A Roman Road Trip - Emilia-Romagna via Via Emilia

Seven days following a Roman road through what Italians call the Food Valley. The Via Emilia was laid out in 187 BC between Rimini and Piacenza, and the modern towns along it still sit where the Roman surveyors put them.

Parma opens it with two nights, a private tour of the Romanesque cathedral, the Teatro Regio opera house and the National Gallery, which holds Correggio and Canaletto. The food tasting morning is the real draw: Parmigiano Reggiano, balsamic vinegar and Parma ham, all three of which are made within a short drive and none of which travel especially well.

Modena follows, with its UNESCO-listed cathedral, the leaning Ghirlandina tower and the Piazza Grande. Ravenna then gets two nights, opening with a boat trip through the wetland canals at Comacchio aboard a traditional flat-bottomed batana. The city itself holds eight separate UNESCO-listed buildings, among them San Vitale, the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia and the Arian Baptistery, with mosaics from the fifth and sixth centuries that are the best surviving Byzantine work in western Europe.

Bologna closes it with two nights, reached through the medieval villages of Brisighella and Dozza, where an open-air mural gallery has been running since the 1960s and the walls of the village are the exhibits. In Bologna there is a gourmet market food tour and a walk beneath the porticoes, of which the city has well over six hundred, also UNESCO listed. Original Travel include the hire car, accommodation, the private tours, concierge access, a 24-hour helpline and carbon absorption. Flights and most meals are separate, and prices run from 3,350 to 4,350 pounds per person.