“Piacenza is a land of passage” wrote Leonardo Da Vinci in the Codex Atlanticus. By its very location, at the crossroads between four regions, it is, actually, the gateway to Emilia, founded on the banks of the Po and enclosed in the embrace of the hills and mountains of the Apennines. Founded as Roman colony, later important medieval center, it has always been an ideal stop in the passage of princes and pilgrims, crusaders and Templars, traders and artists who left their mark here. A vocation to hospitality is part of its DNA and still invites visitors nowadays.