On the Via Emilia you can go anywhere — the Roman consular road that runs in a perfectly straight line from Piacenza to Rimini, crossing every major city of the region, is both the physical and symbolic backbone of Emilia-Romagna. To be on the Via Emilia is to be connected to everything.
The Via Emilia was built in 187 BC by the Roman consul Marcus Aemilius Lepidus to connect the new Roman colonies of the Po plain with the Adriatic coast. Two thousand two hundred years later, it still runs as the main road through the region, passing through Piacenza, Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Bologna, Imola, Faenza, Forlì, Cesena, and Rimini — essentially all the major cities that define Emilian identity. The road's straightness is Roman engineering in its purest form: for much of its length it deviates by less than one degree from a straight line across the plain. Around this spine, the entire cultural and economic geography of the region organised itself: workshops, markets, universities, and later train stations and motorway junctions all followed the line of the Via Emilia. The novelist Pier Vittorio Tondelli, born in Correggio near Reggio Emilia, made the Via Emilia a protagonist in his writing — a road that connected provinces and generations, along which young people drove at night seeking freedom from the flatness of the plain. Bruce Springsteen's music, the writer notes, sounded like the Via Emilia at night: fast, wide, American in its longing. The proverb captures the road's role as connector: on the Via Emilia, you are never isolated.
Celebrates the Via Aemilia, built in 187 BC by Roman consul Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, which still runs as the main road through all major Emilian cities and remains the structural spine of the region's identity.
An Emilian truck driver explaining his work route to a foreign colleague
Ogni giorno lo stesso percorso: Piacenza, Parma, Modena, Bologna. Sla Vìa Emìlia s'va duvùnche — è il cuore di tutto.
Every day the same route: Piacenza, Parma, Modena, Bologna. On the Via Emilia you can go anywhere — it is the heart of everything.
A young person from a small town explaining why they are not isolated
Vivo in un paesino, ma ho la Statale 9 a cento metri. Sla Vìa Emìlia s'va duvùnche — in quaranta minuti sono a Bologna.
I live in a small village, but I have the Via Emilia a hundred metres away. On the Via Emilia you can go anywhere — in forty minutes I am in Bologna.
A historian explaining the Roman roots of the region's urban pattern
Tutte le città dell'Emilia stanno su un'unica linea retta disegnata nel 187 avanti Cristo. Sla Vìa Emìlia s'va duvùnche — e Roma lo sapeva.
All the cities of Emilia lie on a single straight line drawn in 187 BC. On the Via Emilia you can go anywhere — and Rome knew it.
A writer describing the nocturnal culture of young Emiliani in the 1980s
Di notte si guidava sulla Statale, finestre aperte, musica alta. Sla Vìa Emìlia s'va duvùnche — anche lontano da se stessi, almeno per qualche ora.
At night you drove along the State road, windows open, music loud. On the Via Emilia you can go anywhere — even far from yourself, at least for a few hours.