Villanova sull'Arda

In the hamlet of Sant'Agata, out in the fields, stands Giuseppe Verdi's house. Born at Le Roncole in 1813 and raised at Busseto, not far away, the composer bought the land here and had the villa built in 1848; from the spring of 1851 he settled there with Giuseppina Strepponi, his companion, who became his second wife. Verdi went on to live on that estate for more than fifty years.

The rest of the village lives off the land, and the land here gives above all cherries: the festival that celebrates them is held in the second week of June, while in the hamlet of Soarza, on the last Sunday of May, they hold the frog and catfish fair. Along the Po, on the flood plain, the river park of Isola Giarola grew up where sand was quarried for years: it is a piece of river given back.