Piacenza, says one of my guide books for Northern Italy, is known as the “City of Bricks”, but this, I believe, does not quite hit the mark. It is it true that many buildings in town, including some grand architectural statements of Church and State, have been constructed from that relatively humble material …
… but in this, Piacenza is no exception within the wider region.
For centuries, stone was hard to come by in the Po Valley, and even much grander cities such as Bologna and Milan have been largely constructed from man-made blocks of clay. (That includes the Duomo of Milan, which consists of a brick structure that was then clad in marble.)
If there is something unusual about Piacenza’s brick, it is rather the fact that so much of it is so well hidden. The architects of the town’s aristocratic palazzi went to great lengths to hide the true nature of their creations and did a pretty good job overall, but several centuries later, as the plaster is peeling off, the truth sees the light of day.
Expensive stones were only used in strategically important places, …
… but thrift appears not to have been the primary motive for the aristocratic owners – most of the money they saved by picking cheaper alternatives, after all, seems to have gone straight into the lavish decoration of their courtyards.
Piacenza – City of Lavish Courtyards
These courtyards are the true treasures of Piacenza, and the most interesting thing you can do in town is to go on a journey of discovery and exploration.
Just stroll through the streets of the Centro Storico and take whatever opportunity you get to peek through any open gate into the worlds that the owners of the ancient palazzi created in their backyards …
… and marvel at the domestic decorations they added purely for their own enjoyment.
For a second walk, we suggest you take a closer look at the Piazza Cavalli and its surrounding streets in the town centre. The Piazza is built around the Palazzo Gotico which is flanked by two equestrian statues (depicting two 17th century Farnese Dukes).
It is lined by the Basilica Francesco d’Assisi on one side …
… and a 1930s building on the other. Buildings from this period are an almost inevitable feature of every Italian townscape and merge beautifully with their historic environment.
As do some more recent additions. Fitting in the new with the old is something that Italian towns do extremely well, and Piacenza is no exception.
From Piazza Cavalli, the ancient home of the town’s civic institutions, take Via XX Settembre to walk towards the Cathedral, the focus of Piacenza’s clerical life.
The quarter around the Cathedral is lively but less busy than the town centre and has preserved a charm of its own.
And finally, for a breath of fresh air and wide open spaces, we suggest a walk on the top of the 16th century town wall that has been partly preserved.
The most scenic part of the ancient fortifications can be found in the Giardini Facsal, the Latinized version of the Vauxhall Gardens in London which were all the rage in 19th century Italy.
Once you are in this part of town, you may also want to take a look at the near-by Eataly shop on Stradone Farnese.
Even people like us – who regularly buy their groceries from shops and markets in Italy – can always find something in an Eataly that they cannot get at home, and if you concentrate on special offers and items on sale (Eataly stocks an enormous range of products but is not cheap), you can purchase all the gifts for friends and family that you need at competitive prices. (And since you ask: no, Eataly did not sponsor us, although we would be willing to cut a deal.)
Truth be told, we spent more time there than at the Giardini Facsal (which have Latinized the concept of a English Garden, alas, in more ways than one).
In fact, Piacenza is probably best enjoyed as a stopover on the journey from Milan and Lake Como to the cities of Emilia-Romagna like Bologna and Ravenna. The journeys of discovery in Piacenza will not take you more than a few hours.
