Between Nure Valley and Trebbia Valley towards Val Tidone

Small town called Grazzano Visconti which looks exactly as it used to look in the Middle Ages. The original village of Grazzano sprang up around the old castle Giovanni d’Anguissola built for himself and his wife Beatrice in the 14th century. The whole village went through a major makeover only at the beginning of the 20th century; a rather controversial restoration which raised eyebrows throughout the country, though the place has undeniably retained its magic and romantic atmosphere. Every year, on the last Sunday of May the town, also hosts an historical pageant which attracts thousands of people from the nearby cities and towns.

The area between the rivers Trebbia and Riglio was exploited as long ago as the Ligurian and the Roman ages for its iron and copper mines, so it is very likely Ponte dell’Olio was inhabited, too. The village is mentioned in a paper of the 9th century: in those days, it was called Ponte Albarola. It was a very important village placed along the trade routes between Emilia and Liguria: here the merchants used to leave their loads of olive oil and salt to leave again with the cereals of the Po Valley.

A delightful touristic destination that presents a Castle now called Villa Anguissola Scotti. In medieval times it was subject to numerous sieges and restructured at the end of the 18th century, it is characterized by a notable Neoclassic façade with paired columns and a tympanum. The Parish Church of Sant’Agata boasts a Neoclassic style and the San Rocco oratory built in the 17th century.

Monteventano Castle is a stately castle situated on a steep cliff in the heart of the Luretta valley in the Piozzano town close to Piacenza.

Nibbiano presents several attractions from the Genepreto village to the Malvicini Fontana Palace in Sala Mandelli, from the Castle and Oratory in Stadera and the ancient Tower of Torre Gandini to the Tassara Palace, up to the remains of the “castrum de durobecho”, today known as Trebecco a Corticelli (between Trevozzo and Nibbiano) where you can see the Castle that remains close to a medieval village with a church, houses and agricultural settlement that deserves an attentive analysis.
Worth of a visit is also the lovely Baroque Church of St. Mary of the Assumption in Trevozzo for its precious paintings, furniture and a splendid pipe organ sent by Busseto on which the composer Giuseppe Verdi studied.

In the Roman period Caminata was a landed property and, in the 4th-5th century they built the first church to the east of the road to Torre Gandini, on a hill called “Gisiö”, which means small church: its cornerstone, discovered in 1954, is preserved in a courtyard of Caminata. Caminata was a fortified village, on the lookout over a borderland. The northern gate looks onto the way to Torre Gandini (Via della Torre), the southern gate opens on the Tidone Valley (Via del Tidone).
A further offensive-defensive apparatus consisted of the house-towers, or “caminate”: two are still discernible.