Villages and castles of the Piacenza hills
A land of villages and fortresses
One of the things I love most about living at Podere Montevalle is having some of Italy's most beautiful and best-preserved medieval villages just a few minutes' drive away. These aren't reconstructions or theme parks: they are real, lived-in places where history breathes through stones laid centuries ago. When my guests ask what to see in the area, the villages are always my first answer.
The Piacenza hills, on the border between Emilia and Lombardy, were for centuries a land of passage and dispute: the Via Francigena crossed them carrying pilgrims towards Rome, while noble families — the Visconti, Pallavicino, Scotti — built castles and fortresses to control valleys and trade routes. Today that heritage is still here, intact and striking.
Castell'Arquato: medieval perfection
Castell'Arquato is the village I always recommend first. Just eleven kilometres from the Podere, perched on the hill overlooking the Arda Valley, it's one of Italy's Most Beautiful Villages and holds the Touring Club's Orange Flag. But above all, it's a place that truly impresses: when you climb to the upper square and find yourself facing the Visconti Fortress, the Romanesque Collegiate Church and the Podestà Palace all together, the effect is unforgettable.
The Visconti Fortress, built in 1342, is open to visitors and from the top of the keep you can enjoy an extraordinary view across the valley to the plain. On clear days you can see the Alps. The Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Assunta, with its sandstone naves and capitals each different from the next, is a Romanesque gem that deserves time and silence. And the Cortesi Geological Museum, housed in the ancient Hospital of the Holy Spirit, tells an even older story: that of marine fossils from the Piacenzian age, when this area was under the sea.
Practical info — Castell'Arquato
Distance: 11 km from the Podere — Visit time: half a day on foot
Visconti Fortress: €5 adults, €4 reduced
Collegiate Church: free entry
Geological Museum: check opening times on the museum website
Don't miss: Monterosso Festival (April), Rivivi il Medioevo (September)
Official website · Google Maps
My advice is to arrive early in the morning, when the alleyways are quiet and the light is perfect. Wine lovers should know that we're in the Monterosso DOC area, the typical white wine of the Arda Valley: in April the village celebrates its dedicated festival, with tastings right in the streets. In September there's "Rivivi il Medioevo" (Relive the Middle Ages), a lively historical re-enactment with processions, tournaments and medieval cuisine.
Vigoleno: the village of lovers
If Castell'Arquato is the postcard village, Vigoleno is the one that surprises. You can reach it from the Podere in fifteen minutes along a scenic road through Bacedasco — the drive alone is worth it. Then you park outside the walls, pass through the single gate of the barbican and find yourself inside a completely intact fortress-village, enclosed within its crenellated walls like a time capsule.
Vigoleno is small: you can walk around it in an hour. But it's precisely this intimacy that makes it special. The forty-two-metre keep offers a panorama over the Stirone hills that's among the most beautiful in the area. The Romanesque Parish Church of San Giorgio, with its bas-relief of the saint and the dragon, is one of the best preserved in the Piacenza region. And then there's the eighteenth-century miniature theatre inside the castle: twelve seats, considered the smallest in Europe, commissioned by Princess Ruspoli who in the 1920s transformed Vigoleno into her cultural salon, hosting D'Annunzio, Cocteau and Max Ernst within these walls.
Practical info — Vigoleno
Distance: 7.5 km from the Podere — Visit time: 1–2 hours
Keep: €4.50 adults, €3.50 reduced (self-guided)
Full guided tour with noble floor: €9.50
Parish Church of San Giorgio: free entry
Don't miss: Vin Santo di Vigoleno DOC at the producers' wine shop
Official website · Google Maps
Vigoleno's real secret, though, is the sunset. Come towards evening, when the raking light turns the walls honey-coloured and the valley fills with subtle hues. It's the perfect moment for a glass of Vin Santo di Vigoleno — a rare dessert wine, one of Italy's smallest DOC areas by vineyard size, made from grapes grown on the hills around the village. You'll find it at the producers' wine shop, right inside the walls.
Scipione Castle: a thousand years, one family
About ten kilometres from the Podere, on the road to Salsomaggiore, Scipione Castle is the oldest in the province of Parma: it was built before 1025 by the Marquises Pallavicino. And the extraordinary thing is that their direct descendants still live there today, after a thousand years. This isn't a museum: it's a home where history is a family affair.
The guided tour takes you through furnished rooms with fifteenth-century coffered ceilings, seventeenth-century frescoes, the famous "Devil's Parlour" with its trompe-l'œil paintings and the small door that opens onto the secret passage. The ancient dungeons in the cylindrical tower are still intact, reached by a spiral staircase that sends a shiver down your spine.
And then there's the legend of the ghosts of Giangerolamo and Giacoma Pallavicino — he murdered by his cousins for having given everything to his wife, she who became one of the first emancipated women of the modern era — whose footsteps, they say, can still be heard on winter nights.
Practical info — Scipione Castle
Distance: 9.8 km from the Podere — Visit time: 1–1.5 hours (guided tour)
Guided tours: Saturdays, Sundays and holidays (March–November)
By reservation for groups all year round
Tel. +39 0521 823221 — Dogs welcome on a lead
Official website · Google Maps
Scipione Castle is linked to the history of salt: the Pallavicino family controlled extraction from the salt wells of Salsomaggiore, and the salt trade was the true wealth of these hills. Come here to understand the territory from a different perspective — that of medieval power and commerce.
The Abbey of Chiaravalle della Colomba
Before returning to the Podere, I recommend a detour that isn't a village but deserves a place in this guide: the Abbey of Chiaravalle della Colomba, in Alseno, our own municipality. It's the oldest Cistercian monastery in Emilia-Romagna, founded in 1136 at the behest of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux himself.
Legend has it that a white dove showed the monks the exact spot to build, tracing the perimeter with pieces of straw. In reality, the name probably refers to the Cistercians' Marian devotion, but the story of the dove is too beautiful not to tell. The Gothic cloister is intact on all four sides — an absolute rarity among Cistercian abbeys — and the brick basilica, with its sober yet powerful lines, is a place that invites silence.
Today the Abbey is still home to monks, who produce liqueurs from secret recipes handed down through the centuries. You'll find them for sale in the monastery distillery. The event of the year is the Corpus Domini Infiorata, between May and June, when the entire central nave is covered with a carpet of flower petals forming sacred scenes: a spectacle that alone is worth the trip.
Practical info — Abbey of Chiaravalle della Colomba
Distance: 6.7 km from the Podere — Visit time: 1–2 hours
Open daily 8:30–12:00 / 14:30–18:30
Free entry (donations welcome)
Don't miss: Corpus Domini Infiorata (May/June)
Official stop on the Via Francigena
Official website · Google Maps
How to plan your visit
From here, from the Podere, all these places are reachable in just a few minutes by car. Here's how I combine them:
- Castell'Arquato + Vigoleno — perfect for a full day: morning at the first, afternoon at the second, with lunch at one of the trattorias I recommend in the restaurants section
- Scipione Castle + Salsomaggiore — ideal half-day, with the option of a stroll through the Liberty-style centre of Salso
- Abbey of Chiaravalle — perfect for a visit of a couple of hours, best early in the morning when the silence of the cloister is total
If you'd like a ready-made route with timings and suggestions, check out our recommended itineraries: I've prepared one specifically for a day exploring villages and Parmigiano.
