Piacenza travel guide
Farnese horsemen, Romanesque towers and three cured meats
A compact brick city on the Po where Lombardy shades into Emilia, with a Gothic town hall, the Farnese palace museums and serious food. Come in April to June or September to October; one day covers the centre, two lets you reach Castell'Arquato or Bobbio. Costs are above average, and many passports need no visa.
Piacenza sits where the Trebbia meets the Po, on the western edge of Emilia-Romagna and barely an hour from Milan by regional train. The Romans founded Placentia here in 218 BC, and the Via Emilia still starts in town before running arrow-straight to Rimini. People come for a slow day of brick palaces and Romanesque churches, then stay for dinner, because the local cooking is some of the most distinctive in the north.
Piazza dei Cavalli is the place to start. Two bronze Farnese dukes on horseback, cast by Francesco Mochi in the 1600s, face the red-brick Palazzo Gotico of 1281 with its pointed arches. From there Via XX Settembre leads straight to the cathedral.
Plan on one full day, or two if you want the hill villages of the Colli Piacentini. Spring and early autumn are kindest; winter brings thick Po valley fog and July can be close and humid.
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Top things to do in Piacenza
A day of Farnese palaces, Romanesque churches and a small modern art gallery with a strange story, best ended at an osteria table.
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Best time to visit Piacenza
Month by month, so you can pick the weather and the crowds you want.
Comfortable temperatures, vineyards green or in harvest, and long evenings for eating outdoors in the piazzas.
Hot and sticky in the Po plain; many family-run trattorie close for a week or two around mid-August.
Fog can sit over the city for days, but it is the season for anolini in brodo and quiet museums.
The city honours its patron, Sant'Antonino, on 4 July, when the basilica and its square fill with locals.
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Getting there
Milan airports and the Milan-Bologna line
No airport serves Piacenza itself, so most visitors fly into Milan and finish by train. Piacenza station lies on the main line between Milan and Bologna, with frequent regional trains plus some faster services, and the same trains continue past Bologna down the Adriatic side towards Ancona.
- Milan Linate
- Metro M4 into Milan, changing to M3 at Missori for Milano Centrale or Rogoredo, then a regional train south
- Milan Malpensa
- Malpensa Express to Milano Centrale in about 50 minutes, then a train to Piacenza
- Regional train from Milan
- Under an hour on the Milan-Bologna line
- SETA bus
- Direct service to Cremona
- Parma's small airport is closer but has few flights; Bergamo Orio al Serio and Bologna are other options with a longer onward leg.
- The station is on the eastern side of the old town, a walk of roughly a quarter of an hour to Piazza dei Cavalli.
- Drivers arrive on the A1 (Milan to Bologna) or the A21 (Turin to Brescia), which cross just outside town.
- From Malpensa, a hire car on the A1 can be quicker than two trains if you plan to tour the hill villages.
- Check whether your Milan train stops at Rogoredo; it saves crossing the city to Centrale.
Where to stay
Inside the avenues around Piazza dei Cavalli
The old town is small, so staying inside the ring of avenues puts every sight within a short walk. Station hotels suit an early train but put you a little further from the evening restaurants. Hotels here serve trade-fair and business visitors as much as tourists, so weekends are often the easier time to book.
- Around Piazza dei Cavalli
- Closest to the Gotico, Via XX Settembre and the best osterie; limited parking and some weekend bar noise
- Near Palazzo Farnese and Via Cittadella
- Quiet streets by the museums, still a few minutes from the main square
- Duomo and Sant'Antonino
- Calm residential lanes between the two Romanesque churches; few hotels but some B&Bs
- Station area
- Handy for day trips to Milan or Parma, plainer streets after dark
- In the hills, Castell'Arquato and Grazzano Visconti have country stays for a slower trip, but you will need a car.
Getting around
On foot, SETA buses and Mi Muovo
The historic centre is flat and best covered on foot: the walk from Palazzo Farnese past Piazza dei Cavalli to the Duomo takes well under half an hour. SETA runs the urban buses, useful for the station, the outlying hotels on the west side and the rugby ground.
- SETA urban buses
- Station, outer districts and Stadio Beltrametti
- Mi Muovo Multibus
- 12-trip regional bus carnet
- Buy tickets before boarding at newsagents or tabacchi and validate them on the bus.
- For a few days of short hops, the regional Mi Muovo Multibus carnet bundles 12 rides and works across Emilia-Romagna's networks.
- Cycling is popular with students on the flat streets.
- To reach the hill villages you really need a car, as rural buses are sparse.
- Watch for the limited traffic zone around the centre if you drive; park outside it and walk in.
Know before you go
What makes Piacenza worth the trip, and what catches visitors out.
Why travelers love it
- Piazza dei Cavalli in the late afternoon, when the low sun turns the Gotico's brick a deep red and the two bronze dukes throw long shadows.
- The Bronze Liver of Piacenza in the Palazzo Farnese museums, an Etruscan model of a sheep's liver engraved with the names of gods, used for reading omens.
- The Ricci Oddi gallery, where a Klimt portrait stolen in 1997 turned up hidden inside the building's own garden wall in 2019.
Good to know
- Mondays are thin: most civic museums close, so plan the Farnese palace for another day.
- August empties the city, with many trattorie shut around Ferragosto; book ahead in the weeks either side.
Trip fit
BookingMentor editorial ratings out of 5, based on a first-time visitor's experience.
Weather in Piacenza, month by month
Arpae Emilia-Romagna's long-term records for the Piacenza urbana station supply the monthly temperature and rainfall here.
