Eleven municipalities of the Emilia-Romagna Region participate in Adrionet: Calendasco, Monticelli d’Ongina, Caorso, Castelvetro Piacentino and Villanova d’Arda (province of Piacenza), Polesine Zibello, Roccabianca and Colorno (Parma), Brescello, Boretto and Luzzara (Reggio Emilia). The choice of these municipalities was based on some criteria that involve them all, for one or more aspects:
– The presence of fortresses and castles, emblem of even different historical periods in which the territory had great importance: the medieval castles of Calendasco (which was also a central stop on the Via Francigena) and Caorso (the Rocca Mandelli); the fifteenth-century one of Monticelli d’Ongina; the Renaissance manor of Roccabianca, built by Pier Maria de Rossi for the favorite Bianca Pellegrini; and finally the eighteenth-century Reggia di Colorno, the “Versailles of the Farnese”.
– The presence of prominent cultural personalities of post-unification of Italy. Starting with the great Giuseppe Verdi, who settled in Villanova sull’Arda with his second wife; to then cite great intellectuals such as Giuseppino Guareschi, Cesare Zavattini and Poeto Ghizzardi, whose presence and work greatly characterized the Reggio towns of Brescello, Boretto, Luzzara; territories where the great naive artist Antonio Ligabue also lived and worked.
– A particular food and wine, which combines the flavors of the plain with those of the river, and offers different but equally noble typical products: from Parmigiano-Reggiano, produced in many of these lands, to Culatello di Zibello, the noblest of cured meats; from the aromatic Borettana onion to the Piacenza shallot to the tasty cherry from Villanova sull’Arda.
– The enhancement of territorial memories, which boasts several places already structured but worthy of further promotion. Among these: the Po Ethnographic Museum in Monticelli d’Ongina; the museum of peasant civilization of Zibello; in Boretto, the Po and Navigation Museum, the Reclamation Museum and the Casa dei Pontieri, Gialdini Museum.
