| The Province |
Four roads
start from Piacenza in the direction of the four main
valleys, which, descending from the Appennines to the
river Po, divide the province into four gullies.
Going from east to west, we encounter the basins of Val d'Arda, Valnure, Valtrebbia
and
Valtidone (the valleys of the rivers Arda, Nure, Trebbia and Tidone).
The large territory of Val d'Arda, whose main centre is the small town of Fiorenzuola,
is particularly rich from a historical and geological point of view: of great
interest are the Stirone River Park, the Museum of Archeology at Castell'Arquato,
and the
fossil-bearing erosion furrows of Lugagnano and Bacedasco.
Castell'Arquato
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The following small
towns are also worth a visit:
- the medieval village of Castell'Arquato,
probably the best preserved in the entire
region of Emilia Romagna, with its fifteenth-century
Palazzo Pretorio or of the Podestŕ (Chief
Magistrate), the twelfth-century Romanesque
collegiate church, the fourteenth-century
Visconti fortress and the sixteenth-century
Farnese keep;
- the hillside village of Vigolo Marchese,
with its eleventh-century Romanesque church,
and the adjacent round baptistry dated 1008,
whose baptismal font was made with a Roman
capital of the age of the Empire;
- Vigoleno, at a height of 350 metres above
the river Stirone, a real gem of Romanesque
architecture, with its beautifully preserved
twelfth-century castle and the church of
San Giorgio, which boasts a fine slanting
doorway, decorated with Romanesque sculptures.
- Still in Val d'Arda, at about ten kilometres
from Lugagnano, rises the hillside archeological
centre of Veleia, an important Roman settlement
dating from the first to the fifth century
A.D. Excavation work on the site started
in 1760 under the patronage of Philip Bourbon,
Duke of Parma, after the casual discovery
in 1747 of the Tabula Alimentaria Traianea,
the most complete Roman inscription on bronze
ever unearthed.
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Opera-lovers may like to visit Giuseppe
Verdi's villa at Sant'Agata of Villanova sull'Arda,
where the composer spent most of his life and wrote
his most significant works. The house is just a few
kilometres away from Busseto, Verdi's hometown, and
Roncole Verdi, which however belong to the neighbouring
province of Parma.
The most interesting place to visit in the Valnure is Grazzano Visconti, a
perfect reproduction of a medieval village, built at the beginning of the twentieth
century by Count Giuseppe Visconti of Modrone, around the only period building
in the village, the fourteenth-century Visconti castle.
The Valtrebbia, the valley of the river Trebbia and its tributaries -the almost
unspoilt Aveto, Boreca and Cassingheno- is famous all over Europe for its natural
beauty. Equally well-known is Bobbio, a small town full of art and history,
with its Benedictine Abbey, a real beacon of culture in the dark years of the
Middle Ages, founded in the seventh century by the Irish monk Columba, who
died and was buried there.
The present church was rebuilt
in the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, but still
retains the beautiful Romanesque bell tower and remains
of a mosaic floor, whereas on display in the adjoining
Museum are architectural and sculptural fragments
of the original building, as well as a rich Treasury,
plus sculptures and paintings, most of them of Lombard
school.
A visit should also be paid to the Romanesque Cathedral
and to the bridge over the river Trebbia, called "ponte gobbo" (the
hunchback bridge) because of its eleven irregular
arcades, showing Roman and medieval elements.
More pleasant surprises are in store for those who wish to follow a different
itinerary of great natural beauty and historical interest in the Valtrebbia,
namely the village and castle of Rivalta (eleventh to fifteenth century), the
castles at Statto and Montechiaro, as well the thick chestnut, spruce and beech
woods, and the far-reaching view which opens up from the little church at the
top of Mount Penice (1,467 m.), renowned for its winter sports.
The Valtidone lies at the extreme west of the province and is well-known for
its gentle and verdant hills covered in vines, its ancient little villages,
and its many castles, some of them, unfortunately, in a sad state of disrepair.
Oustanding amongst them is the newly-restored fortress of Rocca d'Olgisio,
not far from Pianello, which rises on an overhanging rock spur overlooking
the valley. Legend has it that this charming and picturesque castle dates from
as early as the sixth century, but its existence was first recorded in 1073.
It is open to the public and can be visited on appointment.
Amongst the several fortresses scattered in the area, including the neighbouring
Val Luretta, mention should be made of those of Borgonovo, SeminÚ, Agazzano
and Momeliano.
