This market town and rail junction once had strategical importance as the gateway to the mountain passes and pilgrims’ roads to Rome. A crucial battle of 1495 between Gonzaga (Italian) armies and Charles VlIl’s French forces ended in stalemate, thereby (say historians) delaying Italian unification by nearly 400 years.

East and west of Fornovo the Apennine wall rears up above the Po Plain. Numerous castles crown outlying spurs, some with teeth drawn, some in ruins, some belligerent in decay and some restored and provided with museums. Worth visiting are Castell’Arquato (south-west of Fidenza); Torrechiara and Montechiarugolo (south of Parma); and Canossa (southwest of Reggio Emilia). Unflinching as the rocky outcrop it sits on, Canossa is the symbol of humbled pride. At its gate in January 1077 the Emperor Henry IV stood bare-footed in the penitent’s white sheet, awaiting papal forgiveness. The tale is explained in the castle’s museum.