What is Busseto known for?

Born at Roncole in 1813, the composer grew up in Busseto and bought Villa Sant'Agata north of town in 1848, where he lived until 1901. The cured pork from the surrounding Bassa Parmense holds DOP status; eight nearby communes form the small Zibello production zone. Three-hundred-seat opera house in the Rocca, opened 1868; the composer funded it, kept a box, and is reputed never to have entered.

Busseto is a comune in the province of Parma, Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, about 37 kilometers from Parma.

Emilia-Romagna · Parma

Busseto

A 40-meter Bassa Parmense town where Giuseppe Verdi grew up, with a 300-seat opera house in the Rocca he refused to enter.

37 km / 23 mi

Nearest hub (Parma)

6,763

Population

Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Busseto sitsin the Bassa Parmense, twenty-five kilometers northwest of Parma, in the flat farming country between the Po and the Apennine foothills. The town was the capital of the Stato Pallavicino for almost five hundred years before it was absorbed into the Duchy of Parma. Giuseppe Verdi was born on 9 or 10 October 1813 in Roncole, the frazione three kilometers east, and moved into Busseto itself in 1824 as a boy. The Teatro Giuseppe Verdi opened in 1868 inside the Rocca dei Pallavicino, seating 300; Verdi contributed 10,000 lire to its construction, kept his own box, and is reputed never to have set foot inside it. The Casa Natale at Roncole has been a national monument since 1901. Villa Sant'Agata, the country house Verdi bought in 1848 and lived in until his death, lies five kilometers north. The Bassa around the town produces Culatello di Zibello and the Parmigiano Reggiano the local consortium has aged here since the nineteenth century.

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Gallery

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Known for

Teatro Giuseppe Verdi
Three-hundred-seat opera house opened in 1868 inside the Rocca dei Pallavicino, which Verdi funded with 10,000 lire and never entered.
Rocca dei Pallavicino
Fifteenth-century fortress in the main piazza, seat of the Stato Pallavicino for centuries, now housing the theatre and the town hall.
Casa Natale di Verdi
Verdi's birthplace at Roncole Verdi, three kilometers east, declared a national monument in 1901 and preserved as a museum.
Villa Verdi a Sant'Agata
Country house Verdi bought in 1848 and lived in until his death, with original furnishings and the garden he designed himself.
Piazza Giuseppe Verdi
Central square framed by the Rocca and the Collegiata di San Bartolomeo, with the seated Verdi monument by Gilio Monteverde from 1913.

Signature product

Culatello di Zibello DOPDOP

Verdi's hometown is also one of the eight Culatello di Zibello producing communes.

See every town in our catalogue producing Culatello di Zibello DOP.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June and September through October are the working months in the Bassa. The Po Valley sky clears and the cured-meat acetaie reopen their tasting rooms after winter. July and August are heavy. Thirty-five degrees and the humidity that comes with a flat valley nine hundred meters from the river. November through March is foggy and cold. Many Verdian sites cut hours. The Festival Verdi in October splits performances between the Teatro Regio in Parma and the small Teatro Verdi here, and that month is when the town fills with opera-tour buses arriving for the matinee and leaving for dinner in Parma.