Climate figures are approximate long-term averages for Piacenza urbana (Arpae Emilia-Romagna, via Wikipedia).
Palazzo Farnese to Sant'Antonino on foot
Begin at Palazzo Farnese on Piazza Cittadella when the museums open. The unfinished Renaissance palace holds the civic collections: carriages, frescoes, a Botticelli tondo and, in the archaeological rooms, the Etruscan Bronze Liver, a bronze model of a sheep's liver once used for divination. Give it two hours.
Walk east to Piazza dei Cavalli for a coffee under the arcades of the Palazzo Gotico, built in 1281, and take a proper look at Mochi's equestrian statues of Alessandro and Ranuccio Farnese. Then follow Via XX Settembre, the main shopping street, to the Duomo, a sober Romanesque cathedral of the 12th and 13th centuries whose dome carries frescoed prophets by Guercino.
Lunch belongs to an osteria; this is a city that takes the midday meal seriously. In the afternoon, head to the Basilica di Sant'Antonino, one of the earliest Romanesque churches in the region, recognisable by its octagonal tower. Finish at the Galleria Ricci Oddi on Via San Siro, a collection of 19th and early 20th-century Italian painting built up by a single collector, whose Klimt portrait has one of the odder recovery stories in art history. Close the day with a passeggiata and an aperitivo of Gutturnio back near the Gotico.
Coppa, pisarei e fasö and a glass of Gutturnio
Piacenza's table is closer to Lombardy and the Apennines than to Bologna. The province holds protected status for three cured meats, coppa piacentina, salame piacentino and pancetta piacentina, and a plate of all three with warm bread is the standard way to open a meal.
The signature pasta is pisarei e fasö, tiny hand-rolled gnocchi of breadcrumbs and flour cooked with borlotti beans and tomato. Look also for tortelli con la coda, filled with ricotta and greens and pinched shut in a braid that leaves a little tail, and anolini in brodo, small stuffed pasta served in rich broth through the cold months. Horse meat appears on traditional menus too, often as a slow stew.
Drink local. The hills south of town produce Gutturnio, a red from Barbera and Bonarda grapes, and the white Ortrugo, both sometimes lightly sparkling. Old osterie in the centre, such as those on Via Santo Stefano and Via del Castello, serve this cooking without fuss, and Trattoria La Pireina on Via Borghetto keeps a strictly local menu. For something cold afterwards, Signor Gelato on Via Gadolino, just outside the centre, makes its own ice cream.
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How we research our Piacenza travel guide
Piacenza's trains on the Milan to Bologna line, SETA buses and the Palazzo Farnese museums are rechecked with the Comune di Piacenza and Italia.it.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Quick answers to the questions travelers ask most before visiting Piacenza.
Getting there
Linate is the easier of the two, since it is closer to Milan's southern stations. Malpensa adds a longer train leg; Parma airport is nearer but has very few flights.
Under an hour on the Milan-Bologna line, with trains through the day. By car it is a straight run down the A1.
Drive south-west up the Trebbia valley to the humpbacked bridge and the abbey of San Colombano; rural buses are sparse, so a car is far easier.
All three lie within a flat 20-minute walk of each other, so the centre needs no transport at all.
Timing & weather
Around 15 minutes to Piazza dei Cavalli; SETA buses also cover the route.
The best time to visit Piacenza is Apr to Jun, Sep to Oct. Mild days for walking the centre and the hill villages, outside the winter fog and the humid heat of high summer.
- Best overall: April - June, September - October (Comfortable temperatures, vineyards green or in harvest, and long evenings for eating outdoors in the piazzas)
- Summer: July - August (Hot and sticky in the Po plain; many family-run trattorie close for a week or two around mid-August)
- Winter: November - February (Fog can sit over the city for days, but it is the season for anolini in brodo and quiet museums)
July is the warmest month in Piacenza, with average highs of 31°C, and January the coolest, with lows of 0°C. November is the wettest month, at about 114 mm of rain; July is the driest. Arpae Emilia-Romagna's long-term records for the Piacenza urbana station supply the monthly temperature and rainfall here.
General
One day covers the old town. Add a second for the hill villages such as Castell'Arquato, Grazzano Visconti or Bobbio.
An Etruscan bronze model of a sheep's liver, marked with the names of deities, that priests used to interpret omens. It is displayed in the archaeological section of the Palazzo Farnese museums.
Coppa piacentina, salame piacentino and pancetta piacentina, usually served together as an antipasto with warm bread.
Spring and early autumn: April to June, then September and October. Winter fog over the Po can be dense, and many restaurants close for part of August.
Top-flight men's volleyball at the PalaBanca and rugby union at Stadio Walter Beltrametti, south of the centre.
The historic centre is flat and best covered on foot: the walk from Palazzo Farnese past Piazza dei Cavalli to the Duomo takes well under half an hour. SETA runs the urban buses, useful for the station, the outlying hotels on the west side and the rugby ground.
Visa & documents
Schengen rules apply in Italy. Citizens of the EU and of many other countries, including the US, UK, Canada and Australia, can visit visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180-day period; other nationalities need a Schengen visa. The EU's Entry/Exit System (EES) records non-EU travelers' fingerprints and a photo at the border.
Health & safety
Violent crime against visitors to Italy is rare. Pickpocketing is the main problem, especially on buses and metros in Rome (bus 64 is notorious), at Roman and Florentine sights, and at Termini and Naples Centrale stations. Wear your bag across your body and zip it, and use only licensed white taxis or official ride apps.
