Lying in the middle of the Po Valley, Ferrara still has the atmosphere of the past, which blends in harmoniously with the lively atmosphere of the present.
Ferrara's most famous image is certainly that of its grand Renaissance, the age of splendour of the Estense court, which has left indelible signs everywhere in the town’s art and architecture.
From 1995 on, UNESCO has included the historical centre of Ferrara in the list of World Cultural Heritage as a wonderful example of a town planned in the Renaissance and still keeping its historical centre intact. The town planning criteria expressed in Ferrara had a deep influence on the progress of town planning in the following centuries.

For those who arrive in Ferrara from some directions, the Walls constitute the first contact with the city: a red curtain of brick stands out against the deep green of the tree-lined ramparts. They encircle the historic centre almost without interruption for nine kilometres, constituting one of the oldest and most impressive defensive systems of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Time has transformed these walls into a place for meeting friends, practicing sport and recreation, where people can relax as if in a tranquil garden, with paths for cycling and walking which, from the heights of the ramparts, give a view of the countryside that extends to the Po on one side and the panorama of the church spires and the towers of the Castello Estense on the other.

Ferrara has an important jewish history: as the capital city of the d’Este dukes until 1598, it was a center of Italian and European Judaism, with more than 2000 Jews of a Population of 30000 during its golden age between the 15th and the 16th centuries. Italian Jews, Ashkenazim from Germany and Sephardim welcomed after their expulsion from Spain lived side by side under the protection of the local authorities.
The situation declined after 1597, when the papacy took control of the city: in 1627 the ghetto was created. Despite difficulties, and even after their emancipation in 1859, many Jews remained in the city until Mussolini imposed racial laws in 1938. In 1943 a large part of the Jews who were still living in Ferrara were deported to Auschwitz.

Nowadays, about 80 Jews live in Ferrara. It’s possible to visit the synagogue, the museum, the streets where the Jews lived, full of memories and marble plaques, graved with names, dates and facts regarding the jewish life of the city; the cemetery, in use since 1620, is located near the city walls. With its many tombs, both old and new, among the poplars, it is a very moving place.