Visit Italian art cities

You are spoilt for choices, true story.

Speaking of art cities in Italy is like talking about water into the Pacific Ocean: how do you? From which one could you ever begin? Only in the very recent years we have been visiting Vicenza, Padua, Treviso, Mantua, Ferrara, Gubbio, Assisi, Perugia. We have to mention also the historical villages Thiene, Bassano, Spoleto, Tresigallo, Comacchio and so many others… We could write down an endless list, that can be extended to the whole Italy, from the north to the south and islands.

A few days ago we were in a small town between Modena and Bononia, San Cesario sul Panaro, only 6 thousands inhabitants. This isn’t at all a classic touristic area. Well, I found out that the history of this place began in the Neolithic Age, that Etruscans, Gauls and Romans used to live here, then Benedectines rebuilt the town, Matilde of Canossa was here, and it was a Ghibelline outpost in Modena against the Guelphs of Bononia!

Today you will find in San Cesario a beautiful village, with its castle and fortress, a fine Romanesque church and a millennial tradition about wine and food (local balsamic vinegar, walnut liqueur, sausages and handmade tortellini, Parmesan and Modena ham…).

How can you say to a German tourist that it would be worthwhile to take a plane from Frankfurt, landing in Bologna, take a bus or a car -why not a bicycle?- to reach San Cesario sul Panaro, visit it, have a great lunch and then coming back to take the plane again? San Cesario worths the journey, true story.

Assuming an hypothetical ranking of Italian art cities, the village of San Cesario which place would take?! The two-hundred-sixtieth position? The three-hundred-twenty-first place? This proves how many art cities exist in Italy! And this is the reason why we signed the legislative proposal “Beauty Law” thought by Lega Ambiente (Italian environmental association): it is not only aesthetic overstatement, but a concrete idea to enhance our true Italian social capital, that is Art, History, Monuments, Traditions, Historical Centers, Landscape, Products.

Come and discover the whole of it, wherever you are in Italy.

Main pic: Perugia city centre, courtesy of Flickr User Perugiacity.com