Emilia Romagna

The Emilia-Romagna region extends from the Adriatic Sea in the east through the Apennine mountains , not reaching the Ligurian Sea in the west. The region consists of two historical parts: Emilia (northwest, land along the Emilia Road ) and Romagna (southeast).

The area of ​​the region is 22,446 km² (7.3% of the territory of Italy).

The administrative center is the city of Bologna .

Emilia Romagna is one of the largest regions of Italy. It borders with Lombardy and Venice in the north, Liguria and Piedmont in the west, Tuscany and Marche in the south, and in the east it is washed by the Adriatic Sea. Between Emilia-Romagna and Marche is a small independent state - the Republic of San Marino .

Three types of climate are represented in the region. In the lowland zone, the climate is continental (cold and foggy winters, hot summers), in the mountainous zone - alpine (cold winters and cool summers), in the coastal zone - temperate with cold northeast winds.

The region is rich in rivers: Po , Trebbia, Nure, Arda , Parma , Enza , Rubicon and others, most of which originate in the Apennines.

As the results of archaeological excavations show, this area began to be populated in the Neolithic era. In the VI century BC e. it was occupied by the Etruscans , in the IV century the Celts , in the III century the Romans conquered this area and connected it with Liguria. The Romans conducted the first systematic arrangement of these lands. They turned this region into a fortified base between Italy and Gaul .

The region received its name from the name of Mark Emilius Lepidus , Roman commander and diplomat. In 175 BC, a road (via Aemilia) from Ariminium (modern Rimini ) to Placencia (modern Piacenza ), named after him, was laid under his command. Along this road, the main cities of the region were built, except for Ravenna and Ferrara .

With the fall of the Roman Empire in 402 AD e. Emperor Honorius moved the capital from Rome to Ravenna, turning the region into the political center of the Western Roman Empire for the next several decades. Since 493, Ravenna was the capital of the Ostrogoths . In 540, Justinian I conquered this territory and founded the Ravenna Exarchate . In 751, Ravenna was captured by the Lombards . By the gift of Pepin Korotky (756), part of the territory of present Emilia-Romagna was transferred to the Papal Region .

In the Middle Ages the area was won by the Lombards . Only Ravenna and Forlì still continued to belong to the Eastern Roman Empire , moreover, Ravenna became the capital, and the nearby territories were called Romagna. XV-XVI centuries - the heyday of Ferrara and Modena under the rule of the d'Este dynasty and Parma and Piacenza under the rule of the Farnese dynasty. At this time, Bologna and Ravenna are part of the Papal Region .

In 1797, the area was occupied by French troops under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte . The region became part of Cispadan (and later the Cisalpine Republic ). In 1815, after the Congress of Vienna , the previous form of government was restored. In 1860, Emilia-Romagna became part of the united Italy. Parma , Piacenza and Modena were independent from the pope and annexed to the Italian kingdom at its formation in 1859-1861.

The area is divided into nine provinces:

Cities with a rich historical and cultural heritage: Bologna (the first university in the Christian world was founded here), Ravenna , Rimini , Ferrara and others.

The population is 4,377,487 people (6.9% of the country's population) (2013). The population density is 195.02 people per km². The distribution of the population in the region is very balanced due to the lack of megacities. The population of the most important industrial and commercial center of the region - the city of Bologna - makes up about 10% of the population of the region. In the region there is a tendency to increase the population, not so much due to an increase in the birth rate, but to a large number of immigrants from other regions of Italy. According to ISTAT data for 2006, 6.8% of the population of Emilia-Romagna are immigrants .

Big Cities: Bologna (Bologna, 369,000, with suburbs - 535,000), Modena (Modena, 175,000), Parma (Parma, 156,000), Reggio nell'Emilia, 141,000, Ravenna ( Ravenna, 138,000), Ferrara (Ferrara, 130,000), Rimini (Rimini, 128,000) Forlì (Forli, 108,000), Piacenza (Piacenza, 95,000), Cesena (Cesena, 93,000), Imola (Imola, 64 000), Faenza (Faenza, 53,000).

Emilia-Romagna is considered one of the richest European regions in terms of per capita GDP with a very low unemployment rate. According to Unioncamera statistics, Bologna and Modena are the richest cities in Italy after Milan and Biella . Bologna in 2007 also ranked first in terms of living standards among Italian cities. According to Eurostat, Emilia-Romagna is ranked twenty-third in terms of per capita GDP among European regions and third in Italy after the Autonomous Province of Bolzano and Lombardy .

The main sectors of the economy are food, mechanical, electrical, textile, ceramic, automotive , agriculture .

An important source of income is agriculture (grain growing, potato growing, onion and tomato cultivation , viticulture and fruit growing, cattle breeding , pig breeding , etc.). Strong gastronomic and winemaking traditions: Parmigiano cheese ( Parmesan ), Parma raw smoked ham , wines (brands) Lambrusco, Trebbiano, Sangiovese.

The tradition of violin masters ( Sesto Rocky , etc.).

The automotive industry is represented by such giants as Lamborghini , Ferrari , Ducati , Maserati .

Tourism is developed (a network of resorts on the seashore).

The predominance of agricultural land located on the slopes of hills and mountains, explains the high proportion of the production of tracked tractors. This is a feature of agricultural engineering in Italy, its international specialization. Tractor construction is most developed in the most important agricultural region of the country - Emilia-Romagna, in the cities of Reggio Emilia , Modena , Bologna , Piacenza , Sudzar .

Winemaking

The visiting card of the region is Lambrusco Red Sparkling Lambrusco (dry or semi-dry) ^[1] . This is a sparkling wine from purple to pink, produced from grapes of the same name grown on high trellises, mainly on the plains south of the Po River. The tradition of producing friedzant sparkling wines is strong and widespread in Emilia everywhere, not only in the Lambrusco area. Numerous Frizzante are made from both white Malvasia , Trebbiano , Ortrugo and from red Bonarda and Barbara .

On the other hand, Romagna is best known for its still wines, although here the work to bring winemaking to a new qualitative level is just beginning. You can find a decent Sangiovese , as well as several dessert wines from autochthonous albana. In the hilly part of Piacenza, Bologna and Parma produce calm Emilia wines. Here you can find very worthy of Cabernet, Merlot, Barbara and other wines. But in general, Emilia's winemaking is more inclined to lightweight, shallow and not very serious wines. Exported Lambrusco is usually sweet, although Italians themselves prefer dry with the name DOC, since dry Lambrusco is most suitable for the region’s rich and heavy cuisine. More than 50 million bottles of Lambrusco are produced annually.

In the southeast of the province, this is Romagna, lies the zone of production of the most famous wines - Albana , Sangiovese and Trebbiano di Romagna . There are really interesting and rare finds in the region among both sparkling and still wines. Such rare and very interesting wines include the white Pagadebit ( Pagadebit di Romagna ) DOC, known since Roman times, and the red sweet Canyina ( Cagnina di Romagna ) DOC.

Emilia Romagna is one of the gastronomic centers of Italy. Local cuisine is based on meat, cheeses, home-made pasta. It was in this area that they began to cook the famous Italian lasagna and Bolognese sauce for the first time.

• Emiliano-Romagnole language

• Emilia // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.

• Emilia-Romagna site
• Emilia-Romagna Official Tourism Information Site
• Regions and cities of Italy. Emilia-Romagna on italcult.ru - “Everything about Italy”
• Emilia-Romagna on the Official Tourism Site of Italy (Russian)
• Cheese used to be made in the Italian outback, now the best sports cars in the world // Tape. Ru , July 23, 2019