Hotels in Piacenza

Piacenza

Piacenza sits at the southern bank of the Po River, 67 km southeast of Milan, at the western gateway to Emilia-Romagna. Founded as a Roman colony in 218 BC, the city retains a compact medieval core anchored by Piazza Cavalli — named for the two 17th-century equestrian bronze statues of the Farnese dukes that face the Gothic Palazzo del Comune, locally called Il Gotico. The cathedral, consecrated in 1122, holds frescoes by Guercino and a celebrated carved crypt. Piacenza is rarely overwhelmed by tourists, which gives it an authenticity harder to find in more-visited Emilian cities.

Visitors come for the food as much as the monuments. The province produces three DOP-protected cured meats — coppa piacentina, pancetta piacentina, and salame piacentino — alongside Gutturnio, a local DOC red wine made from Barbera and Croatina grapes. The covered Mercato Comunale on Via Giordani is the practical place to buy them. Business travelers also pass through, drawn by the city's industrial and logistics sector along the A1 motorway corridor.

Piacenza's main railway station connects to Milan Centrale in roughly 60 minutes and to Bologna in about 90 minutes by regional train. Most hotels cluster within a 10-minute walk of the station and Piazza Cavalli, making the historic centre easy to navigate on foot.