Emilian shore of the Po is a region ofEmilia.
To know
The Emilian Po Valley, where it runs along the Po river on its right bank, is commonly called Low: a denomination that is used in all the regions crossed by the Po, on both banks, with the only exceptions of theOltrepò Pavese, L'Oltrepò Mantua, the Polesine of Rovigo in Veneto and the Delta.
Only Piacenza it had an industrial development. The rest of the territory has remained linked to the traditional cultivation of the fields and livestock. Agriculture is responsible for the production activities of transformation that have reached levels of excellence in the dairy sector (Parmigiano Reggiano cheese is produced here in numerous toll booths scattered throughout the countryside) and in the production of highly renowned cured meats thanks to their high quality: the coppa piacentina, the culatello of Zibello, the cooked shoulder of San Secondo Parmense.
It is a land of isolated farmhouses in the midst of endless countryside, but also of small feudal towns with their enchanting castles; it is an area of Po Valley fogs and long twilights that stretch over the waters of the Po, where fishing (now disappeared) proliferated, the floating mills on the river - also surviving only on yellowed photographs of the late nineteenth, early twentieth century -, and the extraction of sand, activities that ensured bread for families who were not farmers like most of the inhabitants.
And the Small World of Guareschi, where the stories of Peppone and Don Camillo are set and where the stories of Peppone and Don Camillo are born, whose memory is repeated here almost everywhere, in the signs of the clubs, in the environmental paths, in the chatter of the people. It is the land that inspired the immortal arias of Giuseppe Verdi, who here is the object of immeasurable worship and true veneration.
Geographical notes
Its natural border is the bed of the Po to the north, Piacenza and its territory immediately bordering to the west, Guastalla East; roughly the Autostrada del Sole south to Lower Piacenza area is Parma lowland; for the Guastallese the area of the ancient Duchy.
Background
The Municipality of Piacenza, the Municipality of Parma, the Municipality of Cremona, the Municipality of Reggio they had possession of it before the Lordships. Later the Visconti, then the Pallavicino state, the Duchy of Parma, Piacenza is Guastalla they dominated the various areas in different historical periods, up to the Unification.
Territories and tourist destinations
Urban centers
- Brescello - The Roman Brixellum was an important center of the Roman Empire, a hub of trade and commerce, mentioned several times by Latin historical authors. In our days, however, its fame is more linked to having been a film set for the series Don Camillo than to its noble origin.
- Busseto - The city of Giuseppe Verdi had as Lords the members of the Pallavicino family from the tenth to the sixteenth century, that is, until the Farnese family appropriated them, at the time of the creation of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza. For a long time it was the capital of Pallavicino state which extended from the Po to the Apennines up to Varsi. In the year 1533, Charles V raised Busseto to the rank of City.
- Colorno - The Versailles of the lower Parma area it was the Court of the Sanseverino, then of the Farnese, then of Maria Luigia of Austria, finally of the Bourbons; Colorno, however, is not only the Royal Palace and park of the Reggia, but it is also the Ducal Chapel of San Liborio, the Cathedral of Santa Margherita, Torre delle Acque, Corte di Sanguigna: a set of monuments that made it a small elegant center for the Parma nobility.
- Cortemaggiore - The notoriety of the modern city is linked to the oil and methane fields, when after the war the petrol sold by ENI was called Cortemaggiore is Supercortemaggiore. Its importance in the past derives instead from being a newly founded city, built according to the urban planning principles of the ideal city, a theme dear to the Renaissance; it was the capital of the Pallavicino state afterwards Busseto.
- Fontanellato - Between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries the Sanvitale family, in the eighteenth century the Farnese family ennobled this Po Valley center with the Castle and its famous Sanctuary, as well as the elegant urban sobriety of its historic center. True masterpiece of the castle are certainly the frescoes by Parmigianino, a work of 1524 which deals with the stories of Diana and Atteone. .
- Gualtieri - The great scenographic arcaded square in which the majestic Bentivoglio Renaissance palace stands out, whose arcades extend on the other sides as if to embrace this space of admirable elegance on which the Civic Tower stands.
- Guastalla - Nominally capital of the Duchy of Parma together with Piacenza, had a Gonzaga past of ducal autonomy which left it an important historic center with beautiful monuments and traces of the mighty defensive system of a walled city.
