Comuni Virtuosi
Comuni Virtuosi in Emilia-Romagna
5 towns
Emilia-Romagna has 5 Comuni Virtuosi communes in our index. They cluster in the Parma and Modena provinces.
The three most recognised in our catalogue are Parma, Busseto, and Collecchio. 2 more towns carry the mark alongside them.
Parma
Province: Parma · 57 m
A 57-meter Po-plain capital on the Via Emilia, where Correggio painted the Duomo dome and Parmigiano ages in vaults across the province.
Busseto
Province: Parma · 40 m
A 40-meter Bassa Parmense town where Giuseppe Verdi grew up, with a 300-seat opera house in the Rocca he refused to enter.
Collecchio
Province: Parma · 112 m
The Parma-cintura town on the Via Francigena, home to the Pieve di San Prospero, Parmalat, and Parma F.C.'s training ground.
Montechiarugolo
Province: Parma · 130 m
A Parmigiano-country borgo on the Enza river, built around a fourteenth-century castle that has stayed in the Marchi family since 1864.
Spilamberto
Province: Modena · 69 m
A 69-meter Po-plain town on the Via Romea, headquarters of the Consorteria that codifies Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena since 1967.
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From elsewhere in Italy
Five more towns to discover
Putignano
Province: Bari
Europe's longest-running carnival — Putignano Carnevale has run continuously since 1394, with 631 years of cartapesta papier-mâché floats, a 26,000-resident Murgia town on the Bari–Lecce plateau, and the Grotta del Trullo karst cave inside the centro.
Pistoia
Province: Pistoia
Italy's nursery capital and the medieval Tuscan rival that gave its name to the pistol — a quietly extraordinary centro storico of zebra-striped Romanesque churches, Andrea della Robbia's polychrome frieze on the Ospedale del Ceppo, and Italy's Capital of Culture 2017, all 30 minutes from Florence by train.
Tropea
Province: Vibo Valentia
Cliff town on a tufa headland over the Tyrrhenian Coast of the Gods, with a Norman monastery on a sea rock.
Caldes
Province: Trento
A scattered Val di Sole commune on the Noce, six hamlets gathered around a thirteenth-century tower-house castle that once belonged to the Thun family.
Cantiano
Province: Pesaro e Urbino
A border borgo at 374 meters under Monte Catria on the old Via Flaminia, known for the Good Friday Turba and the sour-cherry visciola harvest.