What to do in Cesena: Malatestiana, the Rocca and workshops

Cesena sits on the Via Emilia, between Bologna and the coast, and it has one practical advantage: the centre is walkable and the three things that actually matter — the Malatestiana Library, the Rocca on Colle Garampo, Piazza del Popolo — are minutes apart. That means you can see all of them and still have half a day left. Here is what to look at, in what order, and where to fit in a craft workshop if you don't want your Saturday to end with the usual photo of the fountain.

The Malatestiana Library: what you actually see

The Malatestiana is the main reason people come to Cesena. It was commissioned by Malatesta Novello, the hall was designed by the architect Matteo Nuti, it was founded in 1452 and opened to the public in 1454. Since then the room, the fittings and the books have stayed where they were: the codices still sit on their wooden benches, held by their original chains. This is not a reconstruction or a museum display, it is a fifteenth-century library still standing.

In 2005 it entered the UNESCO Memory of the World register, and it is worth clearing up a common confusion: Memory of the World is the register of documentary heritage — manuscripts, archives, collections — and it is a different thing from the World Heritage list, which covers places. Nuti's hall, with its benches and chained codices, has reached us intact, and that is what makes it rare.

• The carved wooden entrance door, with the Malatesta coats of arms.
• The hall split into three naves like a small church: a barrel vault down the middle, cross vaults at the sides.
• The wooden benches lined up on both sides, with the codices still chained in place.
• The codices themselves: Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Arabic texts, a library as a fifteenth-century humanist imagined it.

The Rocca Malatestiana and Colle Garampo

From the centre you climb Colle Garampo to the Rocca, inside the Parco della Rimembranza. Work started in 1380 under Galeotto Malatesta, continued with Andrea and Malatesta Novello, and finished in 1477, by then under papal rule. It is a real fortress, with walkways and passages inside the walls, and it rewards a slow visit.

• The Maschio, or Torre Maestra: inside are armour and saddles from the Giostra d'incontro.
• The Palatium, known as the Femmina: it houses the Museum of Agricultural History, spread over three floors.
• The museum covers Romagna's rural life between the late nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth, with tools, carts, furnishings and photographs.
• The panoramic walkways along the walls and the courtyard, where there is a refreshment point.

One detail even castle-skippers tend to like: in the summer of 1502 Leonardo da Vinci inspected the fortress's defences while working for Cesare Borgia. His drawings of the walls and the city's fortifications are now kept at the Library of the Institut de France, in Paris.

Piazza del Popolo, the one in Cesena

Before you search online, mind the trap: there is a Piazza del Popolo in Ascoli Piceno and in Ravenna too, and much of what you find refers to those. Cesena's is the one with the Fontana Masini, the Mannerist fountain designed by Francesco Masini in the late sixteenth century, which stands at one end of the square and is where locals arrange to meet.

Around the square is the rest of the old town, all a few minutes on foot: the Cathedral of San Giovanni Battista and the neoclassical Teatro Alessandro Bonci. It is also the café district, so this is where you have breakfast before the library and where you come back in the late afternoon.

A day in Cesena, in order

The three main sights are close together and reachable on foot, so one day is enough. An order that works:

1. Breakfast in Piazza del Popolo, a loop around the Fontana Masini and a first look at the old town.
2. Morning at the Malatestiana Library: the Aula del Nuti keeps its own hours, so don't leave it until the last minute.
3. Lunch in the centre: Cesena's cooking mixes the coast and the Apennines, from cappelletti in broth to piadina, with Sangiovese as the house wine.
4. Afternoon at the Rocca Malatestiana: the climb up Colle Garampo, the walkways along the walls and the Museum of Agricultural History.
5. Late afternoon: a craft workshop, or the climb to the Benedictine Abbey of Santa Maria del Monte, which holds one of the richest collections of votive offerings in Europe.
6. Evening: dinner in the centre and, if something is on, a show at the Teatro Bonci.

Where a creative workshop fits in

Cesena takes a solid half day, which leaves a long afternoon. A craft workshop is the easiest way not to fill it with one more church: two or three hours with someone who does the job for a living, and you go home with the thing you made. The workshops currently listed on Handsome are concentrated on the Romagna coast and in the Rimini hinterland, so they pair well with a day in Cesena. If ceramics is your starting point, here is what to expect as a beginner; if you are building the trip as a day out from Bologna, there is an itinerary for that; and if the weather turns, the indoor options around Rimini double as a plan B for an inland day.

How booking works, briefly: you hold your place with a deposit (10 euros on group workshops) and settle the rest on site at the end of the session. The 0.50 euro per-place Booking Guarantee is already included in the round figure you see, so nothing extra appears at checkout. If your plans change, cancellation is free up to 48 hours before. On the other side there is no commission on the workshop takings: the payment is credited directly to the account of the Maker teaching you.