoid too much transfers and visits.
Probably if your husband is a car fanatic the Ferrari visit could be the right one, but in my opinion better stay in Bologna the first night. Even to have the chance to deal with delay or luggage problems.
Visit Modena or Ravenna the 2nd day and the other city the 3rd makes sense. In the past there where much more direct trains from Modena to Florence, but now there are only few ones in a day. In any case try to have a look at the timetable, because could be a better solution go to Ravenna the 2nd and Modena the 3rd (avoiding a train change in the evening).

About the Ferrari museums is true that the Modena one is the "Enzio Ferrari", but is not a museum dedicated only to him: is dedicated to cars. An example: during the 2021 there was a section dedicated to Ferrari cars owned by Gianni Agnelli. In the two museums there are two different cars expositions, often in Modena more classical while in Maranello more sports and Formula. In any case keep in mind that the exposition changes every year and often there are sudden little changes along the year, so cars shown now could be completely different in few months.
My suggestion for a lover is to visit both museums. Try to have a look to the shuttle (it connects Modena, Maranello and Modena's train station) timetable. You can even check if the "Ferrari and Pavarotti land" tour fit your needing: http://www.ferraripavarottiland.it/ (even has been not started again after Covid).
For a Ferrari fan is interesting note even that in this period Michael Mann is shooting in Modena the new movie about Enzo Ferrari. Will be presented next year and could be funny visit where has been recorded. And you will see in the movie what you can visit in Modena, being shoot in the most of touristic places of the city.

About Modena, for a non car lover, there are several cultural things: the Cathedral (UNESCO World Heritage), the Gallerie Estensi (one of the most important Italian museums), the churches of San Pietro and San Francesco, the Duomo's museum. And of course the food offer: you can visit for example a producer of Traditional Balsamic Vinegar in the city or do other tastings about the traditional food.

We did both Ferrari and Lamborghie "museums" in the same day. I prefer Bologna to Modena. I think two nights ONE day is fine but Bologna has a great "food court" in the local market and also a great food tour if you're interested.

One can power through the seven well-known mosaic sites in Ravenna in a day, even by starting in Bologna, but there is more to see in Ravenna, including a mosaic museum in a former church, an art museum, etc. Ravenna's well worth being treated as a base rather than just a day trip. There's a new historical museum out in Classe (where you'll also find one of the mosaic sites); despite spending two full days in Ravenna, I didn't have time for that museum.

Thank you for all the fantastic tips I have gotten so far. If only we could be in Italy for a whole month!

I an now thinking of staying 3 nights in Modena, 5 nights in Florence before we move on to our Rick Steves Best of Rome tour where we are for 7 nights. I had us for 2 nights in Modena then 6 nights in Florence. After researching the Modena, Reggio Emilia and Parma area some more, the idea of experiencing a less touristed area really started to appeal to me.

I know that 3 nights is only scratching the surface of anywhere in Italy. Is it a terrible idea to lessen our time in Florence from 6 nights to 5 nights? We probably enjoy more of interesting, unexpected experiences than the must see sights, not that we don't like those too.

Having just spent a week in Bologna, I would pick there and Ravenna. The mosaics are stunning.

We stayed 2 nights in Ravenna. It's a small town, with pretty much nothing but the mosaics. They are certainly worth seeing. We enjoyed our other parts of the visit - having a nice dinner on 2 nights, walking around, seeing the town. But the sights are mosaic-oriented, and these are mostly identified in other comments. Another site is the Arian Baptistry. From the religious history angle, that's pretty interesting.

Having just visited Bologna and Modena, my suggestion is to stay in Bologna and you take a train day trip to Ravenna while your husband takes a train day trip to Modena. Both are very accessible by train from Bologna as day trips.