Piazza Aurelio Saffi & the Abbazia di San Mercuriale
Forlì's vast central piazza is anchored by one of northern Italy's finest Romanesque bell towers — the 12th-century campanile of the Abbazia di San Mercuriale, rising 75 metres above the terracotta rooftops like a perfectly proportioned exclamation mark. The square itself, lined with porticoed palazzi and a bronze statue of 19th-century republican hero Aurelio Saffi, is the social and visual heart
The Abbey and Its Tower
The abbey's façade is decorated with a lunette mosaic depicting the martyrdom of San Mercuriale, Forlì's patron saint, executed with a Byzantine directness that stops most visitors in their tracks.
Inside, the crypt contains the saint's relics and a set of 12th-century carved capitals that art historians consider among the most expressive Romanesque stonework in Emilia-Romagna — yet the church is almost never crowded.
The Piazza at Different Hours
At 7 am the square belongs to dog-walkers and bar staff setting out chairs; by 10 am it fills with students from the nearby university campus; and by evening it transforms into a passeggiata runway where the whole city seems to be on show.
The aperitivo hour — roughly 18:00–20:00 — is the best time to grab a table at one of the portico bars and watch Forlì do what Romagnols do best: talk loudly, gesticulate freely and drink Sangiovese.
Architectural Details to Seek Out
Look up at the Palazzo delle Poste on the south side of the square, a confident piece of Fascist-era rationalist architecture commissioned under Mussolini (who was born just 30 km away in Predappio) and still functioning as Forlì's main post office.
The 19th-century fountain at the piazza's centre is topped by a figure of Romagna herself — a detail most visitors photograph without realising what it represents.
Piazza Aurelio Saffi & the Abbazia di San Mercuriale on video
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