Emilia-Romagna for kids: fishing villages and amusement parks

Time
72 h

Traveler
Family

Are you looking for places and activities to do with the whole family in Romagna?

Here is a 3-day itinerary designed especially for fun, among seaside villages with ancient fishing traditions and amusement parks that will make you experience unforgettable emotions.

Cesenatico

The itinerary starts from Cesenatico and its picturesque old town, where you can still breathe the atmosphere of the ancient fishing village, with colourful little houses and corners that seem to be out of time.

The heart of the old town is the Leonardesque-inspired canal port, along which are moored the historical boats of the Floating Maritime Museum, which with their colourful sails fascinate both children and adults.
In addition, the Maritime Museum also has a Land Section, located inside a pavilion built like an old arsenal, whose evocative itinerary bears witness to the local maritime identity.

A few steps away from the canal port, a corner of Cesenatico that should not be missed is Piazzetta delle Conserve, characterised by the presence of ancient iceboxes: truncated cone-shaped wells, about 6 metres deep, once used to preserve fish.

Also not to be missed in Cesenatico is a walk along the western pier (Molo di Ponente), flanked by traditional fishing huts: iconic pile-dwellings (cousins of the famous Abruzzo’s trabocchi) that served both as a shelter for fishermen and as a lookout post on the sea.

Before moving on to the next stop, we recommend a gastronomic stop based on Adriatic blue fish and the inevitable piadina romagnola.

Cervia

About ten kilometers from Cesenatico, the town of Cervia is a delightful seaside resort perfect for families, nestled between a lush pine forest and the ancient salt pans from which the famous local Sweet Salt is extracted.

To learn more about the history and the oldest traditions of this seaside village, it’s worth visiting the MUSA – Salt Museum, overlooking the canal port and housed inside the Torre Salt Storehouse; this ethnographic museum preserves the memory of work in the salt works, collecting documents, tools and period photographs.

Adjacent to the Torre Salt Storehouse, the San Michele Tower, symbol of Cervia, and on the opposite bank of the canal port the Darsena Salt Storehouse: all buildings once used for storing salt and today splendid recoveries of industrial archaeology put to new uses.

Cervia, porto canale Ph. Vivida Photo PC via shutterstock — Cervia, canal port Ph. Vivida Photo PC via shutterstock

Just outside the center of Cervia the Camillone Saltpan is the only saltpan left where salt is still manually extracted, used for demonstration purposes to keep alive the process that for centuries has allowed the production of Cervia’s white gold.

If you would like to experience the thrill of stepping into the shoes of a salinaro in the first person, every Tuesday during summer you can become Saltworker for a day and spend an afternoon in the salt mine, taking part in the activities of processing and transporting salt; a unique opportunity to learn first-hand the ancient (and hard) art of the salt workers. The experience is recommended for ages 15 and up.

Alternatively, always during the summer, you can take part in one of the afternoon guided tours, in the company of the salt workers who explain and demonstrate the various phases of work in the salt works.

Not to be missed to end the day, the sunset in the salt marsh, when the expanse of water is tinged with the warm colors of the sky and makes for a truly breathtaking panorama; the luckiest can also have close encounters with the flamingos that inhabit this area.

Italia in Miniatura

The second day starts with a visit to the theme park Italia in Miniatura, a few kilometres from Rimini (how to get there), where you can walk up and down the boot of Italy to discover its architectural beauties: from the Alps to Sicily, there are more than 300 miniatures of monuments, palaces, historical sites in the park and surrounded by more than 5,000 real miniature trees.

You can sail along Venice’s Grand Canal in a gondola, play water games under the walls of Castel Sismondo, experience “the thrill of the road” and receive your driving licence (from 6 years of age), take a dip in the rapids aboard log-shaped canoes and enjoy the multisensory experience of 7D cinema.

On the electric-powered monorail you can ride around the entire perimeter of the park at a height of 6 metres above the ground, or climb the panoramic tower with its hot-air balloon theme to admire the park at a height of 10 metres.

In the Parrot World you can discover the colourful world of parrots in all their exotic beauty, while in the Play Mart playhouse, children aged 0 to 12 can safely explore and dive into a sea of colourful balls.

We are sure that there will be open mouths, wide eyes and lots of laughter!

Oltremare

The second theme park not to be missed (as well as convenient, thanks to the possibility of a combined ticket with Italia in Miniatura) is Oltremare, in Riccione (how to get there).

Oltremare is dedicated to the natural world and inside you can enjoy numerous experiences and discover some of the most interesting animal species on our planet: dolphins with shows and close encounters, birds of prey and the art of falconry, and parrots with their rainbow flight.

In the Garden of Evolution you can discover the history of life on Earth from the first organic molecule to the present day among reptiles, birds & fish, while with the Australia Experience you can become a paleontologist or a nugget hunter and see the friendly Wallaby kangaroos up close.

To better organize your visit, we recommend checking the show times: one more exciting than the other!

Parco Riccione Avventura

The last stop on our itinerary is the Riccione Adventure Park, an adventure park in the centre of the famous seaside town (how to get there) where even the youngest can try their hand at exciting suspended paths, Tibetan bridges, nets, tunnels and zip lines.
There’s also the possibility of eating or relaxing by renting one of the tree houses 5 metres above the ground, and for the bravest, there is the Adrenaline Bike, a ride 15 metres high on a real bicycle suspended in the air.

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