|
|
 |
| |
|
Home > Travel Italy > Italy Destinations > Imola
Imola
Italy, officially the Italian Republic or Repubblica Italiana, is a Southern European country comprising of the Po River valley, the Italian Peninsula and the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. It is shaped like a boot and for this reason Italians commonly call it lo Stivale, the boot or, due to its prevalent peninsular geographical nature, la Penisola, the Peninsula.
Imola is a town, comune and episcopal see in the province of Bologna, located on the Santerno river, in the Emilia-Romagna region of north-central Italy. Presently it is most noted as the home of the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari and the Formula One San Marino Grand Prix. The race, named for the nearby independent republic of San Marino, which is too small to host a grand prix, is generally referred to by the name Imola. The track is most associated with the tragic accident in which the great Ayrton Senna lost his life, in 1994.
Noteworthy among the secular edifices of Imola are the Farsetti and the municipal palaces. In the latter is a fresco representing Clement VII and Charles V passing through the city. The public library was established in 1747 by the Conventual Padre Setti. In the sixteenth century, the Accademia degli Industriosi flourished. Imola is twinned with Colchester, Essex, UK, a town which can claim to be Britain's oldest.
The city was anciently called Forum Cornelii, after the Roman dictator L. Cornelius Sulla, who founded it about 82 BCE. The town was an agricultural and trade center, famous for its ceramics. The name Imola was first used in the seventh century by the Lombards, who applied it to the fortress, whence the name passed to the city itself. According to Paul the Deacon, Imola was in 412 the scene of the marriage of Ataulf, King of the Visigoths, to Galla Placidia, daughter of Emperor Theodosius the Great. In the Gothic War, and after the Lombards invasion, it was held alternately by the Byzantines and barbarians.
Imola enjoys a very good reputation amongst worldwide travelers and hence is one of the most visited places in Italy.
Back to Italy Destinations
|
|
|
|
|
|
|