Riolo

Riolo Terme sits in the Vena del Gesso Romagnola, a striking gypsum karst landscape in the Apennine foothills south of Ravenna — one of the more unusual geological backdrops you'll find on a golf course anywhere in Italy. The town itself has been a spa destination since the 19th century, drawing visitors for its sulfurous mineral waters, and the surrounding countryside carries that same unhurried, therapeutic quality: rolling hills, vineyards, and the kind of light that makes Emilia-Romagna feel like it belongs to a slower calendar.

I don't have specific historical detail on the course's architect or layout, but an 18-hole facility in this setting almost certainly plays across varied, naturally contoured terrain — the gypsum ridgelines and eroded valleys of this protected regional park create elevation changes and visual drama that few flatland designers could manufacture artificially.

For visiting golfers, Riolo offers something beyond the round itself: you're deep in Romagna wine country, within reach of Ravenna's Byzantine mosaics and the broader Adriatic coast. The golf is a reason to arrive; the region is a reason to stay.