A rope connecting earth and river – the ancient walled village of Castelponzone (CR) has a distinct Renaissance flavour (even without walls).

It rises over the placid countryside of Cremona evoking memories of the past when trade flourished and draped ropes were a common sight. The agriculture-handicraft industry weaves a fabric of land, hemp ropes and shops. The heart of everything was always the countryside and the Po, which once flowed only 2 km away. Life thrived in the narrow village streets under the sixteenth century arcades, with taverns, shops and cellars.

The red bricks laid bare under flaking plaster reveals forgotten stories. Here there was a castle: now the walls have been flattened and the moats filled leaving a village that wants to be reborn.

Castelponzone has given life to the facades, closed off traffic and restored the original cobblestone paving to allow visitors to experience the history between the parish church and the eighteenth-century mansion known as the villa, with its portico of Doric U columns. The rest are rural houses, often embellished with balconies and flowered windows, immersed in the quiet of the plain, bounded by ring road that traces the route of the ancient walls.

Beyond remain scattered houses and agricultural courts, among green expanses of fields and country lanes: porches, barns, stables, drinking troughs, portals and of course the manor houses and labourers.

You come here for the country life, for the nostalgia of the rows of trees that mark the fields, for the views of the plains: open horizons, the smell of flowers and the flow of water. Simple life and delicious cuisine.

BORGHI PIÙ BELLI D’ITALIA #INLOMBARDIA