New Year's Eve Piacenza

Piacenza during the Christmas and the New Year period, has a particular charm.
Arose on the banks of the Po river, the city has a rather rigid and formal aspect, given by the different historical witnesses that have characterized his training.
From the romanesque style of the cathedral until the Renaissance visible in the Madonna della Campagna (of countryside), to the Gothic style of Palazzo Pubblico, Piacenza shows infinite historical and artistic facets, starting precisely from its Roman origins: in fact the city is the most ancient Roman colony of the whole North of Italy.
Other peculiarità of the city is the elliptical shape of its historical center, built in the Medieval era.
Still, very characteristic is the castle, which is inside the walls that once surrounded the city, originally chosen as the capital.
At economic level, Piacenza was, at alternate stages, very florid: among the main activities, that one of the merchant, there are those related to the agriculture and the fabrics production.
Undeniable is, however, the negative influence of the fortunate Parma and Milan cities, which obscured Piacenza: indeed, this started to grow in economic and social level only at the beginning of the XXth century.
We can start our visit of the city from the Duomo: built in the century that goes from 1122 to 1233, it presents elemento in Romanesque style and particular Gothic art.
We reccomend to go inside the cathedral because its interior has imposrtant frescoes by artists such as Carracci, Guercino, in Baroque style.
Finally, the bell tower of the cathedral, built a century later, isn’t unnoticed with its 71 metres height.
Then, on the left side of the cathedral, there is the Episcopal Palace, inside which you can visit the Diocesan Museum.
Many history buildings must be visited in Piacenza: the Palazzo Landi, built in the Medieval era but restructured during the Renaissance; the Palazzo Farnese, in the beautiful Piazza Cittadella square, headquarter of the Farnese family until 1731; impressive is the Palazzo Scotti, 1780, situated in the famous Giordani Street, precisely on the corner with San Siro Street; not far away we find Palazzo Anguissola, an example of the medieval architecture.
But among these wonderful buildings, the most famous remains the Palazzo Pubblico, known as, "The Gothic", dating back to 1281.
In front of the the palace we can admire the equestrian statues of Alexander and Ranuccio Farnese.
On the other hand, for what concerns the religious architecture, we can visit the S. Antonio basilica, IVth century; or, again, the Romanesque San Savino church, dating back to 1107; finally, it is imperative a visit to the Madonna di Campagna sanctuary, designed by Alessio Tranello in 1528.
But we shall now proceed to the many museums of Piacenza: to start we can visit the Art Gallery, with many artists art works; the Civic Museum of Natural History, within the former Palazzo Scotti da Fombio, 1400; the “Ricci Oddi” Gallery of Modern Art; and finally the Civic Museum, within which we can admire ceramics, gold objects, paintings, frescoes and medieval sculptures.