Piacenza is a city that hides small but precious treasures.Not only the University, one of the oldest in Italy - existing since 825 withthe School of Rhetoric Art, but places that although less known and almost hidden deserve a spring day… There are many places where you can eat typical dishes,prepared with local products; they are all very “friendly” and welcoming.

Piacenza means also Art. It hosts one of the most interesting - and perhaps least known - collections of Modern Art in Italy. The works of art were collected by Giuseppe Ricci Oddi who, once back in Piacenza in 1897, decided to adorn the bare family palace. Then, he relied upon his friends (i.e. artists and merchants, such as Giovanni Torelli from Milan) and in a few years time he collected works dating back to Romanticism and subsequent ages. In 1913, Ricci Oddi decided to donate the collection to the Municipality of Piacenza and asked the architect Giulio Ulisse Arata to construct the building that has been housing the collection since then.
Today, the Gallery hosts more than 400 works of great interest and wonder, including pieces by Boldini, De Nittis, Fattori, Pelizzada Volpedo, Hayez, Lega, Boccioni, Carrà and many others. The “Ricci Oddi” Collection is little known and it represents the courage, the vision and the taste of a man who succeeded, in a relatively short time, in giving life to a treasure of great charm and beauty.