Parco dello Stirone Il Parco dello Stirone
The "Parco Fluviale Regionale dello Stirone", protects a stretch of road about 14km long from Fidenza to Vigoleno along a river with the same name. An ideal place for the lovers of trekking and bird-watching but also for whoever prefers to plunge oneself in nature by bicycle. It is also very interesting, apart from the environmental side of things , for its numerous fossil findings which exist along the river.

The "Parco Fluviale Regionale dello Stirone" is situated along the margins of the ancient,pliocenic 'Padano' gulf and preserves an extraordinary quantity and variety of fossilized formations, well known by the scholars of palaeontology, for the spectacular findings of the Tertiary and Quaternary periods which emerge all along the river's course. Every year numerous scholars and students coming from all over Europe visit this open air museum which is the only one of its kind.
For information and guided visits you can contact:

  • Consorzio Parco Fluviale Regionale dello Stirone
    Via Loschi, 5 - 43036 Salsomaggiore Terme (Pr)
    Tel. 0524/574418
  • Centro Studi Vallestirone
    Via Libertà,15 - Vigoleno. (Pc)
    Tel/fax 0523/895181 -
    E-MAIL: vallestirone@iname.com

    • The "Via Francigena"

    In the previous centuries that is to say the 1st Century and in the hundred years which followed, when the Crusades hadn't yet launched that long bridge, symbolic and real, which was meant to re-join Europe to the Holy Land of Palestine and Gerusalem; the natural destinations of the pilgrims were "Santiago di Compostella" and Rome.

    In Rome, the spiritual centre of Christianity, a city sought-after by kings, merchants and artists, where commercial and pilgrimage roads joined together, which still today tell stories - centuries old.

    Their roads have left tracks which are more or less evident, rendering (or imposing) changes in the habits and in the customs of a region or race. Luckily, it is often still possible to follow this course, as an alternative to the modern, fast but indifferent strips of cement and concrete; some roads are part of the central system of our present main roads, others are noticeable thanks to the archeological discovery or intuitions of a traveller who has a passion for history of the ancient roads.

    These itineraries suggest innumerable observations on the relationship between the environment, culture, countryside and society. The "Via Romea/Francigena", perhaps the most ancient road of Europe, is one of these itineraries. A historical itinerary, a main road tread on in the past by thousands of people travelling to Rome.

    The fortified town of Vigoleno, very near the "Via Francigena" road, became a different place, a secure refuge for the merchants and pilgrims. Still today, you can note at the beginning of the Medieval town, straight after the "rivelino" and pathway entrance, the ancient Hostel (entering on the left with the sign "to rent") slightly further along on the right looking at the "Oratatorio della Madonna del Latte", is the image sculptured by a pilgrim.



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