What to Do in Forlì: Rationalist City, Museums and Crafts

Forlì is not a postcard town, and that may be exactly why it works: you turn up for an exhibition or a train change and find yourself on a forty-metre-wide avenue lined with 1930s buildings that anywhere else would have brown signposts pointing at them. If you are deciding how to spend a Saturday in Romagna away from the beach, this guide sets out what is actually there, what stays open all year, and what changes with the season.

Viale della Libertà, the rationalist street nobody talks about

The avenue linking the station to the centre was laid out in 1927 as an access road to the railway: forty metres wide, with a central roadway, two tree-lined pedestrian walkways and two side carriageways. Along this axis, between the 1930s and the early 1940s, the city built what people in Forlì call the rationalist quarter, closed at the far end by Piazzale della Vittoria.

It is not a museum and there is no ticket: you simply walk. From the station to the square takes a good half hour, allowing for stops to look at the facades. Along the way you pass several buildings worth the detour even from the outside.

• Ex GIL (Casa del Balilla), designed by Cesare Valle and built between 1933 and 1935: three main blocks, a cinema-theatre, a gym and a swimming pool. Today it houses gyms and local sports clubs.
• Collegio Aeronautico, also by Cesare Valle, dating from 1937: it was home to Italy's first aeronautical institute and carries a sculpture of Icarus by Francesco Saverio Palozzi.
• Case economiche per i postelegrafonici, designed by the engineer Ezio Bianchi in 1931.
• Piazzale della Vittoria, closing the avenue, completed in 1931 with its war memorial.

San Domenico Museums: the permanent collection and the shows that pass through

The San Domenico Museums are at Piazzale Guido da Montefeltro 12, inside the restored former Dominican convent. The permanent part is the Pinacoteca Civica, with works by Beato Angelico, Marco Palmezzano, Lorenzo di Credi and other artists from the 13th to the 18th century; in the oval room stands Hebe by Antonio Canova, one of the sculptor's autograph versions.

The museum reopened on 21 July 2026 after closing for the big spring exhibition, with several restored works and a climate-controlled welcome room. It is closed on Mondays. At reopening the ticket was 5 euro full price, 3 euro reduced and free under 18, while opening hours change with the season: check them the day before on the municipal website rather than trusting memory.

Piazza Saffi, San Mercuriale and Caterina Sforza's fortress

Piazza Saffi is the centre: broad, arcaded, with the Abbey of San Mercuriale on one side. The church you see was rebuilt between 1178 and 1181 after a fire, in Lombard Romanesque style, and its bell tower rises more than seventy metres. Entry is free; alongside is the cloister, reworked in the 20th century, with a 17th-century well at its heart.

A few minutes' walk away is the Rocca di Ravaldino, on Via Giovanni dalle Bande Nere. This is the fortress where Caterina Sforza chose to live after the assassination of her husband Girolamo Riario in 1488, and where she led the defence against Cesare Borgia's siege between 1499 and 1500: a Borgia coat of arms is still visible on the south wall, at the point where the breach was opened. It opens at weekends and on public holidays during the warmer months, with hours that shift from month to month and free guided tours, so check the municipal calendar before setting off.

The Verzocchi Collection was born from Forlì entrepreneur Giuseppe Verzocchi's idea of commissioning Italian painters to work on the theme of labour; it was donated to the city in 1961. It was long housed at Palazzo Romagnoli and is now shown at the San Domenico Museums: check the museum's website for where it is at the moment before you go.

Forlì as a stop, not as the whole trip

Forlì holds up very well as half a day inside a wider loop, and from Bologna it is a little over an hour on the regional train. If you are planning a weekend that combines a city and a workshop, there is a ready-made itinerary in a day trip from Bologna into Romagna.

Fifteen kilometres west, along the via Emilia, lies Faenza, which is another matter entirely: there ceramics are not a display-case memory but a working trade, and we wrote about it in Faenza, city of ceramics. If the real aim is to get your hands into clay knowing nothing about it, start from how a ceramics workshop for beginners works: it explains what happens in the studio, how long it lasts and what you take home.

Booking an artisan experience in Romagna

On Handsome every workshop takes place in the Maker's own studio or at the venue they specify, and the experience page always states where and at what time. There are currently no experiences published in Forlì itself: the active ones are mostly along the Romagna coast and in the Rimini hinterland, so Forlì fits neatly as a morning before or after the workshop.

• No commission on the workshop takings: payment is credited directly to the Maker's account.
• The 0.50 euro per-place booking Guarantee is already included in the round figure you see.
• You book with a deposit, 10 euro for group workshops, and settle the balance on site on the day.
• Free cancellation up to 48 hours beforehand.

A Saturday in Forlì, in order

1. Arrive at the station and walk up Viale della Libertà to Piazzale della Vittoria, stopping to look at the facades.
2. San Domenico Museums: two hours are enough for the Pinacoteca and Canova's Hebe when no exhibition is running.
3. Lunch in the centre and a turn around Piazza Saffi, with San Mercuriale and its cloister.
4. Afternoon at the Rocca di Ravaldino, if the opening calendar allows; otherwise Palazzo Romagnoli.
5. Head off towards the coast or towards Faenza, if you have a workshop booked for the next day.