Emilia Romagna is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Located in the north of the country, it cuts across almost all of the peninsula from the western side of the Apennine mountains, to the Adriatic coastline in the east. Only a thin sliver of Liguria stops the region from running all the way to the west coast.

At 22,453 km² (8669 mi²), it is the 6th largest region in Italy, and there isn't a huge difference between 3rd and 6th in that list. It is home to about 4 1/2 million people.

Imagine a loaf of garlic bread which has been sliced into nine pieces. With one exception, that's what the nine provinces of Emilia Romagna look like, with each one running (generally, kinda sorta and with one exception) north to south. Going from west to east we have:
[*] Piacenza (PC). I know that it has some good vineyards from the soil in the Po valley, but I know little else about it. It borders Lombardia in the north and Liguria in the south east, with a small western border with Piemonte.
[*] Parma (PR). Yes, the place from which Parma ham comes. It also names to half of the famous Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. ("Parmesan", in common use, but only cheese from Emilia Romagna can use the full Parmigiano Reggiano name.)
[*] Reggio Emilia (RE). The other donor to the name Parmigiano Reggiano.
[*] Modena (MO). Home to Ferrari and a few other very expensive marques.
[*] Bologna (BO). The metropolitan city, and the largest of the provinces, this is the only one to top 1 million people.
[*] Ravenna (RA). On the Adriatic coast, this contains the town of the same name which you will see in one of my galleries.
[*] Forlì-Cesena (FC). This has a short coast on the Adriatic but it's mostly sandwiched between Ravenna to the north and Rimini to the south east. (This part of the analogous garlic bread is sagging a little.)
[*] Rimini (RN). This also runs along the Adriatic and contains a seaside resort town of the same name. It borders Le Marche and San Marino to the south. It was carved out of FC in 1992.
[*] Ferrara (FE). This is the only one that doesn't fit into the "sliced garlic bread" analogy; another Adriatic coastal province, it sits to the north of Bologna and Ravenna provinces. In its north it borders the Veneto region.

The region is known for its agricultural produce, which is some of the finest in the world, and therefore you will find some of the best dining in Italy in its capital, Bologna. (One of the capital Bologna's nicknames is "La Grassa" meaning "The Fat". There is a reason for that.) Bologna is also a historic city, boasting one of the oldest universities still in existence. We didn't get to see or experience much of this during the 2016 trip since we passed through the region with just one whistlestop, but we made up for some of it on the 2019 trip.

Another claim to fame is its automotive industry, since the region is home to brands such as Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati. We visited two of the Ferrari sites during the 2019 trip.

One city on the Adriatic coast, Ravenna, was for a time the capital of the (by then) decaying western Roman Empire. This was the only place we stopped at on the 2016 trip, and the story of that stop is told in the gallery for 28 August 2016.