Symbols, art, magic
A journey into Emilia Romagna’s historical palaces discovering a magic world...

There are places which keep precious secrets, the footprints of a past hidden within the images of art and history. Our journey shifts through historical investigation, iconographic itineraries and parallel worlds that relate to all the episodes that carved them out, like marble statues in the fantastic world of Art!

FIRST PATH

Museo dei Tarocchi a Riola - Montovolo - Misa (Bologna)

Subject: the Museo dei Tarocchi, its history, past and future
Riola (Bologna) - to the museum: a journey within contemporary art through the unique works of artists all over the world the precious world of Triumphs.

Subject: the ancient divinatory practices and the oracle centres. Tarot, an eternal wandering…
Montovolo (Bologna) - Visit to the sacred mountain: the old oracle centre celebrates in the church the ancient glories related to Etruscan and Celtic cultures, to eventually come back as an imaginary world linked to the Templars. The value of the pilgrimage...
Misa (Bologna) – to the museums and the archaeological site in the only entirely preserved Etruscan town in the world: divinity in the Etruscan world, from omens to Runes …

Total time 1 day



SECOND PATH

Ferrara

Subject: Magic Ferrara
The Pythagorean cathedral: the secret patterns and geometries conceal an hermetic value. One of the first representations of the fiendish devil inspires the Tarot, as well as the gorgeous tympanum and its final judgement, probably inspired by the Masters from Strasbourg.
The cathedral museum – Cosmé Tura and the Officina Ferrarese, a melting-pot of artists and magicians celebrates hermetic and its symbols
Schifanoia Palace: the astrological Decans – unique in the entire world – set the frame for a court where the world of Tarot experienced honours and glory!
Casa Romei – The Sibyls around the fireplace, the old prophets painted in a beautiful room wink at San Bernardino da Siena’s beautiful sun, the city’s real talisman, inspired by the micro world of Tarot.
The Castle: the Wheel of Fortune and heraldry, the art of the crest turns into an image that needs be interpreted…

Total time 1 day



THIRD PATH

Modena

Subject: Magic Modena
Piazza Grande: Pico della Mirandola in connection with Ramon Llullo, l’Ars memorandi at the origins of Tarot.
cathedral: a beautiful complex from the 11th telling the magic history of mediaeval symbols, from the portal of the months to the concept of time in the transcendent vision all the way to a sublime rise.
Matteo Boiardo, the city’s Governor, also the creator of a very personal deck.

Total time: ½ day



FOURTH PATH

Rimini

Subject: Magic Rimini
The Malatesta Temple: the chapel of planets celebrates Basino da Parma’s genius, the author of astrological symbols that make an unforgettable place out of this temple.

Total time: ½ day




FIFTH PATH

Parma

Subject: Magic Parma
Saint John’s Camera Picta: Correggio’s and its profane stories full of pagan symbols and allusive patterns…
Church of the Steccata: Parmigianino the fresco of the Virgins, the prelude of alchemic art that gives Tarot a new colour.
Benedetto Antelami’s baptistery: an unique work that turns stone into a magic book which needs be interpreted.

Total time; 1 day