Modena

Introduction

Sunset over Duomo, Modena

© HalD

Modena is a city in the Modena Province in the Emilia-Romagna region in central northern Italy. It's located just south of the Po Valley and has about 180,000 inhabitants.
Although the city itself is an ancient gem, the city might be best known for having factories and headquarters of many Italian sportscar builders, like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Pagani, Bugatti, DeTomaso and Maserati, are or were here. Only Lamborghini has its headquarters elsewhere nowadays. And factories have spread as well across a wider region in northern Italy.

Neighbourhoods

• Centro storico (Historical Center, San Cataldo)
• Crocetta (San Lazzaro-East Modena, Crocetta)
• Buon Pastore (Buon Pastore, Sant'Agnese, San Damaso)
• San Faustino (S.Faustino-Saliceta San Giuliano, Madonnina-Quattro Ville)

Sights and Activities

• The Romanesque Cathedral and the Ghirlandina, together with the campanile is a Unesco World Heritage Site
• Ducal Palace
• Town Hall
• Museum Palace
• San Vincenzo Church
• Galleria Ferrari is the Ferrari Museum. The actual Ferrari factory is located 17km south of Modena in the town of Maranello.

Weather

A somewhat cooler Mediterranean climate exists in Modena, with relatively hot and dry summers when temperatures are mostly around 30 degrees Celsius but wetter winters. Temperatures are lower compared to the coastal zones of Italy and frost is not uncommon.

Getting There

By Plane

The nearest airport is 30 kilometres away, near Bologna. Check the article for more information about airlines and destinations. From the airport, shuttle buses go directly to Modena at 6.15am, 8.15 am, 9.15am, 10.15 am, 12.15pm, 4.15pm, 6.15pm and 8.15 pm. It takes about 1 hour and costs €10.

By Train

Ferrovie dello Stato (FS), Italy's Railways, have connections to/from Bologna (30 minutes, every half hour or so), Parma (same) and Milan (two hours, hourly), among other places. There are also international connections, either with a change of trains, to France and Switzerland mainly.

By Car

Along the A1 highway from Milan or Rome, exist 'Modena Sud'. From Verona along the A22 highway.

By Bus

ATCM has buses to regional places.

Sleep

Budget

Upscale

You can use the form below to search for availability (Travellerspoint receives a commission for bookings made through the form)

Learn

• University of Modena

Keep Connected

Internet

Almost all towns and cities in Italy have internet cafes. A growing number of budget hostels and nicer hotels have free Wifi. By law all public-access internet points must keep records of web sites viewed by customers, and even the customer's ID: expect to be refused access if you don't provide identification. Hotels providing Internet access are not required to record IDs if the connection is provided in the guest's room, although if the connection is offered in the main public hall then IDs are required. Publicly available wireless access without user identification is illegal, so open Wi-Fi hotspots (like the ones you might expect to find in a mall or cafée) all have some form of (generally one-time) registration.

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

The main networks are TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile, part of Telecom Italia, formerly state controlled), Vodafone, Wind, and 3 (only UMTS cellphones). Best advice is to buy a prepaid SIM card (from € 10 upwards) and a cheap mobile phone (€ 19 upwards) to put it in (if you don't have a cellphone already that you can use). It will be much more practical. All land line numbers start with 0. Mobile numbers start with 3. Numbers starting with 89 are high-fee services. In case of emergency call the appropriate number from the list below. Such calls are usually free and calls to 112, 113 (police), 115 (fire), 118 (health) can be made from payphones for free without the need of inserting coins. 112 (standard emergency number in GSM specification) can be dialed in any case for free from any mobile phone.

Post

Post Italiane is the national postal services of Italy and has quite an efficient network of postal offices and reliable postal services. Standard letters and postcards (up to 20 grams) cost €0.39 to send within Europe and the Mediterranean countries outside Europe and €0.41 to all other destinations throughout the country. Up to 50 grams, prices start at €0.52 for Europe, €0.62 for other areas. Packages start at €1.55 within Europe, and around €2.50 for other countries. Post office business hours in Italy are from 8:30am to 2:00pm from Monday to Friday, with closing times at Saturday and the last day of the month at 12 noon. In general, larger post offices in bigger cities and in tourist areas keep longer hours than those in local towns. Also note that business hours in the south might be different than the north, with longer hours at night, especially in summer! If you want to send packages you might try faster and more reliable/efficient private courier companies like TNT, UPS or DHL.