Romanesque abbeys nestled in the woods, ancient villages where cell phones don’t get reception, glacial lakes surrounded by centuries-old beech trees, hermitages perched on the rocks.
Emilia has a quiet side that few know about, and which “silent travel”—an increasingly popular trend among contemporary travelers—has helped bring to light. Parma, Piacenza, and Reggio Emilia offer just what travelers seeking this experience are looking for, with an extraordinary heritage in places capable of restoring travel to its most essential form.
Parma
- The Monastery of St. John the Evangelist and its three cloisters: the first leads to the monumental library; the second leads to the chapter house, which features two frescoes by Correggio; and the third, known as the Cloister of St. Benedict, contains frescoes dating from around 1510.
- The Abbey of Santa Maria della Neve in Torrechiara is a Renaissance Benedictine monastery nestled on a river terrace, with the silhouette of the famous Torrechiara Castle as a backdrop—a place also open to those seeking the silence of a retreat.
- Boschi di Carrega Regional Park is a wooded oasis fifteen kilometers from the city where the alternation of monumental trees, meadows, and small bodies of water offers an unexpected sense of tranquility just a short walk from the city center.
- The Romanesque parish church of Talignano, built between 1100 and 1200 by the Cistercians for pilgrims on the Via Francigena, is one of those places where even cell phone reception disappears, and contemplation comes naturally.
- Franco Maria Ricci’s Labirinto della Masone is the world’s largest bamboo maze and can be thought of as a journey of sensory disorientation through towering walls of vegetation, where getting lost becomes a meditative experience.
- Parco dei Cento Laghi and Lago Santo Parmense: the largest glacial lake in the northern Apennines, reachable on foot from Lagdei through a beech forest in about three-quarters of an hour.
- The villages of Anzola and Masanti di Sotto serve as gateways to wild trails that also lead to the Cascata delle Aquile in the Lecca Valley—one of the most spectacular waterfalls in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, nestled between sandstone cliffs overlooking the stream.
- The Ghirardi WWF Oasis, a Regional Nature Reserve spanning the municipalities of Borgo Val di Taro and Albareto, is a 600-hectare mosaic of oak and chestnut forests, meadows, and streams where cell phone reception fades away and the senses realign with the rhythms of nature: deer, fallow deer, wolves, wild orchids, and silence as the soundtrack.
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Piacenza
- Inside Piacenza Cathedral, the Kronos Museum recently inaugurated a Quiet Room in the evocative octagonal Upper Sacristy: an immersive, multisensory space featuring 360-degree projections, an audio system designed to promote calm, and an olfactory experience conceived to foster a sense of tranquility for all visitors, including those who are more sensitive to sensory stimuli.
- The Abbey of San Colombano in Bobbio — one of Italy’s Most Beautiful Villages, located in the heart of the Trebbia Valley—was founded in 614 and for centuries ranked among Europe’s most important monasteries; it still retains an aura of profound contemplation today.
- The Cave of San Michele, a hermitage where, according to tradition, the saint spent his final days in prayer, is a stop—as well as a place of meditation—on the Way of San Colombano, of course, and on the Way of the Abbots.
- The Abbey of Chiaravalle della Colomba, in Alseno, captivates visitors with its 14th-century Gothic cloister and the serene harmony of a Cistercian complex that has remained intact.
- The Sanctuary of Santa Franca di Vitalta, located at 1,100 meters on Monte Santa Franca, is accessible via a hiking trail beloved by local hikers.
- The Sanctuary of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin in Santa Maria del Monte, from where, on the clearest days, the view extends all the way to the Alps, offers a contemplative silence overlooking a landscape of hills and vineyards.
- The small Chapel of the Vow dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima, in the Trebbia Valley, in Filippazzi di Perino, surrounded by greenery and enveloped in a silence that inspires contemplation.
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Reggio Emilia
- Monumental Cemetery: an open-air sculpture park featuring works from the 19th century to the present day—from Riccardo Secchi to Omar Galliani—in a silence that invites reflection.
- The Basilica of the Madonna della Ghiara welcomes visitors with its extraordinary frescoes and the tranquility characteristic of great Marian shrines.
- The floodplains of the Bassa Reggiana, along the banks of the Po River—stretching from Brescello to Luzzara and accessible by bike along the Po River Bike Path—are places suspended in time, where the Great River marks the passage of time at a very slow pace. The route passes through Brescello, the hometown of Don Camillo and Peppone; the Boretto River Port; the majestic Piazza Bentivoglio in Gualtieri with its Ligabue Museum; and the woods and poplar groves that lead all the way to Guastalla and Luzzara, Zavattini’s birthplace.
- Isola degli Internati, a quiet strip of land surrounded by the Porto Vecchio, features the wrecks of a tugboat and two barges that sank in 1944, visible in summer when the river is low.
- The valleys between Novellara and Reggiolo are a paradise of reed beds and waterways, ideal for birdwatching and walks.
- Just a few kilometers from Canossa Castle, the picturesque village of Votigno di Canossa is home to the Casa del Tibet: a library, meditation hall, seminar spaces, and a museum open every Sunday make up a cultural center that is, in itself, an invitation to inner peace.
- The Marola Hermitage, built on the site where the hermit Giovanni once lived—and where Matilde of Canossa chose to erect a church as a place of welcome along the Via Matildica del Volto Santo—is a center of spirituality nestled in the silence of the chestnut groves, open to all as a place of study, prayer, and rest for pilgrims.
- The Hermitage of Bismantova is a pilgrimage destination, featuring 15th-century frescoes preserved in the sacristy.
- The Parish Church of San Vitale in Carpineti combines tranquility with a history spanning a thousand years: the ancient rectory houses a hostel with a restaurant serving locally sourced cuisine, an ideal stop for those traveling along the Via Matildica.
- The historic villages of Cecciola and Vallisnera (in the municipality of Ventasso) preserve timeless stone architecture.
- Cerreto Alpi, a historic center of great architectural interest, can still be reached today by following the ancient cobblestone mule trails dotted with majestic rock formations.
- Lake Ventasso: crystal-clear waters, forests, the Venusta Mountain Hut on its shores, and—for those who wish to gaze further afield—the summit of Mount Ventasso at 1,727 meters in the heart of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines.
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Last update 03/07/2026