- Piacenza - Founded by the Romans on the right bank of the Po to colonize the Gallic lands, like the almost twin Cremona on the left bank of Lombardy, the city reveals in the warp of its historic center the orderly chessboard of Roman town planning. Capital of the Duchy of the Farnese with Parma, on the border with Lombardy, Piacenza joins his Emilianity Lombard afflati. Its largely medieval old town has a severe atmosphere; it also offers numerous Renaissance monuments.
- Roccabianca - One of the many centers that the powerful Rossi family has endowed with fortifications and a castle. The fortress was commissioned by Pier Maria Rossi, Lord of the place, in honor of his beloved Bianca Pellegrini; the castle and the woman, merging their names, have formed the toponym of the town that has supplanted the ancient name of Rezinoldo or Arzenolto (high embankment). .
- San Secondo Parmense - Its castle recalls the belonging of the city to the dominion of the Rossi, who commanded a vast territory from the banks of the Po a Roccabianca until Torrechiara and further up in the Apennines a Berceto it's at Corniglio. Much better known is its name due to the production of the well-known cooked shoulder of San Secondo which is one of the food products that make the Italian gastronomic tradition great.
- Soragna - The city has always linked its name to the Meli Lupi, princes who still own the fortress that rises in the center of the town. Over the centuries, the noble family has been able to safeguard the integrity of its possessions and above all of the castle which never suffered the shame of occupations or looting. Over time, the ancient defensive role has given way to its transformation into an elegant princely residence. .
- Zibello - It has a beautiful historic center, with beautiful monuments and spacious squares, but its fame is above all linked to the precious production of the famous culatello of Zibello known well beyond the regional borders and true Italian gastronomic excellence.
Other destinations
- Regional river tourist port of Boretto — [1][link not working] The port of Boretto has a large equipped floodplain area close to the main embankment which constitutes the Strada Statale 62 della Cisa which passes close to the town. In the area of Lido Po numerous tourist and folkloristic events take place; mini cruises on the river are also carried out. There are numerous services for boats: piers for mooring pleasure boats; pontoons for mooring motor vessels up to 1,000 tons. gross tonnage (5th European class); crane for hauling boats with a capacity of 3 tons; boat rental; drinking water; electric energy; fuel distribution; mechanical assistance; boat for assistance; large parking area; free camping; public phone; Tourist Information Office; park with an adjoining dance floor and summer bar; restaurant with play area and playground; Federal Center of the Italian Motorboat Federation; Nautical School for issuing licenses; Toilet; ecological base station equipped for the collection and disposal of urban and special waste.
- Parma Morta nature reserve - to Mezzani.
How to get
By plane
They are airports ofEmilia:
- 1 Bologna airport (G.Marconi), Via Triumvirato 84, ☎ 39 051 6479615.
- 2 Parma airport (G. Verdi), Via Emilia - Golese locality, ☎ 39 0521 951511.
How to get around
By car
The roads of the Lower Emilia area are mostly municipal, not very wide, with the characteristic trend with hairpin bends, as they trace the ancient sheep tracks that followed the borders of the fields, or they unwind on the top of the embankments. Traveling through these arteries means rediscovering another dimension, more peaceful, in a relaxing landscape, often along long stretches planted on both sides, as was once the majority of the roads in this corner of the Po valley.
TO Boretto it's at Polesine Parmense during the summer it is possible to sail along the Po with tourist river boats.
What see
- The palace (to Colorno).
- The Gothic (in Piacenza).
- The fortress (in Soragna).
Itineraries
- In the lands of Matilda
- Tour of the castles of Roccabianca, Soragna, San Secondo Parmense, San Pietro in Cerro.
What to do
At the table
It is a land of gastronomic excellence, of cured meats whose fame goes far beyond not only local but national borders; raw and cooked ham, culatello, cooked and raw shoulder, salami. Stuffed pasta has the same fame: anolini, tortelli with grass and pumpkin, tortelloni.
Drinks
Lambrusco, a generously sparkling wine, effectively accompanies the salami and first courses of the area, as well as the local Fortana, more delicate but equally sparkling, and the sparkling Malvasia.
