Best Restaurants
in Ferrara

Ferrara is one of Italy's best-kept dining secrets. While Bologna attracts the international food press and Modena claims the world's finest table, Ferrara quietly maintains a food culture of extraordinary depth and almost zero tourist inflation. The city's Renaissance streets and cycling culture create an atmosphere unlike anywhere else in Italy — unhurried, genuinely local, confident in its own excellence.

The signature dishes of Ferrara are resolutely specific to this city. Cappellacci di zucca — large pasta parcels filled with pumpkin, nutmeg and Parmesan — appear nowhere else with the same authority. Salama da sugo, the city's ancient cured sausage simmered in wine and served with mashed potato, is an acquired taste that becomes an obsession. The bakeries produce coppia ferrarese, a twisted bread roll with DOP status, that arrives with every meal.

The dining scene divides neatly between historic trattorias that have been serving these dishes for decades and a smaller but growing cohort of contemporary restaurants that use the same ingredients with more modern technique. The Michelin Guide has recognised several Ferrara establishments — remarkable for a city of only 130,000 — and the Bib Gourmand recommendations represent some of the best value dining in northern Italy.

The Este castle and the city walls provide backdrops for outdoor dining in summer that no urban planning committee could design intentionally. Book early for terrace tables in June and July.