Exploring the Valboreca
Nature-lovers will delight in exploring
the Valboreca, one of the last ecological oases in
the province. The Boreca, a tributary of the river
Trebbia south of Ottone, is a wild, deep torrent thundering
down the narrow and steep gully between Mount Alfeo
(1,650 m.) and Mount Carmo (1,640 m.), where the mountains
are covered in woods and the waters are clear and full
of fish. This area is so rugged and wild that there
is only one asphalted road, the provincial road which
from Traschio, after leaving the State Road 45, goes
to Zerba, the administrative centre of the area, and
from there to Vesimo, Pei, and the high Passes of Giovi
(1,368 m.) and Capanne di Casola (1,493 m.), which link
Piacenza to the neighbouring provinces of Pavia and Alessandria.
The very few villages are perched on
steep slopes, and are now almost completely deserted.
The most interesting ones are Tartago, Belnome, Bogli,
Suzzi and Bertone, all of them the starting point for
many beautiful walks or more demanding excursions.
Searching for traces of the ice age
The Valnure highlands are the most secluded
area in the entire province. It is a mountain territory
with peaks exceeding 1,700 metres (Mounts Bue, Ragola
and Nero), cut across by a road which, through the
Passo del Tomarlo, leads to Santo Stefano d'Aveto and
the coast of Liguria. Clear traces of the final glaciation
of the W¸rm period, of twenty thousand years ago, can
be found in the silent and suggestive little lakes
called Nero, Moo and Bino. The glacial circles, the
moraines of remarkable geomorphological importance,
the erratic blocks, the residual presence of Pinus
mugo, dwarf pine -due to the warming up of the climate
which began in the year 8000 B.C.-, the thick beech
woods, the mountain ridges with their wonderful views,
all of that makes the Valnure highlands an ideal destination
for trekking and an excellent training ground for climbing
(Ciapa Liscia, Groppo delle Ali). |
pesca con il bilancino sul Po
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From the river Po to the Stirone Starting from the banks of the
river Po at Piacenza in the direction of the
Valdarda, it is possible to follow round an itinerary
of great natural and artistic beauty. The first
village we encounter is San Giorgio, with its
fine seventeenth-century church, the Anguissola
villa/stronghold and the eleventh-century castle,
now housing the Town Hall. From San Giorgio we
reach Carpaneto, an important agricultural marketplace
since the seventeenth century. Its ancient parish
church, founded in the twelfth century and dedicated
to Saints Fermo and Rustico, contains fine frescoes
and a canvas attributed to the school of Correggio.
Of interest is also the Scotti castle.* |
On the first hills of Valchero and Valvezzeno,
we find the thirteenth-century Confalonieri Tower,
and the village of Gropparello, overlooked by the castle,
which was built on a site that juts out over a stream
called the Vezzeno. It has now been restored and is
open to the public. Keeping to the Provincial road,
with a short deviation to the left, we arrive at Vigolo
Marchese. A visit to its Romanesque church, dating
from around the year 1000, should not be missed. The
building, with its round baptistry of Byzantine style,
is surrounded by an aura of tranquillity and mystical
silence.
After a few kilometres along gentle hillroads, we arrive
at the finest village in the area, Castell'Arquato.
The old medieval village, with its winding cobbled
streets, is built on a rocky cone looking over the Arda valley. Its historic
centre, famous all over Italy, is the upper Piazza Matteotti, dominated by
the twelfth-century Collegiate church with its Museum, the Palazzo Pretorio
or of the Podestà (Chief Magistrate), and the fourteenth-century Visconti
fortress. The first settlements here date from the Roman period (first century
B.C.), but the village reached its apogeum in the age of the free cities and
seigniories.**
From Castell'Arquato, take a winding road towards Bacedasco, going down the
Ongina valley amongst vines and isolated farmhouses, and up again in the direction
of the other medieval gem of this itinerary, the many-towered village of Vigoleno.
Enclosed by walls built in 1395, it boasts the magnificent Romanesque church
of San Giorgio and the Scotti castle, which houses a delightful little theatre
in the Venetian style of the eighteenth century.
From Vigoleno, follow the road down to the banks of the torrent Stirone, which
marks the border with the province of Parma, and proceed towards Fidenza. Park
your car near the ancient church of San Nicomede, and walk through the most
fascinating section of the open-air paleontological museum, set up in 1980
and now called "Parco Fluviale Regionale" (Regional River Park),
amongst impressive canyons full of sea sediments and fossils from the Tertiary
and Quaternary periods.
*The castle was the haunt of Count Pier
Maria Scotti, called "Buso", a bloodthirsty
adventurer of the fifteenth century.
**Of interest is the important Geological Museum, housed in the sixteenth-century
former Hospital of the Holy Spirit
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