MEHRTAGERE REISEN

An entire territory as an open-air classroom

Six thematic itineraries lasting 3 or 4 days each, designed for high schools, include guided tours, practical workshops, team building activities, and meetings with local universities for university orientation.

Piacenza combines historical and scientific rigor with engaging experiences. Here, students aren't just visitors, but protagonists of an educational journey that seamlessly integrates ministerial curricula with the thrill of discovery.

CULTURE

Piacenza is an open-air history book. Founded by the Romans in 218 BC, it holds treasures that tell the story of two thousand years of civilization: from the archaeological site of Roman Veleia to the castles dotting the hills, residences of the Farnese family, a dynasty that shaped the face of Europe. Palazzo Farnese houses Botticelli's Tondo, the Collegio Alberoni houses Antonello da Messina's Ecce Homo, and the Ricci Oddi Gallery boasts Klimt's rediscovered Portrait of a Lady. Castles such as Gropparello, Rivalta, Vigoleno, and Castell'Arquato are treasure troves of noble memories where students can experience the Middle Ages and Renaissance firsthand, while the village of Bobbio, with its Devil's Bridge, is considered among the most beautiful in Italy.

NATURE

The Piacenza valleys are a natural laboratory for studying geology, biodiversity, and landscape. The Vezzeno Gorges, with their Jurassic ophiolitic rocks, the Pietra Parcellara and Pietra Perduca formations, the Piacenziano Park with its marine fossils at an altitude of 1,000 meters: every corner tells the story of the planet's evolution. The Po River, with Serafini Island—the largest river island in Italy—offers a rich ecosystem home to protected species. Here, nature is not just to be observed, but experienced through guided hikes, field workshops, and environmental education projects that transform every outing into a memorable scientific adventure.

FOOD AND WINE

Placentia, "the city that pleases," lives up to its name even when it comes to food. The only European province with three DOP cured meats—coppa, pancetta, and salame piacentini—and three DOC wines from the Piacenza Hills (Gutturnio, Malvasia, and Ortrugo), Piacenza is the beating heart of Emilia's Food Valley. Students can tour cured meat factories and wineries, discovering the entire agri-food chain from vineyard to bottle, from pork to cured meat. Traditional cooking workshops allow students to prepare pisarei e fasò, tortelli con la coda, and anolini. The flavor trails—the one through the hills and the one along the Po River—offer educational tours where food and wine become part of the history, economy, tradition, and cultural identity of a region.

SCIENCE-TECHNOLOGY-ENGINEERING

Piacenza has played a key role in Italy's energy history. The 349 Montechino oil wells, active between 1888 and 1950, and the discovery of the Cortemaggiore field in 1949 marked the birth of Enrico Mattei's ENI. Today, the area looks to a sustainable future: the Polytechnic University of Milan has its LEAP headquarters here for alternative energy research, while the visionary Shit Museum transforms the excretion of 2,500 cows into three megawatts of electricity per hour. A journey from the Jurassic to green technologies, where students can understand how scientific innovation responds to contemporary environmental challenges, with concrete applications of the circular economy and sustainable engineering.